Comments on: Widgetizing a Wordpress Plugin: Example Widget Code

By: Yadheendran

Yadheendran — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:26:08 +0000

Thanks for your Good Tutorial on WP Widget

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:37:33 +0000

Hey, really good walkthough and example. Helped me a lot, thanks!

By: Starred Review | Blue Orbs

Starred Review | Blue Orbs — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:30:30 +0000

[...] Thanks to Marc Hodges, who created the original plugin and to Peter for his invaluable Widgetizing Tutorial. [...]

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:06:55 +0000

Glad the post could help – I haven’t had a chance to download your plugin yet, but I’ll have a look!

As for the widget title issue – I started to say that if we just renamed that variable, WordPress might not recognize it as the “title”, but now I’m really intrigued as to how WordPress figured that out in the first place. Sounds like its time for a trip to the core files..

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:58:09 +0000

I agree Callum – I’m not sure why I chose init in the first place, but widgets_init definitely sounds like the right choice. I’ve updated the sample code with that, as well as removing all the serialize/unserialize calls – I found out a few days later that these are harmless, but unnecessary.

Thanks for the insight Callum!

By: Callum Alden

Callum Alden — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:32:34 +0000

[sorry to spam] But-- you might want to change: add_action("init", "mywidget_init"); to add_action("widgets_init", "mywidget_init"); if the widget / plugin is running from the same file (myplugin.php) the first init is called and works, the second causes confusion, an error and finally a non-working plugin! it could be specific to my setup, but widgets_init sounds like its meant for the job!?

By: Callum Alden

Callum Alden — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:25:14 +0000

... so that's my plugin updated with support for widgets with many thanks to you. Took only an hour or so after i discovered your post- although I've been hacking away at other's templates since 8PM last night! grr. Great stuff! only issue is with edited titles... If a user adds a new / altered title it appears in the Wordpress dashboard as Plugin Name: New Plugin Name. No big problem, it could be quite useful... but doesn't sit right with me.

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:31:43 +0000

Hey Callum – I’m glad to hear I wasn’t the only one having trouble with widgets. Good luck!

By: Callum Alden

Callum Alden — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:03:18 +0000

invaluable: i can’t say better than that. this is a thorough and exact tutorial- unlike the 20 others i’ve read and broken my patience with in the last 12 hours. thank you, keep it up.

oh yeah, its appalling yet sadly true- the code on Automattic’s site doesn’t even produce a widget. all that CSS management, high google ranking *whistles and bells* and the guy’s tutorial produces nothing close to a working widget.

- Callum