Im creating my first ever wordpress theme, following a tutorial, the tutorial is for one sidebar only but ive decided to go for 2 (side by side) sidebars. Anyway ive added both sidebars and wigitized one, should i wigetize both? im guessing that would make sense? i guess il be using the other sidebar for ads and whatever else, havn't decided yet, but widetizing both sidebars would make sense, am i correct?
personally I dont add widgets to themes I use - its just as easy to add the code you want directly to your sidebar. common boxes like latest posts etc are unlikely to be changed so you could always have that in the static sidebar and have the other sidebar widget ready
Hi System0, i can see the reason for doing it that way too, it makes sense, if i do want to widgetize both sidebars though, is that seen as quite a common thing to do?
I would widgetize both. Anyone that wants to code them staticly can easily remove the extra code, but it would be hard for a novice to make it widget-ready. In other words, it's easier for a user to remove the widgets than it is to add them.
making both sidebars widget ready would be a smart thing to do. in case if you want to swich back and forth your sidebar options in the future, you have the widget ready to go for that. if you want to use one sidebar for ads, simply don't add any widgets on that sidebar. but having the sidebar widget ready, you have the option to use one ad, then one widget and then another ad.
I agree with that statement. Widgetize both sidebars. Let the end-users alter if they don't want the functionality.
Thanks sultanofseo and mizaks, i think its a good idea, it makes sense to do it that way and have the option in place.
Check out this tutorial: Widget-Ready WordPress Theme Tutorial And scroll down to the "Making Multiple Widget Areas" part...it's actually very easy to do, especially if you already know how to add one. Let me know if you have any questions.