Using widgets outside the sidebar?

Question

Is it possible to use widgets outside of the sidebar? When you assign them in the admin panel you have to drag them to your sidebar but I would like to implement a search function outside the sidebar. Can I do this?

Answer 1

Absolutely. This thread in the WordPress support forums should get you going. It creates a new widget area ready called Homepage that can then be used in any of your theme's template files:

Your theme's functions.php

if (function_exists('register_sidebar')) {
    register_sidebar(array(
        'name'=> 'Main',
        'id' => 'main',
        'before_widget' => '<div class="widget_box side">',
        'after_widget' => '</div>',
        'before_title' => '<h3>',
        'after_title' => '</h3>',
    ));
    register_sidebar(array(
        'name'=> 'Homepage',
        'id' => 'homepage',
        'before_widget' => '<div class="widget_box">',
        'after_widget' => '</div>',
        'before_title' => '<h3>',
        'after_title' => '</h3>',
    ));
}

The template file you want the Homepage widget in

<?php if (function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar('Homepage')) : ?>

Alternatively, you can use the My Custom Widgets plugin to do the same thing.