Posted 17 February 2010 in Dynamic Widgets

Dynamic Widgets 1.2

Version 1.2 of Dynamic Widgets is now available for download. In this version a lot has been added, fixed and changed.

  • Added support for PHP4 (not fully tested).
  • Added Dynamic Widgets info and edit link in the widgets admin itself.
  • Added support for widget display setting options for Author Pages.
  • Added support for Single Posts exception rules for tags.
  • Added support for Single Posts exception rules for individual posts.
  • Bugfix for rare cases not selecting the right default option for single posts.
  • Bugfix for wrong exception rules were applied in rare cases when rules are set for a page or archive page.
  • Bugfix for displaying confusing success and error message.
  • Bugfix for not displaying checked checkboxes in MS Internet Explorer.
  • Workaround to stop showing invalid (not clean unregistered) widgets without a name.
  • Some small textual changes.
  • Moved general helpinfo to standard WordPress contextual help screen.

PHP4 support is now automatic. However, PHP4 support is not fully tested because I don’t have PHP4 anymore. If you encounter problems, please let me know. I’ll try to work out a solution.

Due to the addition of the Author pages option, the behavior of the Archive pages option has slightly changed. The Archive pages option does not include the Author pages anymore. If you have widgets with the Archive option set to ‘No’ the upgrade process to version 1.2 will automaticly set ‘No’ to the Author pages also to keep the old behavior. An upgrade is only triggered when a proper deactivate and activate cycle is done.

UPDATE 21.15 GMT+0100: If you’ve downloaded the plugin between 19.15 [7.15 PM] and 21.15 [9.15 PM] GMT+0100 it is possible you’re not able to view the Widgets Admin page. I’ve accidently uploaded a wrong version of a script which causes a crash of that page. Just re-download and overwrite the plugin. Everything is working fine now. My apologies for any inconvience. I took measures to be sure this won’t happen again.

40 Comments to “Dynamic Widgets 1.2”

  • Adam
    3 March 2010 at 07:52

    I just noticed another small update to add to the plugin. When in wp-admin/ settings/reading you can set a static page for the website separate from the blog

    * Front page:
    * Posts page:

    so when you check Show widget on the front page? yes
    it puts the widget on both the website home page http://www.mysite.com as an example and my blog http://www.mysite.com/blog

    I think it would be better to have to separate selections for each of these settings

    Show widget on the front page? yes / no
    Show widget on the post page? yes /no

    • Jacco
      3 March 2010 at 08:49

      Thanks for your suggestion! In fact the rules for the static page should actually be applied. But WordPress says to the plugin it’s the front page, which is of course logical true. The option you would like to have is something which only applies when you set the front page to a static page. I’ll have a look to see if it’s possible and how to add this functionality to the plugin.

  • Adam
    3 March 2010 at 23:31

    jacco thx for the reply, just to clarify, yes i have two static pages , one for the domains home page (xhttp://www.mysite.com) and one for the blog home page ( xhttp://www.mysite.com/blog) both of these are static. I would like to display the widget on the sites home page but not the blogs static page. thx

    • Jacco
      4 March 2010 at 19:35

      I’ve just updated the repository at wordpress.org with the added functionality when front page display is set to static page. It’s not released as an official version. The functionality is included in the development version (1.2.1).

      The front page option is greyed out when front page display is set to static page. You can edit the widget options at the (static) Pages section.

  • Endre
    4 March 2010 at 11:10

    When I set a template for a page (not the default page.php), the filtering do not work on that certain page. All the exluded widgets are visible, even the excepted ones.

    Is there any solution?

    Thanks!

    • Jacco
      4 March 2010 at 11:47

      Does the non-default page template call wp_head()? The plugin starts filtering the widgets when wp_head() is called. Otherwise, it doesn’t do anything.

      • Endre
        4 March 2010 at 12:38

        It was the problem. Thanks.

  • Adam
    5 March 2010 at 04:20

    Hello Jacco, ok i have tested the new update and its not working yet. I am very impressed with the quick customer service and the request update to the plugin , well done!! and thank you.

    I have the development version running and active. I am now controlling the static pages from the

    Pages
    Show widget default on static pages?

    (x)front page is checked
    (x)Blog (Posts page) is checked

    the widget is not on the front page but still on the the blog (post page)

    • Jacco
      5 March 2010 at 06:40

      Would you please send me a dump. With the dump I can probably see where it goes wrong. Read in FAQ 4 how to create a dump and please send it via the bugreport form to me.

  • Adam
    5 March 2010 at 21:03

    Jacco , it works perfect with the new update.

    This new feature is so nice and easy. Everyone is going to love it.

    Well done. Amazing speed and what a nice plugin. Thank you thank you thank you.

    • Jacco
      6 March 2010 at 08:29

      Great it’s working now with version 1.2.2. The pleasure was all mine to have this nice functionality added to the plugin.

  • Anders
    9 March 2010 at 06:07

    I have just got a blog and use about 50 different plugins. Thank you very much for your plugin. It complete my website

  • MMM
    30 March 2010 at 18:59

    Warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in /var/www/web63/html/wp-content/plugins/dynamic-widgets/dynamic-widgets.php on line 150

    can you help?

    • Jacco
      30 March 2010 at 19:15

      Please send me a dump file via the bugreport form and let me know which widget causes this error. You can read in FAQ 4 how to create a dump file.

      Thanks for the offer about the .mo and .po. I haven’t added support for that to the plugin. So, that needs to be done first.

  • MMM
    30 March 2010 at 19:02

    has already done, you make a .mo and .po! Then I like to translate the plugin

    thank you for the plugin

  • Aaron
    31 March 2010 at 04:35

    I’m really new to this stuff so any help would be great. I have one widget that I want to add to one page which is set as the main page. I’ve tried every setting an d nothing happens. Any ideas? thanks

    • Jacco
      31 March 2010 at 06:56

      If you want to to add the widget only to the main page, set all pages (single posts, pages, category, etc.) to NO, leave the role option untouched (default YES) and check the static page which is marked as the ‘Front page’. That shoud do the trick.

  • Aaron
    31 March 2010 at 20:57

    Thanks for answering. I still must have something wrong.
    I have role set to yes
    front page doesn’t give me the option
    single posts is no
    pages is set to no (I’ve tried both ways)
    my page that is set as the home page is checked
    author pages is no
    category pages is no
    error page is no
    and search page is no

    Do you see anything I missed?

    • Jacco
      1 April 2010 at 06:32

      Hi Aaron, Your config looks OK. If the widget appears not at all: Does the page have a dynamic sidebar? If the widget appears everywhere: Does your theme call the WP function wp_head()?

  • Tom
    1 April 2010 at 00:49

    Hi,

    I am trying to get dynamic widgets to work but no joy?

    Any ideas please?

    I’m not sure if the page templates call wp_head()? How can I find out?

    Is there anything else it could be?

    Regards,

    Tom

    • Jacco
      1 April 2010 at 06:35

      Hi Tom, Most themes have a header.php In that file the wp_head() function should be called just before </head>.

  • Aaron
    1 April 2010 at 11:02

    hi jacco the theme has a dynamic sidebar option the individual page doesn’t. not sure if thats what you were asking

    • Jacco
      1 April 2010 at 11:13

      Hi Aaron, I assume the widget does not display? Can you please check if the static page template which is used for your homepage calls get_sidebar()

  • Aaron
    1 April 2010 at 11:41

    Yes the widget does not display. I’d love to check the static page template but I’m not sure how to do that. I’m going to look in edit and see if that’s where it is

  • Aaron
    1 April 2010 at 11:43

    Is this what I needed ?

    <div class="post" id="post-“>

    <?php the_content('Read the rest of this page »’); ?>

    <?php wp_link_pages('Pages: ‘, ”, ‘number’); ?>

    <?php edit_post_link('Edit this entry.', '’, ”); ?>

    • Jacco
      1 April 2010 at 11:56

      I’m not sure about it, get_sidebar() is not called in this piece. Just for testing purposes: If you reset the options for the widget (everything is set back to default), is then the widget displayed at the static home page?

  • Aaron
    1 April 2010 at 14:30

    no The widget only shows up in the sidebar

    • Jacco
      1 April 2010 at 14:41

      I’m confused now. That’s actually what is should do. Did you expect something else?

  • Aaron
    1 April 2010 at 14:49

    Oh man I’m sorry I though it put the widget in the actual page not the sidebar. I wanted to put the widget at the top of the page. I’m sorry if I misread what the whole thing does

    • Jacco
      1 April 2010 at 15:21

      No, I’m sorry… The plugin only hides or displays widgets in the sidebar.

  • Aaron
    1 April 2010 at 15:26

    Thank you so much for the time. That should still work great with ads for different pages

    • Jacco
      2 April 2010 at 11:26

      No problem! Unfortunately it’s not what you hoped, but I’m glad we figured it out.

  • Tom
    13 April 2010 at 18:01

    Hi Jacco,

    I sent the following post a couple of weeks ago but have not had a response?

    I am trying to get dynamic widgets to work on http://www.mydigitaldreams.co.uk but with no joy?

    Any ideas please?

    I’m not sure if the page templates call wp_head()? How can I find out?

    Is there anything else it could be or if it is this do you know anything else I could try?

    Any help is much appreciated as it is preventing me from completing my site.

    Regards,

    Tom

    • Jacco
      14 April 2010 at 06:43

      Hi Tom,

      I’ll repeat the answer I gave at 2010/04/01 6:35am:
      Most themes have a header.php In that file the wp_head() function should be called just before </head>.

      Regards, Jacco

  • Kristina
    25 May 2010 at 13:19

    Dear Jacco,

    I installed and activated the widget but I do not see anything different in the front page or any other page. I have a membership site and I am trying to limit what people can or cannot see. Can you help me out with the widget? What should I do first? How to get started.

    Thank you for your help.
    Kristina

    • Jacco
      25 May 2010 at 18:45

      Dear Kristina,
      After activation of the plugin, you have an extra option under “Appearance” named “Dynamic Widgets”. Click that link, from there you can configure the desired widgets.

  • KRISTINA
    26 May 2010 at 11:45

    Dear Jacco,

    I have installed and activated the plugin but I do not see any changes. I have changed the static to dynamic and asked other people if they see any changes in the site but unfortunately. I looked at the system requirements and number 3 is something I need to ask more questions. I do not understand what it is and how I check that out in my blog. Where do I start looking for information you require?

    Kristina

    • Jacco
      26 May 2010 at 21:10

      Dear Kristina,
      If you want to check if your theme calls wp_head(), find your theme in the subdirectory of the /wp-content/themes directory. Most of the times the file you need to look in is called header.php The wp_head() call is most of the times called just before the HTML </head> tag. If you can’t find it, you can also ask the developer of your theme of course if wp_head() is called.

  • Rob
    29 June 2010 at 16:31

    Hi Jacco,

    I’ve been fiddling about and reading your answers for a while now, but i can’t figure out what is going wrong with my Dynamic Widgets.

    I have 4 widges on my frontpage, and (at this point) have 3 extra pages.

    I’d like all the widgets to only be shown on the frontpage, but not on the other 3 pages. I get this to work for just the first one (Twittertools). I gave the other 3 ones exactly the same settings, but they wont disappear.
    I even tried setting Frontpage –> no AND pages –> no. Doesn’t do anything.

    Do you have any clue, or need more info?

    Thanks in advance

    Rob

    • Jacco
      29 June 2010 at 18:45

      If you want a widget to be shown only on the frontpage, do the following: Make sure Roles, Dates and Front Page are set to Yes. All other options below should be set to No. One other thing. Make sure you use the last version, right now that’s 1.3.1.