Title: Widgetizing Theme Help
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Widgetizing Theme Help

 *  Resolved [tazboy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tazboy/)
 * (@tazboy)
 * [19 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgetizing-theme-help/)
 * I’ve done the steps on Automattic’s site on how to widget a theme. I’m using 
   the “blue-curves-15” theme by Priss. I’ve created the functions.php and sidebar.
   php. I have the “Sidebar Widget” tab, only the site doesn’t show the new widget
   sidebar. It shows the old one. Though when I do “view source code” through FF’s
   web developer it shows my Event Calendar from my sidebar widget. Go figure.
 * Any suggestions? I’ve tried copying other functions.php and sidebar.php from 
   themes that work. No go there. I’ve tried multiple suggestions on this site too.
   Just so you know that I didn’t come here begging for help right away. I would
   appreciate anything. Thanks.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [19 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgetizing-theme-help/#post-505750)
 * _I’ve created the functions.php and sidebar.php. I have the “Sidebar Widget” 
   tab, only the site doesn’t show the new widget sidebar. It shows the old one._
 * did you put the widget code into your sidebar.php file?
 *  Thread Starter [tazboy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tazboy/)
 * (@tazboy)
 * [19 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgetizing-theme-help/#post-505752)
 * **I have this code in my sidebar.php file:**
 * <div id=”sidebar”>
    <?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar()):?
   > <div class=”title”>About</div> <p>This is my blog.</p> <div class=”title”>Links
   </div>
 * <?php endif; ?>
    </div>
 * **I have this code in my functions.php:**
 * <?php
    if ( function_exists(‘register_sidebar’) ) register_sidebar(); ?>
 *  [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [19 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgetizing-theme-help/#post-505755)
 * _`<?php if ( !function\_exists('dynamic\_sidebar')
    || !dynamic\_sidebar() ) :?
   >
   `
 * This looks off to me. It’s saying “if the function of dynamic sidebar doesn’t
   exist, then don’t show the dynamic sidebar” – which is correct, really. However,
   it’s not telling your site what to do if the function *does* exist.
 * `<div id="sidebar">
    <?php if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar(
   1) ) : else : ?> place in the code for all the stuff that should show up if your
   widget sidebar *didn't* exist <?php endif; ?>
 * Give that a shot and see if it helps.
 *  Thread Starter [tazboy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tazboy/)
 * (@tazboy)
 * [19 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgetizing-theme-help/#post-505758)
 * That didn’t work either. There does need to be a </div> on the end of that, right?
   Is there another function or code somewhere that I’m missing? I was told this
   should be fairly simple, relatively that is. Any other suggestions? By the way,
   thanks for the help so far.
 *  [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [19 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgetizing-theme-help/#post-505760)
 * Yeah, there should.
 * Have you tried downloading a fresh copy? it could be that the one you have is
   corrupted. It truly is easy to set widgets up – and it sounds like you’ve done
   everything you’re supposed to do. The only other thing I could think of is that
   maybe you got a corrupted download by accident.
 *  Thread Starter [tazboy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tazboy/)
 * (@tazboy)
 * [19 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgetizing-theme-help/#post-505761)
 * I emailed Otto from here and he got back to me. He informed me that I didn’t 
   need a sidebar.php because the sidebar info was in the header.php. So I needed
   to change the header.php. Here is what he had me change: (the functions.php was
   already ok)
 * Next, I see that there’s no sidebar.php file. Looking around, I find
    the sidebar
   actually in header.php for some odd reason. Weird, but it doesn’t matter. We’ll
   just edit the sidebar there. You’ll open header.php and do the following:
 * **Change this code:**
    <!– S T A R T N A V B A R –> <div id=”right”> <div id=”
   righttop”></div> <div id=”rightcontent”>
    -  <!– START SEARCH –>
    - **Into this:**
    - <!– S T A R T N A V B A R –>
       <div id=”right”> <div id=”righttop”></div> <
      div id=”rightcontent”>
 *  -  <?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’)
       || !dynamic_sidebar() ) :?
      > <!– START SEARCH –>
    - **Then find this code:**
       <!– END META –>
 * **And change it to this:**
    <!– END META –> <?php endif; ?>
 *  [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [19 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgetizing-theme-help/#post-506067)
 * good – glad you got it sorted!

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘Widgetizing Theme Help’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [widgetize](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/widgetize/)

 * 7 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * Last activity: [19 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgetizing-theme-help/#post-506067)
 * Status: resolved

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