Multiple Sidebars the Right Way

Multiple sidebars are becoming increasingly popular with specific sidebars being displayed only on specific pages or posts. How do they do it? Originally it’d be an if (ie if is homepage) and then include a PHP file, but WordPress has a better way. A built in better way. In this post we’ll learn how to add multiple sidebars the right way.

The old, rubbishy way

Back in the day, you’d have something like this:

<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/single-sidebar.php'; ?>

Which isn’t too pretty. Because WordPress has a better way of doing things. Which is using the get_sidebar function that is normally used to get the sidebar.

The new, brilliant way

It’s really as simple as renaming your new fancy sidebar sidebar-something.php and then you can use the get_sidebar function like so:

<?php get_sidebar('something'); ?>

And that’s all there is to it. I would write more, but that’s essentially it. So I won’t. Enjoy your new found knowledge!

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About the author

Hello, I'm Alex! WPShout is my collection of WordPress tutorials which I started 4 years ago, just before my 16th birthday. If you need someone to make you WordPress screencasts or documentation for your product or service, get in touch — I'll be able to help you out. You should also follow me on Twitter :)

9 Comments

  • Sara
    on Nov 18, 2009
    at 3:17 pm

    Nice to know about, thanks!

  • Cracks
    on Dec 16, 2009
    at 8:31 am

    So why exactly is the get_sidebar version is better?

    Is it just a “pretty” factor, or is it less load heavy? Please explain.

  • Rebecca
    on Jan 12, 2010
    at 4:06 am

    Thanks, just the simple instructions I was looking for!

  • Theo
    on Jan 16, 2010
    at 5:11 pm

    Truly brilliant !
    Thanks

  • Ashfame
    on Feb 11, 2010
    at 5:19 pm

    Yes you can have multiple sidebars that way but I bet you want them to be widgetized too. Refer to one of my post on my blog – How to have multiple widgetized different sidebars (http://blog.ashfame.com/2009/11/multiple-widgetized-different-sidebars/)

  • Doug C.
    on Apr 04, 2010
    at 3:19 am

    I don’t get it. So you got “” … then what?

    Say I make a widget that I only want to display on certain pages. How would I add that using this “get sidebar” code?

    Now that would be an interesting and useful post.

  • Amor
    on May 04, 2010
    at 4:34 pm

    I've been using

    &lt;?php include (&#39;sidebar-single.php&#39;); ?&gt;
&lt;?php include (&#39;sidebar-page.php&#39;); ?&gt;

    I didn't know I could use

    &lt;?php get_sidebar(&#39;single&#39;); ?&gt;
&lt;?php get_sidebar(&#39;page&#39;); ?&gt;

    learned something new again. Thanks Alex!. :-)