Testing Category with PHP and Displaying a Conditional Sidebar

[poindexter]

Hi,

 

My goal is to display a certain set of information in my sidebar when a particular category is being viewed.  I'm using Wordpress.  I've tried a number of different solutions (like creating a different sidebar file and calling it as an include on the particular category template page instead of using the get_sidebar function as well as trying my hand at a conditional test within the sidebar.php file) and have come up short.  I'm not a php expert by any means and I imagine that there may be something rather simple here that I've missed.

 

Here's the existing sidebar.php file:

 

<div class="sidebar">
		<?php
		if (!is_search() && !is_page('Our Clients') && !is_archive()){
			if($post->post_parent) {
			 	$children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->post_parent."&echo=0&depth=1&exclude=85,87,89,181,97,184");
			}
			else {
		 		$children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->ID."&echo=0&depth=1&exclude=85,87,89,181,97,184");
			}
			if ($children) { ?>
		<div class="panel links subnav">
			<h3>In This Section</h3>
			<ul class="subnav">
				<?php echo $children; ?>
			</ul>
			<p> </p>
		</div>
		<?php 
			}
		}
		if(is_page('Our Clients') || in_category('Our Clients') || is_category('Our Clients'))
		{
			echo '<div class="panel links subnav">';
			echo '<h3>In This Section</h3>';
			echo '<ul class="subnav">';
			wp_list_categories('child_of=21&title_li=');
			echo '</ul>';
			echo '<p> </p>';
			echo '</div>';
		}
		if (!is_page('Resources')){
		?>
		<div class="panel featured-resource">
			<h4>Featured Resource</h4>
			<div class="embed">
				<?php
				$custom_fields = get_post_custom();
				$featured_video_code = $custom_fields['Featured Video Code'];
				if($featured_video_code)
				{
					foreach ( $featured_video_code as $key => $value )
					{
					    $the_code = $value;
					}
					$featured_video_link = $custom_fields['Featured Video Link'];
					foreach ( $featured_video_link as $key => $value )
					{
					   $the_link = $value;
					}	
					$featured_video_text = $custom_fields['Featured Video Text'];
					foreach ( $featured_video_text as $key => $value )
					{
					    $the_text = $value;
					}
					if($the_code)
					{
						echo $the_code;
					}
					if($the_text)
					{
						echo '<ul>';
						echo '<li>';
						if($the_link)
						{
							echo '<a href="' . $the_link . '" class="video" target="_blank">' . $the_text . '</a>';
						}
						else
						{
							echo $the_text;
						}
						echo '</li>';
						echo '</ul>';
					}
				}
				else
				{
					echo get_page_content(34);	
				}
				?>	
			</div>	
			<p><a href="/resources/">+ Visit Resource Center - Test</a></p>
		</div>
		<?php } 
		echo get_page_content(689);
		?>

		<div class="clr"></div>
		<div class="blue-bars">
			<a href="<?php bloginfo('template_directory');?>/more-info.php" class="more-info" rel="facebox">Request More Info</a>
			<a href="<?php bloginfo('template_directory');?>/resource-form.php?id=701000000009E" class="view-demos" rel="facebox">Schedule a Demo</a>
		</div>
	</div>
	<div id="content">

 

Here's the conditional php I tried inserting near the top of the code above that did not work:

 

if ( in_category( 'blog' )) {
		<p>Does this show up?</p>

			}

 

Any suggestions?  I basically want to test individual posts and archive pages to see if they are in my particular category and then display unique sidebar info accordingly.  Thanks!

 

[Pikachu2000]

Try it with echo . . .

 

if( in_category('blog') ) {
     echo '<p>Does this show up</p>;
}

[poindexter]

Thanks, now I understand what "echo" means (pretty lame that I didn't even know that--thanks for being gracious!).  I put that in and it still didn't work, so I got some help from a buddy.  We got at least a little functionality that I'm looking for with the following code:

 

		<div class="sidebar">
		<?php
		if (!is_search() && !is_page('Our Clients') && !is_archive()){
			if($post->post_parent) {
			 	$children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->post_parent."&echo=0&depth=1&exclude=85,87,89,181,97,184");
			}
			else {
		 		$children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->ID."&echo=0&depth=1&exclude=85,87,89,181,97,184");
			}
			if ($children) { ?>
		<div class="panel links subnav">
			<h3>In This Section</h3>
			<ul class="subnav">
				<?php echo $children; ?>
			</ul>
			<p> </p>
		</div>
		<?php 
			}
		}
		if(is_page('Our Clients') || in_category('Our Clients') || is_category('Our Clients'))
		{
			echo '<div class="panel links subnav">';
			echo '<h3>In This Section</h3>';
			echo '<ul class="subnav">';
			wp_list_categories('child_of=21&title_li=');
			echo '</ul>';
			echo '<p> </p>';
			echo '</div>';
		}
		if (!is_page('Resources'))
                        {
		?>
		<div class="panel featured-resource">
			<h4>Featured Resource</h4>
			<div class="embed">
				<?php
				$custom_fields = get_post_custom();
				$featured_video_code = $custom_fields['Featured Video Code'];
				if($featured_video_code)
				{
					foreach ( $featured_video_code as $key => $value )
					{
					    $the_code = $value;
					}
					$featured_video_link = $custom_fields['Featured Video Link'];
					foreach ( $featured_video_link as $key => $value )
					{
					   $the_link = $value;
					}	
					$featured_video_text = $custom_fields['Featured Video Text'];
					foreach ( $featured_video_text as $key => $value )
					{
					    $the_text = $value;
					}
					if($the_code)
					{
						echo $the_code;
					}
					if($the_text)
					{
						echo '<ul>';
						echo '<li>';
						if($the_link)
						{
							echo '<a href="' . $the_link . '" class="video" target="_blank">' . $the_text . '</a>';
						}
						else 
						{
							echo $the_text;

                                                               							}
						echo '</li>';
						echo '</ul>';

					}
				}

                                        //note: blog sidebar condition
				else if  (is_category('Blog'))
				{
                                        //PUT YOUR CODE HERE						
                                        // echo get_page_content(34);
                                             echo "test";	
                                        //END CODE HERE					
}
				?>	

</div>	
			<p><a href="/resources/">+ Visit Resource Center</a></p>
		</div>
		<?php } 
		echo get_page_content(689);
		?>

		<div class="clr"></div>
		<div class="blue-bars">
			<a href="<?php bloginfo('template_directory');?>/more-info.php" class="more-info" rel="facebox">Request More Info</a>
			<a href="<?php bloginfo('template_directory');?>/resource-form.php?id=701000000009E" class="view-demos" rel="facebox">Schedule a Demo</a>
		</div>
	</div>		
	<div id="content">

 

However, I'm still having some issues. Namely, I want to all the code except for the blog category related code from appearing when the category is set to blog.  I tried moving the code after the blog sidebar condition up into the other conditional area, but the entire sidebar disappeared.  Any other suggestions?  Thanks again!