Title: programmatically add widget to sidebar
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# programmatically add widget to sidebar

 *  Resolved [omprocess](https://wordpress.org/support/users/omprocess/)
 * (@omprocess)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/programmatically-add-widget-to-sidebar/)
 * I would like to have some/all of my sidebars be populated with custom widgets
   when the theme I am developing is activated. Can anyone point me in the right
   direction? Does anyone know the function that is called when a widget is dragged
   to the sidebar and parameters get passed?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [Ryan Hellyer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ryanhellyer/)
 * (@ryanhellyer)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/programmatically-add-widget-to-sidebar/#post-1779774)
 * I think it’s stored in an option (I haven’t checked though). A quick look at 
   the wp-admin/options.php page showed up the following option which might be where
   they’re stored.
 * Perhaps trying doing a var_dump() to see what’s in it. If it contains your current
   widget contents, then that’s the place you need to change 🙂
 * `<?php var_dump( get_option( 'sidebars_widgets' ) ); ?>`
 *  Thread Starter [omprocess](https://wordpress.org/support/users/omprocess/)
 * (@omprocess)
 * [15 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/programmatically-add-widget-to-sidebar/#post-1779930)
 * I figured it out. Here is an example implementation which
    includes registering
   sidebars ( kudos to Thematic which contained the code that pointed me in the 
   right direction).
 *     ```
       <?php
       if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') ) {
       register_sidebar(array(
       				'id' => 'right-sidebar',
       				'description' => __( 'The primary sidebar'),
       				'name' => 'Right Sidebar',
       				'before_widget' => '<div class="widget-here">',
       				'after_widget' => '</div>',
       				'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
       				'after_title' => '</h3>',
       ));
   
       register_sidebar(array(
       				'id' => 'bottom-left-sidebar',
       				'description' => __( 'The lower left sidebar'),
       				'name' => 'Bottom Left Sidebar',
       				'before_widget' => '',
       				'after_widget' => '',
       				'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
       				'after_title' => '</h3>',
       ));
   
       register_sidebar(array(
       				'id' => 'bottom-right-sidebar',
       				'description' => __( 'The lower right sidebar'),
       				'name' => 'Bottom Right Sidebar',
       				'before_widget' => '',
       				'after_widget' => '',
       				'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
       				'after_title' => '</h3>',
       ));
       }
       ?>
   
       <?php
       class wdwp1_google_search extends WP_Widget {
       	function wdwp1_google_search() {
       		$widget_ops = array('classname' => 'wdwpSearch','description' => __('Configurable Google Search Box'));
       		$control_ops = array('width' => 300, 'height' => 350);
       		$this->WP_Widget('wdwp_g_search', __('WDWP Google Search'), $widget_ops, $control_ops);
       	}
   
       	function form($instance) {
       		$instance = wp_parse_args( (array) $instance, array( 'result_page' => 'search-results', 'g_pub_id' => 'partner-pub-partner-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxx:xxxxxxxxx' ));
       		$result_page = $instance['result_page'];
       		$g_pub_id = $instance['g_pub_id'];
       		?>
               <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('result_page'); ?>">
               Name of search result page:
               <input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('result_page'); ?>" type="text" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('result_page'); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr($result_page); ?>" />
       		</label>
               <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('g_pub_id'); ?>">
               Google Publisher Search ID:
               <input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('g_pub_id'); ?>" type="text" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('g_pub_id'); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr($g_pub_id); ?>" />
       		</label>
   
               <?php
       	}
   
       	//function update($new_instance, $old_instance) {
       		// processes widget options to be saved
       	//}
   
       	function widget($args, $instance) {
       		extract( $args, EXTR_SKIP );
       		$result_page = ( $instance['result_page'] ) ? $instance['result_page'] : 'search-results';
       		$g_pub_id = ( $instance['g_pub_id'] ) ? $instance['g_pub_id'] : 'partner-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxx:xxxxxxxxx';
       		?>
       <div id="searchbox">
         <div class="inside">
   
       <form action="<?php bloginfo('wpurl'); ?>/<?php echo esc_attr($result_page); ?>" id="cse-search-box">
       <div>
       <fieldset>
         <div>
           <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="<?php echo esc_attr($g_pub_id); ?>" />
           <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:11" />
           <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1" />
           <input type="text" class="searchfield" name="q" size="20" />
           <input type="submit" class="searchbutton" name="sa" value="Go" />
         </div>
       </fieldset>
         </div>
       </form>
       <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/cse/brand?form=cse-search-box&lang=en"></script>
         </div>
       </div>
               <?php
   
       	}
   
       }
   
       function wdwp_widgets_init() {
       	register_widget('wdwp1_google_search');
       	$default_widgets = array (
       							 'right-sidebar' => array('wdwp_g_search-2')
       							 );
   
           if ( isset( $_GET['activated'] ) ) {
           	wdwp_defaultwidgets();
         		update_option( 'sidebars_widgets', apply_filters('wdwp_default_widgets',$default_widgets ));
         	}
       }
   
       add_action('widgets_init', 'wdwp_widgets_init');
   
       function wdwp_defaultwidgets() {
       	do_action( 'wdwp_defaultwidgets' );
       }
   
       function wdwp_init_defaultwidgets() {
       	update_option( 'wdwpSearch', array( 2 => array( 'result_page' => 'search-results', 'g_pub_id' => 'partner-pub-partner-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxx:xxxxxxxxx' ), '_multiwidget' => 1 ) );
       }
   
       add_action( 'wdwp_defaultwidgets', 'wdwp_init_defaultwidgets' );
       ?>
       ```
   
 *  [etsuei](https://wordpress.org/support/users/etsuei/)
 * (@etsuei)
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/programmatically-add-widget-to-sidebar/#post-1779960)
 * If anyone is still reading this thread. I’m wondering how the code above is being
   implemented.
 * There is an apply_filters with a ‘wdwp_default_widgets’ tag which doesn’t appear
   to be anywhere in the code.
 * Any help would be great. I am also trying to programmatically add widgets to 
   a sidebar.
 * cheers
 *  [SocialBlogsite](https://wordpress.org/support/users/socialblogsite/)
 * (@socialblogsite)
 * [14 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/programmatically-add-widget-to-sidebar/#post-1779968)
 * Understanding how widgets are activated programmatically would help me on a “
   activate on other sites” button I’m trying to add to all widgets.
 * What I see here is there’s a missing function only comes with Thematic and the
   widget is being added is not from the the list of activated ones, but defined
   here.
 * Is there a way to add it programmatically but taking it from the list of available
   ones?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘programmatically add widget to sidebar’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [theme development](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/theme-development/)
 * [widget](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/widget/)

 * In: [Hacks](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/plugins-and-hacks/hacks/)
 * 4 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [SocialBlogsite](https://wordpress.org/support/users/socialblogsite/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/programmatically-add-widget-to-sidebar/#post-1779968)
 * Status: resolved

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