How to use register_sidebar action in WordPress

register_sidebar action

Fires once a sidebar has been registered.

To use register_sidebar action, first you have to register it using add_action. You can write this code into functions.php of your activated theme or in a custom WordPress Plugin.

We at WePlugins, always prefer to create a custom WordPress Plugin while using hooks so nothing breaks when you update your WordPress Theme in the future.

In the below live example, we have defined a function execute_on_register_sidebar_event which takes 1 parameter and we registered using add_action. The first parameter register_sidebar is the name of the hook, the second parameter execute_on_register_sidebar_event is the name of the function which needs to be called, the third parameter is the priority of calling the hook if the same hook is used multiple times, and the last parameter is the number of arguments (if any) to be passed in the registered function.

Sometimes, you have to remove a registered hook so you can use remove_action to remove register_sidebar action.

Parameters

Below the 1 parameter is required to use this hook.

• $sidebar : (array) Parsed arguments for the registered sidebar.

Live Example

Example 1: Registering the Sidebar Action

Below is an example of how you can use this hook.

function weplugins_execute_on_register_sidebar_event($sidebar){
   //You can write code here to be executed when this action occurs in WordPress. Use the parameters received in the function arguments & implement the required additional custom functionality according to your website requirements.
}
// add the action
add_action( "register_sidebar", "weplugins_execute_on_register_sidebar_event", 10, 1 );

Example 2: Removing the Sidebar Action

To remove a hook callback, use the example below.

remove_action( "register_sidebar", "weplugins_execute_on_register_sidebar_event", 10, 1 );

Please make sure to provide the same callback function name, priority, and number of arguments while removing the hook callback.

Example 3: Custom Sidebar Registration

Here’s how you can register a custom sidebar with additional parameters.

function weplugins_custom_sidebar() {
    register_sidebar( array(
        'name'          => __( 'Custom Sidebar', 'theme_text_domain' ),
        'id'            => 'custom-sidebar',
        'description'   => __( 'A custom sidebar for special widgets.', 'theme_text_domain' ),
        'before_widget' => '<div class="widget %2$s">',
        'after_widget'  => '</div>',
        'before_title'  => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
        'after_title'   => '</h3>',
    ) );
}
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'weplugins_custom_sidebar' );