What theme is this referring to? What’s the rest of the code following the if statement. The if statement here means “if the dynamic_sidebar() function doesn’t exist[*] or if there are no widgets assigned to the footer area”, so it’s probably used to display some predefined content in case the user didn’t assign any widgets to the footer area.
function_exists(): http://php.net/manual/en/function.function-exists.php
dynamic_sidebar(): https://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/Function_Reference/dynamic_sidebar
[*] The dynamic_sidebar() function was introduced in version 2.2, which is 8 years old at this point. The likelihood of anyone still running version 2.2 on an actively-maintained site is extremely low.
to follow-up on th ecorrect reply by @stephencottontail:
the check with function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') was used in the transition time when the function was first introduced in wp2.2.0 – now, you can safely remove it, i.e. your posted code would simplify to:
if( !dynamic_sidebar('Footer') )
you have only posted part of the full code – please post the full code to get a full explanation.
review https://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/Function_Reference/dynamic_sidebar#Examples
I do not know how to thank you 🙂
I understand now how it works.
if(!dynamic_sidebar('footer') // if not exist dynamic sidebar named id footer (or something like that)
// display static text
endif;
I changed this code to
<?php if ( is_active_sidebar('footer') ) : ?> //check if sidebar's active
<?php dynamic_sidebar( 'footer' ); ?> //if yes display it
<?php endif; ?>
Thank you very much! 🙂
this single line would perfectly work on its own:
<?php dynamic_sidebar( 'footer' ); ?> //if yes display it
the check for an active sidebar is actually only necessary and useful if you want to wrap the sidebar code for example into some html tags;
like:
<?php if ( is_active_sidebar('footer') ) : ?> //check if sidebar's active
<div class="footer-sidebar">
<?php dynamic_sidebar( 'footer' ); ?> //if yes display it
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
You are very helpful,
Thank you so much 🙂
