Way to hook into a sidebar call to replace it with a custom sidebar

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I want to replace the sidebar-2 in the twentyforteen theme with a custom sidebar based on a conditional statement for CPT. So if the page is showing a certain custom post type then show my custom sidebar, else just show the default sidebar.

I want to do this without changing the theme or using a child theme (i.e. purely from a plugin).

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Here is what I have so far: 

register_sidebar( array(
    'name'         => __( 'Custom Sidebar' ),
    'id'           => 'custom-sidebar',
    'description'  => __( 'My Custom Sidebar' ),
    ) );

add_action('get_header','change_dd_sidebar');
function change_dd_sidebar() {
    if ( is_singular('my_cpt')) { // Check if we're on a single post for my CPT called "ips_due_diligence". Need another check for index pages too.
       unregister_sidebar( 'sidebar-2' ); //remove the default right sidebar
       dynamic_sidebar( 'custom-sidebar' ); //this doesn't replace the right sidebar - the content appears at the top of the page - no good...
   }
}

Is there a way to hook into the call for sidebar-2 and replace it with my own?

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2 comments

  1. I have figured this out. The trick is to use the get_sidebar hook and run some conditionals to check if we’re on a CPT page (archive or singular or cpt taxonomy archive) and if the sidebar we’ve hooked into is the one we want to replace ($sidebar == 'content').

    If these conditionals are met we unregister sidebar-2 and add our own sidebar. This probably won’t work with a theme that doesn’t have sidebar-2 as the content sidebar.

    //Register the alternative sidebar
register_sidebar( array(
    'name'         => __( 'Custom Sidebar' ),
    'id'           => 'cpt-sidebar',
    'description'  => __( 'Sidebar for showing cpt-specific content.' ),
    'before_title' => '<h1 class="widget-title">',
    'after_title'  => '</h1>', 
    'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
    'after_widget'  => '</aside>',
    ) );

add_action('get_sidebar','change_cpt_sidebar');
function change_cpt_sidebar($sidebar) {

    if ( (is_post_type_archive('my_cpt') || is_singular('my_cpt') || is_tax('cpt_tax')) && $sidebar == 'content') { // Check if we're on a CPT page
        unregister_sidebar( 'sidebar-2' );
        ?>
        <div id="content-sidebar" class="content-sidebar widget-area" role="complementary">
            <?php
        dynamic_sidebar( 'cpt-sidebar' );
        ?>
    </div>
    <?php
     }
}

  2. I wouldn’t use unregister_sidebar

    I would copy over the sidebar-content.php file to a plugin and add conditionals to the default sidebar-2 as well as add a new sidebar-4 in that file with the conditional for it.

    <?php
if( is_active_sidebar( 'sidebar-4' ) && is_singular('your-cpt') ) {
}
?>
<div id="content-sidebar" class="content-sidebar widget-area" role="complementary">
<?php dynamic_sidebar( 'sidebar-4' ); ?>
</div><!-- #content-sidebar -->

    You would also need to add a functions.php or plugin.php file with the code to register your new sidebar-4 very much like what you would do with a child theme.

    function cpt_widget() {

    register_sidebar( array(
    'name'          => __( 'Custom Post Type Sidebar', 'twentyfourteen' ),
    'id'            => 'sidebar-4',
    'description'   => __( 'Appears on the right for cpts pnly.', 'twentyfourteen' ),
    'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
    'after_widget'  => '</aside>',
    'before_title'  => '<h1 class="widget-title">',
    'after_title'   => '</h1>',
) );
}
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'cpt_widget' );

    You could also create a single-cpt.php file and add the sidebar-4 in there.