Sidebars and widgets
Widget areas in Vara SaaS, where they are, and how to control when the sidebar appears.
Widget areas
Vara SaaS registers one sidebar and four footer widget areas.The footer you see is not built from widgets. It is rendered by theme template code from the Customizer settings. The
footer-1 through footer-4 areas are registered so plugins that expect a footer widget area can place content there, but the visible footer columns come from Customize → Vara SaaS → Footer. Configure the footer there, not under Appearance → Widgets.Adding widgets to the sidebar
1
Open Appearance → Widgets
2
Find Primary Sidebar
On desktop the widget screen has the sidebar on the right.
3
Drag a widget in
Blocks, Search, Recent Posts, Categories, Archives, Custom HTML, and anything your plugins register.
4
Save
Controlling when the sidebar appears
Three things combine.1. The site-wide switch
Customize → Vara SaaS → General → Enable sidebar2. The post layout
Customize → Vara SaaS → Single Post → Single post layout3. The per-page override
Each page has a Sidebar Settings box in the page editor, below the content and excerpt fields.
Pages default to hidden, which is the right default for landing and marketing pages. If you want the sidebar on a specific page, set it to Show in that page’s box.
The sidebar table
What is in the sidebar by default
Nothing. The sidebar is empty until you add widgets.Widgets worth considering
Search
Recent Posts
Categories
Custom HTML
Registering your own widget area
If you need an extra sidebar in a child theme:page.php, or use a template part. See Template files.
Accessibility
The sidebar renders as an
<aside role="complementary"> landmark, which is correct. Widget titles are wrapped in <h2> so they are announced properly rather than being unlabelled decorative text.Troubleshooting
My widgets aren't showing
My widgets aren't showing
Work through it in order: is Enable sidebar on? Is the single post layout a sidebar layout? Is the page’s Sidebar Settings set to Show? Are widgets actually in Primary Sidebar?
There's an empty gap beside my content
There's an empty gap beside my content
The sidebar area is rendering with no widgets. Either add widgets or turn the switch off.
