I don’t have a good example of why you might want or need this, but nevertheless, if you should want to add additional text to the Widgets admin, it’s pretty darn easy:
add_action( 'widgets_admin_page', 'widgets_admin_info' );
function widgets_admin_info() {
?>
<p style="clear:both;">Hello there!!</p>
<?php
}
If you feel your dashboard is too cluttered, you can use this to remove any or all of the widgets
add_action( 'wp_dashboard_setup', 'remove_wp_dashboard_widgets' );
function remove_wp_dashboard_widgets() {
//Plugins
wp_unregister_sidebar_widget( 'dashboard_plugins' );
remove_meta_box('dashboard_plugins', 'dashboard', 'normal');
//Right Now
//wp_unregister_sidebar_widget( 'dashboard_right_now' );
//remove_meta_box('dashboard_right_now', 'dashboard', 'normal');
//Recent Comments
//wp_unregister_sidebar_widget( 'dashboard_recent_comments' );
//remove_meta_box('dashboard_recent_comments', 'dashboard', 'normal');
//Incoming Links
//wp_unregister_sidebar_widget( 'dashboard_incoming_links' );
//remove_meta_box('dashboard_incoming_links', 'dashboard', 'normal');
//WordPress Blog
wp_unregister_sidebar_widget( 'dashboard_primary' );
remove_meta_box('dashboard_primary', 'dashboard', 'side');
//Other WordPress News
wp_unregister_sidebar_widget( 'dashboard_secondary' );
remove_meta_box('dashboard_secondary', 'dashboard', 'side');
//Quick Press
//wp_unregister_sidebar_widget( 'dashboard_quick_press' );
//remove_meta_box('dashboard_quick_press', 'dashboard', 'side');
//Recent Drafts
//wp_unregister_sidebar_widget( 'dashboard_recent_drafts' );
//remove_meta_box('dashboard_recent_drafts', 'dashboard', 'side');
}
Here’s a simple widget for displaying upcoming posts. Title of widget and number of posts shown is configurable.
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'upcoming_posts_widget_load_widget' ); /* Add our function to the widgets_init hook. */
function upcoming_posts_widget_load_widget() { register_widget( 'upcoming_posts_widget' ); } /* Function that registers our widget. */
class upcoming_posts_widget extends WP_Widget {
function upcoming_posts_widget() {
$widget_ops = array( 'classname' => 'upcoming_posts', 'description' => 'Upcoming Posts Widget' ); /* Widget settings. */
$control_ops = array( 'id_base' => 'upcoming_posts' ); /* Widget control settings. */
$this->WP_Widget( 'upcoming_posts', 'Upcoming Posts Widget', $widget_ops, $control_ops ); /* Create the widget. */
}
function widget( $args, $instance ) {
extract( $args ); /* before/after widget, before/after title (defined by themes). */
extract($instance);
echo $before_widget;
echo $before_title . $title . $after_title;
echo '<ul>';
$posts = get_posts("post_status=future&numberposts=$numberposts&order=ASC");
$posts = array_reverse($posts);
foreach ($posts as $p) {
echo '<li>'. $p->post_title .'</li>';
}
echo '</ul>';
echo $after_widget;
}
function update( $new_instance, $old_instance ) {
$instance = $old_instance;
$instance['title'] = strip_tags( $new_instance['title'] );
$instance['numberposts'] = (int) $new_instance['numberposts'];
return $instance;
}
function form( $instance ) {
$defaults = array( 'title' => 'Upcoming Posts', 'numberposts' => 3 );
$instance = wp_parse_args( (array) $instance, $defaults );
?>
<p>
<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>">Title:</label>
<input type="text" class="widefat" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'title' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['title']; ?>" />
</select>
</p>
<p>
<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'numberposts' ); ?>">Number Posts:</label>
<input type="text" class="widefat" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'numberposts' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'numberposts' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['numberposts']; ?>" />
</select>
</p>
<?php
}
}