To continue working on my mission to create new WordPress widgets, fulfill my obsession with shortcodes, and release my fourth plugin this month, I present to you Quote This, a plugin to display quotes on your blog.

I didn’t set out to break the mold with this plugin. I’m well aware of several other plugins that display quotes, some which probably do it far better than this plugin does.

I’ve been using this on my blog for several years now, and I figured I might as well turn it into a plugin. I actually mentioned creating it in a comment just over a year ago. So, it’s been lying around, gathering dust.

You can see it in action on my Writing page.

What does the Quote This plugin do?

It is my personal collection of quotes that can be randomly displayed on your blog. There are three ways to use it:

• Call the quote_this() function in your theme template files.
• Type the [quote-this] shortcode in your posts and pages.
• Use the Quote This widget in your widget areas.

You can display quotes from several categories:

• Art
• Film
• Friendship
• Individual
• Life
• Literature

Future features of the Quote This plugin

Right now, the plugin is nothing special. It doesn’t have a ton of quotes or 100 features to choose from. It’s just a simple plugin.

I’d like to add in more formatting options. Maybe even throw in an option to grab quotes by author. Add in various ways to display quotes. I’m open to suggestions.

The main thing is to add more quotes to the Quote This collection. I’ll probably periodically update it with new quotes when I’m bored (I like to collect quotes). Of course, you all are welcome to submit quotes as well. Just send me an email if you’d like with the quotes (include quote authors). I’ll be happy to add them to the plugin.

Download the plugin

Take a look at the readme.html file for full instructions on how to use this plugin.

• Version: 0.1
• Requires: WordPress 2.5+
• Support: Support forums
• Download
• Download (WP.org plugin repository)

Please don’t use my contact page or the comments section to ask support questions. Use my support forums at Theme Hybrid, which is where I handle all support questions for my WordPress projects.

This widget has everything you’ll ever need to show posts on your site without touching code. It’s like having a WordPress developer ready to do your bidding all wrapped up in a widget. All you need is a theme that’s widgetized, which I believe is pretty standard these days.

What does the Query Posts widget do?

It lets you displays posts by nearly any criteria you can imagine using the query_posts() function, except you don’t need to know anything about PHP to use it. You can do all kinds of neat things:

• Posts by tag.
• Posts by category.
• Posts by author.
• Posts by time/date.
• Posts by custom field key and/or value.
• Choose any number.
• Order by various terms.
• Show pages.
• Show the full post, excerpt, or even order them in a list.
• And much more…

Nearly 40 options are available in this widget, which you can use any number of times. Just check out the screenshot:

Download the Query Posts widget

If you need more detailed instructions on how to use the plugin or don’t understand the settings, see the readme.html file included with the plugin download.

• Support: Support forums
• Download (from WP.org)

Tutorials:

• Basic instructions included in the readme.html file.
• Video Overview by Adam Warner
• Query Posts + Widgetized Page Template + Widget Logic video by Adam Warner

Please don’t use my contact page or the comments section below to ask support questions. Use my support forums at Theme Hybrid, which is where I handle all support questions for my WordPress projects.

If you run across any bugs or want to share ideas about how to make this plugin better, feel free to post in the comments below.

If you know me well enough, then you know that I hate for anyone to edit templates in a WordPress theme, even if that person is me.

So, what I’ll be showing you is two quick and easy ways to disable widget areas using your theme’s functions.php file. Technically, what we’ll be doing is disabling the widgets, which is basically the same thing when you get right down to it.

This article assumes that your theme sets no default code if no widgets are shown. Otherwise, it is outside the scope of this tutorial.

Removing all widget areas

What we’ll be doing in this first function is disabling all widgets on the home page. First, open your theme’s functions.php file and input this PHP code:

<?php

add_filter( 'sidebars_widgets', 'disable_all_widgets' );

function disable_all_widgets( $sidebars_widgets ) {

	if ( is_home() )
		$sidebars_widgets = array( false );

	return $sidebars_widgets;
}

?>

This is a function that will remove widget areas from our home page. Well, you might have other pages, posts, archives, or whatever in mind that you want to disable widget areas on. In that case, you need to look up the appropriate WordPress conditional tag.

Removing a single widget area

Let’s suppose your theme has widgets in multiple places. Let’s further suppose that you want to remove only the footer widget area on single posts. This will be basically the same thing as above, but you need to know the ID of the widget area. This will be something you’ll either have to find in your theme’s code or ask your theme author about.

For the sake of this tutorial, the ID of our footer widget area is simply footer. We’ll create a new function for this as well. Add this to your theme’s functions.php file.

<?php

add_filter( 'sidebars_widgets', 'disable_footer_widgets' );

function disable_footer_widgets( $sidebars_widgets ) {

	if ( is_single() )
		$sidebars_widgets['footer'] = false;

	return $sidebars_widgets;
}

?>

Again, we used a WordPress conditional tag to check if it was a single post.

Why use these methods as opposed to directly editing templates?

One of the biggest issues between theme authors and users happens when it’s time to upgrade a theme. Users don’t generally know the best way to accomplish something like removing a widget area without compromising the original code. Therefore, the user might not upgrade his or her theme and take advantage of the benefits of better code.

WordPress allows a functions.php file in themes that’s ideal for overwriting things. The more we keep users out of theme files, the easier it becomes to upgrade themes for both theme authors and end users.

Also, theme authors should take a good look at the above functions. This is a great way to make certain parts of your theme look and function differently from the rest of the theme. Use your imagination (Ex: pages without sidebars, custom fields to remove widgets, etc.).

Well, this little plugin is for completely resetting your widgets back to the factory settings.

It’s not for moving widgets, saving widgets, or anything of the sort. When I say it resets your widgets, I really mean it. The slate is wiped completely clean.

Why create a plugin to reset widgets?

If you’ve hung out around the WordPress.org support forums lately, you’ve probably seen a few people wondering why their widgets disappeared when changing themes. I also had this same issue on one of the releases of the Hybrid theme.

Basically, widget areas (aka sidebars) with unique IDs will throw things off. Widgets are added according to a widget area’s ID. When you change themes that have different IDs, the widgets are no longer where you might expect them to be.

Download the Widgets Reset WordPress plugin

Note: If you have important information saved in something like a text widget, you better find a way to save it before resetting your widgets because you’ll lose that information. In short, don’t complain if you lose widget information that you decided to reset.

• Download

See the readme.html file in the plugin download for full instructions.

How to manually reset your widgets

Actually, this plugin just provides a pretty interface. You really don’t need the plugin. A simple way to do this would be to drop the below code in your theme’s functions.php file and hit refresh on your browser.

<?php update_option( 'sidebars_widgets', $null ); ?>

Then, just remove it. But, if the thought of adding PHP code scares you, just use the plugin.

I’ve been looking around the WordPress-o-Sphere, trying to find any widgets that I would recommend to my users at Theme Hybrid. Quite frankly, I haven’t found too many that I like. Many don’t offer settings for the user to tinker with. Most aren’t even multi-widgets (you can only use them once).

So, I’m on a mission.

What are WordPress widgets?

Unless you’re new to WordPress or haven’t upgraded your blog in quite some time, you’ve missed out on a lot. The WordPress Codex explains widgets as:

WordPress Widgets are also known as “sidebar accessories” which are WordPress Plugins or add-ons to your WordPress blog sidebar. Developed by Automattic for WordPress and WordPress.com blogs, WordPress Widgets allow the easy addition of design elements, gadgets, content, images, and more to your WordPress sidebar to personalize your blog without knowing HTML, PHP, or any code.

Ughh! They used the term “sidebar accessories.”

If you’re using a theme like Hybrid or Thematic, you probably know that the term “sidebar accessories” doesn’t apply to your theme. You’re probably aware that you can add widgets just about anywhere. In fact, Hybrid has a page template that’s completely widgetized.

To settle this right now — widgets are not sidebar accessories. They are simply accessories. With the right theme, they are accessories that you can place anywhere.

My mission

I want to code some new widgets.

My vision of what widgets should be and others’ visions might be different. I want widgets that extend the core WordPress functions. I want to extend the things that are already there but might be hard for Average Joe to implement.

For example, anyone that has used WordPress long enough probably knows how to work with the wp_list_pages() function. But, isn’t it much easier to just click an option here, select a drop-down there, instead of diving into code? (Note: The Widgets Reloaded plugin handles this particular function.)

What widgets would you like to see?

Pretend you were hiring me to create a cool widget for you. What would you have me build?

Honestly, I wouldn’t take the job if you asked me to integrate with some third-party service like Twitter or Flickr or something like that. I would probably only take it if you wanted to get information that already exists within WordPress and use it within a widget.

A few days ago, I mentioned that I’d be releasing a beta version of a new widget. Now, I’m looking for people to test it out and provide insightful feedback on what they think about it.

This widget is pretty powerful in terms of what it can do. I’m not even sure if there are any widgets that attempt to do what this one does. Right now, it’s experimental. I’m hoping that by getting some solid feedback on it I’ll be able to refine it and officially release it.

What does this plugin/widget do?

The plugin creates a new widget called Query Posts. Basically, it allows you to grab posts and display them according to most of the query_posts() arguments. Right now, the widget has more than 30 various settings.

You can display posts according to category, tag, author, custom field, time, and loads of other arguments. Seriously. Just take a look at the screenshot (click image for larger view):

Why create this widget?

I recently held a survey at Theme Hybrid to get a feel for what type of themes everyone wanted. On this survey, I asked a question about what areas should be widgetized. One of the choices was “I want all templates completely widgetized.” This was an answer I jokingly added because creating a theme that is completely widgetized is not really a viable option.

That choice pulled the second-highest number of votes.

If I were to create a completely widgetized theme, there’d have to be widgets that handled displaying post content. This is the first step in seeing how that might work.

While I am entertaining this idea as an experiment, I don’t believe themes should be widgetized like that. It takes away from the creativity of the theme designer in many aspects, but I won’t get into that now.

There are other practical applications for using this widget. Maybe something like adding asides to a sidebar or widgetizing a page template to allow for custom pages (for those of you unaware, the Hybrid theme has this page template).

Get the widget

Before downloading this and testing it out, please note that you should have a basic understanding of how query_posts() works.

• You may now download this on the official Query Posts plugin page

I hope you have fun with this widget. Break it. Get annoyed with it. Report back to me with suggestions and feedback, please.

This is not an official version and is not for use on a live site. It is a test version. If you put it on a live site and it breaks your blog, then that’s on you. I doubt it’ll break your blog though.

This is the third post in my If you were a WordPress theme developer series, in which I’m asking users to give their feedback on how themes should work. We’ve already talked about page templates and 404 templates. So, add your input on those posts as well.

What are widgets?

Well, if you don’t know what widgets are, you’re either new to WordPress or haven’t came out from under your rock in some time. The WordPress Codex has a good explanation of widgets.

Basically, widgets let you dress up your blog with cool add-ons straight from your WordPress dashboard, which gives the average user a lot more control over what’s shown on his or her blog.

Typical themes will have a certain amount of widget sections, which lets you add widgets.

In most themes, you can only add widgets to your sidebar. Some themes have even branched out and added a footer widget section.

One of the best implementations of an advanced widget system is Ian Stewart’s Thematic theme. Even though it is a bit more advanced, it doesn’t add a lot of complexity for users. It actually makes it much easier to customize your blog. I would definitely recommend giving it a go.

What sections of a theme should be widgetized?

I want to branch out a bit more from the standard sidebar-only widget areas. As users, you might have a better idea about what would work great for you.

If you developed your own theme, what areas of the theme would have a widget section? Don’t let current and past trends hinder your imagination.