register_sidebars() │ WP 2.2.0

Creates multiple sidebars.

If you wanted to quickly create multiple sidebars for a theme or internally. This function will allow you to do so. If you don't pass the 'name' and/or 'id' in $args, then they will be built for you.

Uses: register_sidebar()

No Hooks.

Returns

null. Nothing (null).

Usage

register_sidebars( $number, $args );
$number(int)
Number of sidebars to create.
Default: 1
$args(array|string)

Array or string of arguments for building a sidebar.

Default: array()

  • id(string)
    The base string of the unique identifier for each sidebar. If provided, and multiple sidebars are being defined, the ID will have "-2" appended, and so on. followed by the number the sidebar creation is currently at.
    Default: 'sidebar-'

  • name(string)
    The name or title for the sidebars displayed in the admin dashboard. If registering more than one sidebar, include '%d' in the string as a placeholder for the uniquely assigned number for each sidebar. for the first sidebar, otherwise 'Sidebar %d'.
    Default: 'Sidebar'

Examples

0

#1 Single panel registration

Analogue of register_sidebar():

register_sidebars( 1, [
	'name' => 'Sidebar on home page',
	'id'   => 'homepage-sidebar',
	'description'   => 'Displayed as a sidebar only on the home page of the site.',
	'before_widget' => '<li id="%1$s" class="homepage-widget-block %2$s">',
	'after_widget'  => '</li>',
	'before_title'  => '<h2 class="widgettitle">',
	'after_title'   => '</h2>',
] );

id parameter value must be in lowercase and no spaces!

0

#2 Registration of two panels

This example shows how to register 2 panels named "Foobar 1", "Foobar 2", "Foobar 3":

register_sidebars( 3, [
	'name' => 'Foobar %d',
	'id'   => 'right-sidebar',

	'description'  => 'These widgets will be shown in the right column of the site',
	'before_title' => '<h2>',
	'after_title'  => '</h2>'
] );

id parameter will changed automatically, the suffix will be added: right-sidebar, right-sidebar-2, right-sidebar-3

0

#3 Create 2 panels and put the title of each widget in the <h1> tag: 

register_sidebars( 2, [
	'before_title' => '<h1>',
	'after_title'  => '</h1>',
] );

The same, only we specify the parameters as a string:

register_sidebars( 2, "before_title=<h1>&after_title=</h1>" )

Notes

  • See: register_sidebar() The second parameter is documented by register_sidebar() and is the same here.
  • Global. Array. $wp_registered_sidebars The new sidebars are stored in this array by sidebar ID.

Changelog

Since 2.2.0 Introduced.

register_sidebars() code WP 6.8.1

wp-includes/widgets.php 
function register_sidebars( $number = 1, $args = array() ) {
	global $wp_registered_sidebars;
	$number = (int) $number;

	if ( is_string( $args ) ) {
		parse_str( $args, $args );
	}

	for ( $i = 1; $i <= $number; $i++ ) {
		$_args = $args;

		if ( $number > 1 ) {
			if ( isset( $args['name'] ) ) {
				$_args['name'] = sprintf( $args['name'], $i );
			} else {
				/* translators: %d: Sidebar number. */
				$_args['name'] = sprintf( __( 'Sidebar %d' ), $i );
			}
		} else {
			$_args['name'] = isset( $args['name'] ) ? $args['name'] : __( 'Sidebar' );
		}

		/*
		 * Custom specified ID's are suffixed if they exist already.
		 * Automatically generated sidebar names need to be suffixed regardless starting at -0.
		 */
		if ( isset( $args['id'] ) ) {
			$_args['id'] = $args['id'];
			$n           = 2; // Start at -2 for conflicting custom IDs.
			while ( is_registered_sidebar( $_args['id'] ) ) {
				$_args['id'] = $args['id'] . '-' . $n++;
			}
		} else {
			$n = count( $wp_registered_sidebars );
			do {
				$_args['id'] = 'sidebar-' . ++$n;
			} while ( is_registered_sidebar( $_args['id'] ) );
		}
		register_sidebar( $_args );
	}
}

Sidebar (widgets)

Widgets (sidebars)