Question

I am new to wordpress and widgets.

I am trying to add another field to the default text widget. Can you guys help me out.

An image of what i am trying to do:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/fkKgc.jpg

I was able to edit default-widgets.php and add another textarea but it does not work properly. please help and guide me to the right direction.

class WP_Widget_Text extends WP_Widget {

    function __construct() {
        $widget_ops = array('classname' => 'widget_text', 'description' => __('Arbitrary text or HTML'));
        $control_ops = array('width' => 400, 'height' => 350);
        parent::__construct('text', __('Text'), $widget_ops, $control_ops);
    }

    function widget( $args, $instance ) {
        extract($args);
        $title = apply_filters( 'widget_title', empty( $instance['title'] ) ? '' : $instance['title'], $instance, $this->id_base );
        $text = apply_filters( 'widget_text', empty( $instance['text'] ) ? '' : $instance['text'], $instance );
        $text = apply_filters( 'widget_text2', empty( $instance['text2'] ) ? '' : $instance['text2'], $instance );
        echo $before_widget;
        if ( !empty( $title ) ) { echo $before_title . $title . $after_title; } ?>
            <div class="textwidget">
                <?php echo !empty( $instance['filter'] ) ? wpautop( $text ) : $text; ?>
            </div>
            <div class="textwidget2">
                <?php echo !empty( $instance['filter'] ) ? wpautop( $text2 ) : $text2; ?>
            </div>
        <?php
        echo $after_widget;
    }

    function update( $new_instance, $old_instance ) {
        $instance = $old_instance;
        $instance['title'] = strip_tags($new_instance['title']);
        if ( current_user_can('unfiltered_html') ) {
            $instance['text'] =  $new_instance['text'];
            $instance['text2'] =  $new_instance['text2'];
        } else {
            $instance['text'] = stripslashes( wp_filter_post_kses( addslashes($new_instance['text']) ) ); // wp_filter_post_kses() expects slashed
            $instance['text2'] = stripslashes( wp_filter_post_kses( addslashes($new_instance['text2']) ) ); // wp_filter_post_kses() expects slashed
        }
        $instance['filter'] = isset($new_instance['filter']);
        return $instance;
    }

    function form( $instance ) {
        $instance = wp_parse_args( (array) $instance, array( 'title' => '', 'text' => '', 'text2' => '' ) );
        $title = strip_tags($instance['title']);
        $text = esc_textarea($instance['text']);
        $text2 = esc_textarea($instance['text2']);
?>
        <p><label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('title'); ?>"><?php _e('Title:'); ?></label>
        <input class="widefat" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('title'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('title'); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo esc_attr($title); ?>" /></p>

        <textarea class="widefat" rows="16" cols="20" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('text'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('text'); ?>"><?php echo $text; ?></textarea>
        <textarea class="widefat" rows="8" cols="20" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('text2'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('text2'); ?>"><?php echo $text2; ?></textarea>

        <p><input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('filter'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('filter'); ?>" type="checkbox" <?php checked(isset($instance['filter']) ? $instance['filter'] : 0); ?> />&nbsp;<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('filter'); ?>"><?php _e('Automatically add paragraphs'); ?></label></p>
<?php
    }
}

Answer 1

I’m not sure if you figured out yet, but here is a solution to your problem.

The first thing is you don’t want to edit the widget directly. If you update WordPress, your code will be overwritten. WordPress is highly extensible, so you never have to edit the code directly.

Ideally, you should create a plugin. If you want to learn how, read this http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_a_Plugin

Another great thing about WordPress is that they have very good documentation.

However, for simplicity we will just do this in functions.php in the theme you are using. You can find it in /wp-content/themes/your_theme/functions.php

Here is the modified version of the code sample in your question:

//First we need to change the name of the Widget. I just named it RT_Widget_Text, so just be aware that you can change it to anything you want and to replace all instances of that text. Just make sure to not name it WP_Widget_Text
class RT_Widget_Text extends WP_Widget {

    function __construct() {
        //I made a change here. I changed the class name to widget_double_text. This probably has no effect, but I just changed it for good measure.
        $widget_ops = array('classname' => 'widget_double_text', 'description' => __('Arbitrary text or HTML'));
        $control_ops = array('width' => 400, 'height' => 350);

        //Here is the important part. Change the "text" to "double_text" and "Text" to "Text 2" or to some other text that will identify the widget.
        parent::__construct('double_text', __('Text 2'), $widget_ops, $control_ops);
    }

    function widget( $args, $instance ) {
        extract($args);
        $title = apply_filters( 'widget_title', empty( $instance['title'] ) ? '' : $instance['title'], $instance, $this->id_base );
        $text = apply_filters( 'widget_text', empty( $instance['text'] ) ? '' : $instance['text'], $instance );
        //I changed this to $text2 = instead of $text =
        //This would have caused the first text section to display you text2 and your text2 to display nothing.
        //I wonder if this was your issue?
        $text2 = apply_filters( 'widget_text', empty( $instance['text2'] ) ? '' : $instance['text2'], $instance );
        echo $before_widget;
        if ( !empty( $title ) ) { echo $before_title . $title . $after_title; } ?>
            <div class="textwidget">
                <?php echo !empty( $instance['filter'] ) ? wpautop( $text ) : $text; ?>
            </div>
            <div class="textwidget2">
                <?php echo !empty( $instance['filter'] ) ? wpautop( $text2 ) : $text2; ?>
            </div>
        <?php
        echo $after_widget;
    }

    function update( $new_instance, $old_instance ) {
        $instance = $old_instance;
        $instance['title'] = strip_tags($new_instance['title']);
        if ( current_user_can('unfiltered_html') ) {
            $instance['text'] =  $new_instance['text'];
            $instance['text2'] =  $new_instance['text2'];
        } else {
            $instance['text'] = stripslashes( wp_filter_post_kses( addslashes($new_instance['text']) ) ); // wp_filter_post_kses() expects slashed
            $instance['text2'] = stripslashes( wp_filter_post_kses( addslashes($new_instance['text2']) ) ); // wp_filter_post_kses() expects slashed
        }
        $instance['filter'] = isset($new_instance['filter']);
        return $instance;
    }

    function form( $instance ) {
        $instance = wp_parse_args( (array) $instance, array( 'title' => '', 'text' => '', 'text2' => '' ) );
        $title = strip_tags($instance['title']);
        $text = esc_textarea($instance['text']);
        $text2 = esc_textarea($instance['text2']);
?>
        <p><label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('title'); ?>"><?php _e('Title:'); ?></label>
        <input class="widefat" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('title'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('title'); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo esc_attr($title); ?>" /></p>

        <textarea class="widefat" rows="16" cols="20" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('text'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('text'); ?>"><?php echo $text; ?></textarea>
        <textarea class="widefat" rows="8" cols="20" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('text2'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('text2'); ?>"><?php echo $text2; ?></textarea>

        <p><input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('filter'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('filter'); ?>" type="checkbox" <?php checked(isset($instance['filter']) ? $instance['filter'] : 0); ?> />&nbsp;<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('filter'); ?>"><?php _e('Automatically add paragraphs'); ?></label></p>
<?php
    }
}
//Now you need to register your widget. Remember to change it to whatever you named your widget
add_action( 'widgets_init', create_function( '', 'register_widget( "RT_Widget_Text" );' ) );

With all that said, I think your bug may have been a simple typo in your widget( $args, instance) method here:

$text = apply_filters( 'widget_text', empty( $instance['text'] ) ? '' : $instance['text'], $instance );
$text = apply_filters( 'widget_text2', empty( $instance['text2'] ) ? '' : $instance['text2'], $instance );

Notice that you are setting $text = twice here. So you basically overwrote the value of text and replaced it with text2. And then that left text2 null.

If that was not your problem, then it may have to do with registering the widget as “text” since that is taken by WP_Widget_Text. This is unlikely since I’m assuming you edited the WP_Widget_Text class directly.