Maybe sidebar could be beefed up to take the name of a sidebar, such that I could use multiple sidebars in the same wiki. For instance, the default name would be 'sidebar', meaning the plugin looks for `sidebar.pm` and fills in the `sidebar` slot, but I might also want a footer in `footer.pm`, filling the template's `footer` slot.

One good way (if possible) would be to provide a directive like `\[[!sidebar
id=sidebar]]` which would cause the file, in which it occurred to fill the
slot `SIDEBAR` in the template: basically, a page `foo.mdwn` says
`\[[!fillslot slot=myslot]]` and then its contents should go into `<TMPL_VAR
SLOT_MYSLOT>` for all pages. Ideally, this can then be overridden, so if
`/bar/foo.mdwn` also references `myslot` then pages under `/bar` should get
those contents instead.


--[[madduck]]

> In mine I just copied sidebar out and made some extra "sidebars", but they go elsewhere. Ugly hack, but it works. --[[simonraven]]

>> Here a simple [[patch]] for multiple sidebars. Not too fancy but better than having multiple copies of the sidebar plugin. --[[jeanprivat]]

>>> I made a [[git]] branch for it [[!template id=gitbranch branch="privat/multiple_sidebars" author="[[jeanprivat]]"]] --[[jeanprivat]]

>>>> Ping for [[Joey]]. Do you have any comment? I could improve it if there is things you do not like. I prefer to have such a feature integrated upstream. --[[JeanPrivat]]

>>>>> The code is fine.
>>>>>
>>>>> I did think about having it examine
>>>>> the `page.tmpl` for parameters with names like `FOO_SIDEBAR`
>>>>> and automatically enable page `foo` as a sidebar in that case,
>>>>> instead of using the setup file to enable. But I'm not sure about
>>>>> that idea..
>>>>> 
>>>>> The full compliment of sidebars would be a header, a footer,
>>>>> a left, and a right sidebar. It would make sense to go ahead
>>>>> and add the parameters to `page.tmpl` so enabling each just works,
>>>>> and add whatever basic CSS makes sense. Although I don't know
>>>>> if I want to try to get a 3 column CSS going, so perhaps leave the
>>>>> left sidebar out of that.

-------------------

<pre>
--- /usr/share/perl5/IkiWiki/Plugin/sidebar.pm	2010-02-11 22:53:17.000000000 -0500
+++ plugins/IkiWiki/Plugin/sidebar.pm	2010-02-27 09:54:12.524412391 -0500
@@ -19,12 +19,20 @@
 			safe => 1,
 			rebuild => 1,
 		},
+		active_sidebars => {
+			type => "string",
+			example => qw(sidebar banner footer),
+			description => "Which sidebars must be activated and processed.",
+			safe => 1,
+			rebuild => 1
+		},
 }
 
-sub sidebar_content ($) {
+sub sidebar_content ($$) {
 	my $page=shift;
+	my $sidebar=shift;
 	
-	my $sidebar_page=bestlink($page, "sidebar") || return;
+	my $sidebar_page=bestlink($page, $sidebar) || return;
 	my $sidebar_file=$pagesources{$sidebar_page} || return;
 	my $sidebar_type=pagetype($sidebar_file);
 	
@@ -49,11 +57,17 @@
 
 	my $page=$params{page};
 	my $template=$params{template};
-	
-	if ($template->query(name => "sidebar")) {
-		my $content=sidebar_content($page);
-		if (defined $content && length $content) {
-		        $template->param(sidebar => $content);
+
+	my @sidebars;
+	if (defined $config{active_sidebars} && length $config{active_sidebars}) { @sidebars = @{$config{active_sidebars}}; }
+	else { @sidebars = qw(sidebar); }
+
+	foreach my $sidebar (@sidebars) {
+		if ($template->query(name => $sidebar)) {
+			my $content=sidebar_content($page, $sidebar);
+			if (defined $content && length $content) {
+				$template->param($sidebar => $content);
+			}
 		}
 	}
 }
</pre>

----------------------------------------
## Further thoughts about this

(since the indentation level was getting rather high.)

What about using pagespecs in the config to map pages and sidebar pages together?  Something like this:

<pre>
	sidebar_pagespec => {
	    "foo/*" => 'sidebars/foo_sidebar',
	    "bar/* and !bar/*/*' => 'bar/bar_top_sidebar',
	    "* and !foo/* and !bar/*" => 'sidebars/general_sidebar',
	},
</pre>

One could do something similar for *pageheader*, *pagefooter* and *rightbar* if desired.

Another thing which I find compelling - but probably because I am using [[plugins/contrib/field]] - is to be able to treat the included page as if it were *part* of the page it was included into, rather than as an included page.  I mean things like \[[!if ...]] would test against the page name of the page it's included into rather than the name of the sidebar/header/footer page.  It's even more powerful if one combines this with field/getfield/ftemplate/report, since one could make "generic" headers and footers that could apply to a whole set of pages.

Header example:
<pre>
#{{$title}}
\[[!ftemplate id="nice_data_table"]]
</pre>

Footer example:
<pre>
------------
\[[!report template="footer_trail" trail="trailpage" here_only=1]]
</pre>

(Yes, I am already doing something like this on my own site.  It's like the PmWiki concept of GroupHeader/GroupFooter)

-- [[KathrynAndersen]]

[[!tag wishlist]]

> I am stumbling upon this discussion, and I noticed that I implemented part of [[KathrynAndersen]] idea in the [[plugins/contrib/sidebar2]] [[plugin|plugins]]. Using this plugin, you can have several sidebars, which are included only in pages matching some pagespec.
> 
> [[Louis|spalax]]
