WordPress MU

Is there a tutorial available for hard coding sidebars for those of us who are new? Something that takes the code from an interesting plugin and places that in the sidebar.php file so that everyone sees it by default. This question seems to arise often and I'm surprised there isn't some kind of plugin that takes the admin sidebar settings and just makes that the default for all blog users.

For example I want to have the login and search on sidebar2.php in the same place for all users and the Nextgen recent images and the recent global posts plugins on sidebar1.php for all users.

The "New Blog Defaults" is a great plugin but it would be nice to see a switch that says "Use Admin Sidebars As Default For All New Blogs" if you know what I mean.

Yep, I'd also like to know this.

The plugin would depend on the markup in every template sidebar.php to be standard ex. <ul><li>stuff</li></ul>. Have a look at the markup in every theme you have, if it's all the same you are on your way. A one size fits all sidebar is impossible to release to public given the variety of theme html markup.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Templates

Best tutorial is to tinker with the themes you have. Code what works for you.

For example, I use a sitewide footer, but I have had to tinker with a lot of themes to get it to display "just so". And I've had to avoid themes I couldn't fix. Releasing the plugin for all WP novices would be silly as custom coding is required.

Secondly, each (many) widgets depend on options stored in that blog's db. Not a small feat to have every widget pull options from the main blog's widget. May be easier to add code to the functions.php of each template to set default options for a widget.

What's a good way to proceed? Build your own my_sidear_block.php

Then paste some include my_sidear_block.php line into every sidebar.php
<?php include ( 'my_master_sidear_block.php'); ?>

I understand where you're coming from regarding a plugin. It's just that I use only one theme so something like that would work for me. I've disabled appearance for all users. It's just one site, one theme and a few options like add post and add gallery.

Thanks for the link and the reply.

Then hardcoding it (non-widgets) is the way to go. And that's the old-school plain ol' WordPress way to do it. :D

The mistake here is looking for a MU-specific solution. This is just basic wordpress theme design.

If you're really lost with wordpress and the online tutorials and Codex pages are too complicated, then I recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/WordPress-Theme-Design-complete-professional/dp/1847193099

How to hardcode NextGen Gallery ?