For a good few months now I have been developing a replacement to my Fun with Widgets plugin. The new plugin is called Fun with Widget structures (the beta version is on the site here). Unfortunately I have run into a problem which I can’t solve and I was hoping someone out there might be familiar enough with the widget system to help.

The plugin works like this. When you add a sidebar structure widget into another sidebar, the plugin registers a new sidebar into which you can add other widgets. This then displays them in a more structured way, such as in a tabbed interface or accordion structure.

This part of it works fine. Where it all falls down is that even when the widget is removed, the sidebars still get registered. Whenever I change the code to tell the plugin not to register the sidebars for widgets that are not active, the whole widget system gets strange and widgets start appearing in the wrong sidebars, if at all.

I have reached a bit of a dead end with trying to understand the widget system. Each time I thought I understood it and added appropriate code to compensate the same problem re-occured. I am now in the situation that, if I can’t find a solution to this I will need to abandon the plugin. This isn’t the end of the world, as there is a good alternative available from Kaspars, but I do think this plugin has some nice features that could prove useful.

If you think you may be able to help let me know, either in the comments, or e-mail me: andrew.rickmann@gmail.com. Thanks