WordPress Widgets Everywhere–or Not?

First, a video introduction to WordPress widgets by Dan at WebsiteDesigner.au. I love this video not because it has great production value, but because Dan’s Australian accent makes it fun for American ears.

If you don’t know what the fiddle I’m talking about, this video is for you. If you’re familiar with widgets, skip down!

The reigning queen of conditional widget plugins is called Widget Context. It’s user-friendly and effective. For the vast majority of WordPress users, Widget Context will be more than sufficient.

But, Widget Context cannot control the display of widgets in specific categories as well as it claims. Wildcard URLs only work if your permalink structure is identical to theirs–and their structure is bad news for SEO. Therefore, other plugins are needed to fill the gaps.In walks Widget Logic.

Widget Logic is tiny and absurdly powerful, an innocent-looking ninja killer of a plugin.

 

But, to make it work, you must master a little PHP code in the form of WordPress Conditional Tags. If you can conquer them, however, you can fine tune Widget Logic to do almost anything. I’ve worked with it for so long that it cooked me breakfast once.

 

Here are some Conditional Tag resources that you may find handy when you’re getting started:

There are a few other notable plugins like Display Widgets and Slayer’s Custom Widgets, each with their own quirks and perks. Few, however, manage to cleanly accomplish what Widget Context and Widget Logic provide.I won’t dive into full instructions here–it’s best to install the plugins, activate them, and give ‘em a whirl. Unfortunately, you can’t use Widget Context and Widget Logic simultaneously in the same widget, but you can switch back and forth on a widget-to-widget basis.So, what did I miss? What’s your favorite widget plugin and why?