changing wp-admin/widgets.php

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We want to design the widgets page in the admin panel a little differently, mainly in order to help the site administrator understand where each widget will appear in the site:

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For that, we need to change the HTML that widgets.php renders (simply changing the css isn’t enough). How would we go about doing that without touching the core?

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3 comments

  2. I cannot get the question out of my head, but I don’t have the time for a complete solution. So I just write down my idea here, then I’ll set a small bounty.

    • There is an action 'widgets_admin_page' in wp-admin/widgets.php above the other content. You could place a preview box here.
      Sample code:

      add_action( 'widgets_admin_page', 'show_widget_preview' );
function show_widget_preview()
{
    $preview_widgets = $GLOBALS['wp_registered_sidebars'];
    unset ( $preview_widgets['wp_inactive_widgets'] );

    print '<div style="border:2px solid #ddf;padding:20px">'
    . '<pre>' . htmlspecialchars( print_r( $preview_widgets, TRUE ) ) . '</pre>'
    . '</div>';
}

      This prints out an array of all registered sidebars. You have to walk through all sidebars to find the registered widgets.

    • To make the preview useful you need two files: a HTML template and a style sheet.
      I would use add_theme_support().
      Sample code for the theme’s functions.php:

      add_theme_support( 
    'widget_preview', 
    array ( 
        'template'   => get_stylesheet_directory() . '/widget-preview.php', 
        'stylesheet' => get_stylesheet_directory() . '/widget-preview.css' 
    ) 
);

    • In show_widget_preview() you enqueue the style sheet and load the template. Render the registered sidebars in the predefined placeholders in widget-preview.php.

    • Update the template per AJAX after the user pressed the Save button in a widget.

    • Challenges: Take accessibility mode into account, small windows and CSS conflicts. Show a useful message when no sidebar is registered (sidebar descriptions?). What should happen when a user tries to drag a widget into the preview box? 🙂

  3. the short answer is you can’t, not without touching core.

    however, you can set the description of each widget area (the text underneath the widget area title) in the register_sidebar function.