Title: sidebar minblog
Last modified: August 18, 2016

---

# sidebar minblog

 *  derek
 * [22 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/)
 * What would be the best way to integrate a “sidebar” of short posts into my WP
   blog? In my case, I am interested in posting capsule film reviews, and having
   the 10 most recent appear along the edge of the blog. I can see other uses for
   this as well, such as annotated or temporary link lists. I’d like to have a category
   whose posts would only display in the sidebar, and not in the main posts list.
   
   This is not at all an original idea; I’ve seen many implementations. Because 
   of this, I was hoping it had already been done (either within WP or as a hack)
   and I just need someone to point it out to me! I assume I’m just using the wrong
   keywords in my searches… Thanks.

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

 *  [wujimon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wujimon/)
 * (@wujimon)
 * [22 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-35787)
 * I am also interested in something like this as it was one of the nice things 
   I had going on MT. The way I did it in MT was to just create a new weblog and
   then do an “include” in one of my sidebars. This way I could organize my links
   in categories and such.. hmm.. perhaps I should just give that a try and see 
   if it work with WP the way it is now.
 *  [willm](https://wordpress.org/support/users/willm/)
 * (@willm)
 * [22 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-35807)
 * It does sound like this is something you need multiple weblog support for, and
   WordPress may have that one day in the future, but if you want this functionality
   now you’re probably best off with MT or b2evo.
 *  [TechGnome](https://wordpress.org/support/users/techgnome/)
 * (@techgnome)
 * [22 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-35811)
 * It’s not as difficult as one might think.
    Try this: 1) Copy index.php, and rename
   it to something like “sideblog.php” 2) Open index.php. Right after the line $
   blog = 1; add this: $cat=”-X”; where X is the category you don’t want to show
   on the main page. I have $cat = “-2”; in mine and categopry #2 is excluded from
   the list. 3) Save it, you’re done with that. 4) Open sideblog.php. Again, right
   after the $blog = 1; line add this: $cat = “X”; Where X is the category id of
   the posts you want shown. 5) Save it. 6) Ok, now here’s the “fun part”. Make 
   a CSS file for the sideblog. IF it’s going to be in the side bar, then you’ll
   proly want to make it simple and w/o using any graphics. Save it as sideblog.
   css 7) In sideblog.php, change the stylesheet reference to the sideblog.css file
   created in step 6. 8) Save everything. 9) Optional step – edit the sideblog.php
   file to include or exclue things you want / don’t want. This would be links, 
   posts, comments, or other menu items. 10) Upload it to your server. 11) NAvigate
   to [http://www.yoursite.com/sidblog.php](http://www.yoursite.com/sidblog.php)
   12) After the page comes up, drak the icon in the address bar to your links bar/
   folder, whatever and drop it. In FF, you can then set the properties of the bookmark
   to “Open in Sidebar”… I’m sure there’s a way to do that in IE as well, but have
   no idea how. TG
 *  Thread Starter Anonymous
 * [22 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-35844)
 * Cheers, Techgnome. This looks like a start. But I could use just a bit more clarification(
   I’m a near-clueless PHP newbie). Two issues:
    First, when I open my sideblog.
   php alone in the browser, it looks great, and only displays posts from the single
   chosen category. However, when I do the include (just a `php include ('sideblog.
   php');`), the sideblog displays the same posts as the main page (that is, all
   of them EXCEPT those from the intended category). The other issue is that adding
   the `cat$="-cat#"` to my index.php results in the index page title being changed
   to “my title >> my hidden category name”. Thanks for your thoughts so far!
 *  Thread Starter Anonymous
 * [22 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36271)
 * No success here. Has anyone else experimented with Techgnome’s instructions?
 *  [TechGnome](https://wordpress.org/support/users/techgnome/)
 * (@techgnome)
 * [22 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36272)
 * derek – yeah, the title thing is a bug… thought it had been fixed… actually it
   _had_ been fixed, but then sub-cats were introduced….. I never looked to see 
   if it had been fixed or not….
    Also, note: using $cat = “-X”; will/should exclude
   from that category. If you want to display ONLY that category, then it’s $cat
   = “X”; TG
 *  Thread Starter Anonymous
 * [22 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36320)
 * I finally got around to testing this with a nightly build (7/3), and wanted to
   report that I’ve still had no luck. The title bug remains — but it’s not a huge
   issue for me. I wouldn’t mind stripping out the dynamic page titles.
    The other
   issue — that the “include” somehow overrides the restricted category settings
   of the sidebar.php file, as I described above — remains. The result is that the
   sidebar displays the exact same set of posts as the main blog — that is, all 
   posts except those from the sidebar category. So, a few questions: Does anyone
   have a working implementation of the above strategy? If so, I’d love to take 
   a look. Have any new “annotated links” or miniblog solutions been developed, 
   which I’ve overlooked in my forum searching? I’ve been looking for an additional
   bare-bones blog system that I could use as a PHP include, but that seems like
   a kludge, and will double administration and posting complexity. Maybe that’s
   the only option at this point, though. Cheers -derek
 *  [derek](https://wordpress.org/support/users/derek/)
 * (@derek)
 * [22 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36330)
 * Ahhh… after reading [http://wordpress.org/support/3/3264](http://wordpress.org/support/3/3264),
   I realize that there are multiple definitions of sidebar. And I reread Techgnome’s
   post in this light, and it makes more sense to me now. These instructions will
   put a miniblog in the BROWSER sidebar. D’oh!
    What I am actually trying to do
   is add a sidebar blog as a column along my main blog in index.php. Something (
   technically) along the lines of the “Guest Blog” at [boingboing](http://www.boingboing.net).
   Apologies to anyone else I confused in my dazed state. 🙂
 *  Thread Starter Anonymous
 * [22 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36408)
 * I did the $cat = -24 thing for my main page (i don’t want a side blog, but a 
   separate page instead), and it takes forever to load the page. If I get rid of
   the line, however, it loads the page just fine… Any help?
 *  Thread Starter Anonymous
 * [22 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36409)
 * And then, that also screws up category display…
 *  [supercommon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/supercommon/)
 * (@supercommon)
 * [22 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36410)
    - <?php _e(“[Links](https://wordpress.org/links.php?output_format=md):”); ?>
 *  -  <?php get_links(-1, ‘
    - ‘, ‘
    - ‘, ‘ ‘, false, ‘_id’, true, 0, 4, 0); ?>
 * That code displays a list of four of the most recent links, without images or
   ratings. Use the Links tab in your admin panel to add, remove or edit the links
   this function calls.
 *  [supercommon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/supercommon/)
 * (@supercommon)
 * [22 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36411)
 * Oops.
    - <?php _e("[Links](https://wordpress.org/links.php?output_format=md):"); ?>
 *  -  <?php get_links(-1, '
    - ', '
    - ', ' ', false, '_id', true, 0, 4, 0); ?>
 *  Thread Starter Anonymous
 * [22 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36412)
 * How did we get from categories to links?

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

The topic ‘sidebar minblog’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 13 replies
 * 6 participants
 * Last reply from: Anonymous
 * Last activity: [22 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sidebar-minblog/#post-36412)
 * Status: not resolved

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