Posted 10 September 2010 in Dynamic Widgets

Dynamic Widgets 1.3.5

I’ve just released version 1.3.5 of Dynamic Widgets. In this version the following has been changed:

  • Added support for themes which use the WP function is_active_sidebar() when the method is set to FILTER (default). 1
  • Bugfix by removing a possible unnecessary loop for dynamic widget options.

[1] Starting with this version, Dynamic Widgets is using a new method for removing widgets from the sidebar(s). This new method, called FILTER, is more in line with the way WordPress provides access for plugins to it’s system. However this method comes with a downside. Due to it’s nature it might slow down the process of removing widgets when you have and use many sidebars. For this, there is the OLD method. The OLD method uses the previous method before version 1.3.5. Downside of that method is that it may leave you behind with a visible empty sidebar. There is a way to prevent this, but for that you have to have some PHP programming knowledge. Ask me for an example script if you need it. If you are using the standard WP Twenty Ten theme, you probably want to have a look at the Twenty Ten Weaver theme. Bruce from WP Weaver fixed the empty sidebar with the help of this example script. So you don’t need to fix it yourself.

You can switch to the OLD method by clicking on the ‘Advanced >’ link in the Dynamic Widgets overview page and checking ‘Use OLD method’.

18 Comments to “Dynamic Widgets 1.3.5”

  • Duilio
    12 September 2010 at 10:13

    Hi,
    my compliments for your plugin. Only one question:
    how can i show a widget only on one post? The explanation is not clear.
    Thanks

    • Jacco
      12 September 2010 at 13:56

      Hi Duilio,
      Thanks for the compliments! 🙂
      You can show the widget only on one post by doing the following:

      In the widget options config set everything to ‘No’, except for Role and Date. Leave those both to the default ‘Yes’
      Check the “Make exception rule available to individual posts and tags.” checkbox under de “Single Posts” section.
      Save the options
      Edit your post
      In the edit post screen, you should find a Dynamic Widgets box in the sidebar, probably at the bottom of the screen
      Check the (desired) widget
      Save the post

      Done!

  • Gary
    14 September 2010 at 16:18

    Hi there,

    I am enjoying the use of your plugin on the website I’m designing for my online craft business. The only problem is that recently I have begun seeing error pages whenever I try to edit the settings for a widget (I either get a ‘404 error’ when I try to save something, or I just get a non-existent page if I try to ‘return’ to the previous page. Any ideas or fixes?

    Thanks!

    Blessings,
    Gary

    • Jacco
      14 September 2010 at 19:25

      Hi Gary,
      This is such a weird problem. More have reported the same problem. Looks like it is some kind of webserver config issue resulting in giving an incorrect value. I’ve changed the way now the plugin determines where to go to when saving or returning. The fix (hopefully) is checked in into the development version.

  • Luigi
    14 September 2010 at 17:37

    I use a Dynamic Widgets 1.3.5 version; it’s a very good plugin !
    Unfortunately I have a problem, when I save the settings I created a standards opens pagian white written on the left top ‘-1’.
    What does it depend?

    ———————-
    WP 3.0.1

    • Jacco
      14 September 2010 at 19:27

      Hi Luigi,
      My first guess is this is somewhat related to the issue Gary is having. So, this might also be fixed in the current development version.

  • Frank
    20 September 2010 at 10:03

    Hello again Jacco!

    I DL’ed the new verison and installed it – with the same lack of luck as with your previous version. Now I have gone over all php/apache/mySql and Wp settings, and found one tiny mySql setting which made all my problems…

    I had the default sql-mode STRCT_TRANS_TABLES on the new server and not on the old. When restarting mySql without that one setting – everything is back to normal!

    Keep up the good work – your plugin is absolutely awesome!

    regards,
    Frank

    • Jacco
      20 September 2010 at 10:18

      Hi Frank,
      Wow! I’d never suspect such a thing. Thanks for letting me know. 🙂 If someone runs into the same problem, now we (probably) know what this issue is.

  • Raul
    22 September 2010 at 23:16

    I installed the plugin and have had it for over 3 months working perfect but now widgets do not appear in 2 or 3 of my categories although no changes were made to the dynamic widget settings only the content of the widget itself, I have tested with text widget plugins with no success.

    • Jacco
      23 September 2010 at 08:05

      Hi Raul,
      Only thing I can think of is Dynamic Widgets has recently been updated. It is of course always possible something slipped through my tests. Could you please try to set the plugin using the ‘OLD’ method? See if that solves the problem. You can set the plugin to ‘OLD’ method by going to the Dynamic Widgets overview page. Click the ‘Advanced >’ link and check the checkbox “Use ‘OLD’ method”. Please let me know if it helps, then I know where to look for so I can fix it in the next update.

  • rob
    12 October 2010 at 15:30

    hi jacco,
    I re-installed and deleted dynamic-widgets several times, but everytime the sistem gives me the same notice:
    Notice: Undefined index: dynwid_save in D:\Sviluppo\Wordpress\wp-content\plugins\dynamic-widgets\dynamic-widgets.php on line 302

    and many more notice as soon I try to set any static widget… even with the develpment version

    Am I doing anything wrong? Any settings I missed before? Good to know: I’m using Wp for the very first time

    • Jacco
      12 October 2010 at 16:24

      I think your PHP error reporting config is set to E_ALL. That would explain the notices you see. It are not really errors, just debugging notices. It’s does not affect the functionality of the plugin. It’s also very uncommon and actually discouraged to use E_ALL in production environments. So, if this is a production environment, I’d recommend to level down the error reporting.

      I do agree tho. It’s a bit ugly code down there, hence the notices. 😉 I’ll clean it up…

  • STB
    14 October 2010 at 01:46

    First of all .. thanks a ton for this wonderful plug-in!
    Really great job!

    I do run into an isssue though.
    It looks like showing a widget on a certain category only works for the first categore page .. but doesnt work for page 2, 3 etc.

    I have set a widget to not show up on category pages .. and set an exception to make it show up on 1 certain category (say for example category ‘news’).

    Tthis works as expected for the first category page.
    lets say http://www.mysite.com/category/news

    But when I click the “Older entries” link …
    lets say http://www.mysite.com/category/news/page/2
    it does no longer show the widget .. leaving me with the default widgets
    (the Atahualpa theme shows the default WordPress widgets when the sidebar is empty).

    Am I doing something wrong?
    Any guidance in the right direction would be very much appreciated.

    • Jacco
      14 October 2010 at 09:03

      First of all thanks for the compliments. 🙂
      You’re not doing anything wrong, the plugin was doing something wrong. So, I fixed it. The fix is in the development version.

      • STB
        15 October 2010 at 23:57

        Wow. Thank you very much for your speedy reply and for your efforts looking into it Jacco.

        I’m sorry to say though, that the development version you linked to didn’t fix this for me. Looking at the dates of the files in the zipfile, it looks like it was last modified 2 days before my former post.

        Could it be that the latest development version with the fix isnt uploaded yet?

        • Jacco
          16 October 2010 at 08:14

          I’m sorry, that is so uncool. 🙁 Looks wordpress.org has problems again with syncing data. I checked for you and you’re right. Revision 290323 is the development version according to wordpress.org, but it should be revision 300505. Your reported bug has been fixed in revision 299923. Anyway, I’ve made a ZIP file from revision 300505 myself, which you can find here.

  • STB
    16 October 2010 at 11:47

    That worked Jacco!
    Dynamic Widgets now also works perfectly on subsequent category pages. 🙂

    Thank you very much for fixing this (very quickly I may add) and also for going the extra mile to make and upload the new zip! Much deserved donation send.

    • Jacco
      16 October 2010 at 14:03

      Great to read it’s working now correctly. 🙂 Thank you very much for the donation. 😀