[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #34042: Conditional widget areas in Customizer

[WordPress Trac]

#34042: Conditional widget areas in Customizer
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 Reporter:  Looimaster   |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Future Release
Component:  Customize    |     Version:  3.9
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:               |     Focuses:
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Changes (by westonruter):

 * version:  4.3.1 => 3.9
 * milestone:  Awaiting Review => Future Release


Comment:

 Hi Looimaster

 > I would like to show a widget area in Appearance > Widgets and in
 Appearance > Customize only when the user enables the component which
 requires it in Customizer.

 Yes, this would be a problem as you are doing it. Sidebars can't currently
 be dynamically added to the Customizer without adding some non-trivial
 code to support that; it's not in core currently. An alternative approach
 is you could always register the sidebar, but just not call
 `dynamic_sidebar()` on it if the theme-mod is not enabled. This would
 allow the sidebar to appear it gets rendered in the preview.

 > Furthermore, it would be nice to show all widget areas in Customizer
 (like it is in Appearance > Customize) regardless if they are currently
 visible on the page or not.

 The Customizer is a framework for live preview, so it doesn't make sense
 to show a sidebar when it isn't rendered in the preview. If those widget
 areas are to be modified en mass, they can be done so on the widgets admin
 page.

 > 4) If I'm on static homepage which doesn't have sidebar then it's rather
 obvious to me that "Blog sidebar" is not there and I know where is it and
 requiring me to click on the "Blog" link to customize that sidebar is one
 step too many. Maybe in some themes and plugins it's a good idea to show
 widget areas conditionally but in most it would be better to show all
 available options at all times.

 Please see #33052 and the proposed notice that is displayed.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/34042#comment:1>
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