Tom on "[Plugin: Custom Sidebars] Can't set up custom sidebar for use on static front page"

The instructions for the Custom Sidebars plug-in state the following steps for assigning a custom sidebar to a static front page:

To change the sidebar for static Front-Page or Posts-Page:
Go to the Widgets page
Click on “Sidebar Location”
Open the “Archive-Types” tab
Choose “Front-Page” or “Post-Index”

The items “Front-Page” and “Post-Index” do not appear under the Archive Types tab on the editing page for the static front page of my site.

How do I assign the custom sidebar if I cannot follow this procedure?

https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-sidebars/

Hey there bpc,

How are you doing today?

Alteatively you can set specific sidebar per page when editing a page in your WordPress admin, please go to Pages -> All Pages and edit page that is set as your home page. Once there you'll be able see Sidebars widget where you can select sidebar for that specific page, see screenshot http://screencast.com/t/GIfWn1CUx8q.

Hope this helps :)

Cheers,
Bojan

Greetings, Bojan, and thank you for your reply.

My page-editing screen differs from yours. Where yours shows the "Sidebars" panel you've highlighted, mine displays a static image.

Hey again,

This should happen only if you don't have any sidebars selected to be replaced by Custom Sidebars plugin, please go to Appearance -> Widgets and make sure that sidebar that is normally displayed on your home page is allowed to be replaced. Please see screenshot http://screencast.com/t/2sI75YoR3y8.

Once you have that checked you should be able to select custom sidebar that you can create with the plugin when editing that page as per screenshot in my previous reply.

Cheers,
Bojan

Hi, Bojan:

Once again, I see a difference in site behavior. I've uploaded another screenshot, this one showing two aspects of my site. First, it shows the sidebar setup for the home page, with a sidebar selected. Second, it displays the replacement status of that sidebar.

Please advise as to what else I need to do. Thank you!

Hi bpc,

Can you tell us which theme are you using so we can check if it could be related to that?

Cheers,
Predrag

Hi, Bojan:

I am using GeneratePress with the GP Premium plugin.

Hello, Bojan and Predrag:

Any further word as to the cause of this problem?

Your plugin would solve many problems for me. If it won't work with my theme, I must move on to look for another solution.

Hey again bpc,

Thanks for the links :)

I've checked the theme and even without GP Premium plugin this doesn't work well as GeneratePress has its own theme specific functionality for sidebars so sidebars can't be properly replaced by our plugin :(

In order for this to work some sort of specific integration between the two would have to be made so I'm afraid you won't be able to utilize Custom Sidebar features with GeneratePress theme.

Best regards,
Bojan

Hi, Bojan:

Thanks for your reply. I will deactivate and remove the plugin.

I wish this would have worked out!

GeneratePress has its own theme specific functionality for sidebars

How so? We're using the register_sidebar() function as required by all themes on WordPress.org.

I just tested it myself:

1. Created a new sidebar in "Appearance > Widgets".
2. Opened a page, and applied this new sidebar to the "Right" widget area.
3. Adding a widget to the new sidebar in "Appearance > Widgets".

This widget is now showing up on the page I applied the custom sidebar to.

Then I opened this custom sidebar and applied it to the front page (a static page). It showed up there as well.

BTW - your plugin is generating 4 PHP notices and 1 PHP Deprecated notice in PHP7 - check it out using Query Monitor.