Thu 10 Jul 2008
Tabbed Widgets Plugin
Posted by konstruktors under Plugins
(41 votes, average: 4.51 out of 5)
Loading ...Update: Tabbed Widgets have become much smarter now. If a user clicks on a link inside one of the tabbed widgets, the same widget will be opened by default on the landing page. This is an extremely useful feature if tabbed interface is used for category and archive navigation. You can try this feature on my blog.
With Tabbed Widgets plugin you can easily create tab and accordion style widgets without writing a single line of code or editing the theme files. Place any of the existing widgets inside a tabbed interface, set random start tab on each page reload and even automatically rotate the widget content in a set time interval.
If your blog’s sidebar suffers from a widget overdose then Tabbed Widgets is the solution for clearing up the clutter and getting it all organized.
Download & Demo
- Download the Tabbed Widgets plugin from WordPress Extend.
- See it in action on my blog Konstruktors Notes.
- View the demonstration screencast.
Accordion and Classic Horizontal Tabs
There are two tab style to choose from: tabs and accordion. If you enable tab rotation, accordion style tabs will automatically pause the rotation when the reader hovers the widget and will resume rotation when mouse leaves the tabbed widget block. Such behavior makes the rotation feature user friendly and unobtrusive, while giving the tabbed content maximum exposure.
Tabbed Widget Configuration
These are the configuration options for each of the tabbed widgets. Simply select an existing widget from a drop-down menu and specify the tab title. Automatic rotation and random start tab settings can be set individually for each of the tabbed widgets.
Comments and Feedback
If you experience any problems please post them in the comments and provide the URL of the website.
Keep in mind that the way tabs are rendered and look depends on the theme you are using, its CSS identifiers and sidebar widget settings. However the solution is usually a few extra lines of CSS that you have to add to style.css file.
(41 votes, average: 4.51 out of 5) Loading ...
July 10th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I know this asking a lot, but could you make this plugin compatible with the K2 theme? K2 doesn’t use traditional WP widgets. It uses its own sidebar modules.
http://getk2.com/
July 11th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Andrew, I’ll take a look at it, but it is very likely that adding that functionality requires a lot of work (as it did for the WordPress own widgets/sidebar system).
I’ll take a look at K2 now and will report back soon.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Andrew, turns out that K2 uses WordPress widgets by default and makes ‘Sidebar Manager’ an option.
However ‘Sidebar Manager’ functions like a separate application/plugin with its own API. Therefore adding support for K2 would require almost a complete rewrite of the Tabbed Widgets plugin.
So, if any of the K2 users want to do it, they can definitely use Tabbed Widgets as a starting point.
July 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Fair enough. Thanks for looking into it.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
This looks great! I think it may be my favorite in the competition. Thanks for making it easy for the average guy/gal to look like a professional designer
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Christy, thanks for your feedback. It’s really great to hear that you have found it useful!
July 26th, 2008 at 8:17 am
After trying several ways to get a tabbed widget on my site, this plugin is the easiest to set up. Unfortunately I have a problem adding the widget to my blog. All widgets that are supposed to appear underneath the tabbed widget, are displayed right from it, like there’s missing a hard return or so.
July 26th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
[...] Tabbed Widgets [...]
July 26th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Mieke, this is likely a CSS styling issue of your WordPress theme. As the tabbed widgets are currently not being displayed on your site, it is hard to tell the correct solution, but you may try adding this:
.tw-tabbed-widgets { float:left; width:100%; clear:both; }to the end of your theme’s
style.cssfile. If it still doesn’t work, here is my email address.July 26th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I installed the Tabbed Widgets Plugin on my site, but it is not working properly. The accordions are all open, and the corners are not rounding. Any ideas?
http://www.thechrisvoth.com/thevoths/
Thanks a bunch!
July 27th, 2008 at 5:05 am
so do I… I think it’s maybe a problem of compatibility with scriptaculous, prototype and jquery javascripts libraries (conflict) but i don’t know how to fix it…
July 27th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Chris, you should correct your theme’s widget configuration. Here is an article I wrote to explain why that is necessary and how to do it:
Is Your WordPress Theme Good Enough?
July 28th, 2008 at 2:42 am
thank you for your post, konstruktors, you save my blog! lol! congratulations!
July 31st, 2008 at 5:48 am
Hi - LOVE THIS WIDGET.
How do i make the first tab open when the page loads for the first time. it seems that the last tab is always open first.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:15 am
Rashaad, for accordion type of widgets this is done on purpose — to make navigation easier.
When the “last” tab is open, you only have to move the mouse up a little bit in order to see the next tab, while in case of normal order you would have to go to the bottom of each tab to find the link to the next tab.
Try opening the “first” tab and then going through the tabs — you’ll see that is is much harder that way.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Great plugin! 5 stars!
One question: I like to include different RSS feeds into tabs, but if a delete the original RSS feed widgets from the sitebar they will be lost for tabbed widgets also.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:38 am
Wilco, yes — if you delete the original RSS widget it will also disappear from the tabbed interface. I suggest you create multiple RSS widgets (for each feed) and then place them inside the tabbed widget.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
the best plug in , i ever seen