Widgets that display to non logged-in users only NOT editable in customizer

[lisaleague]

Widgets that will only display to non-logged in users are only editable in the admin, not through the customizer because they don't display (because you're obviously logged in).

These widgets ARE editable in the admin dashboard.

[westonruter]

@lisaleague Thanks for the report. Do you have an example plugin with such a widget? I would think that the widget would still be editable in the Customizer, even if it wouldn't be displayed in the preview. Usually in this case the widget's control just receives a bit of transparency to indicate it is not active in the current view.

[lisaleague]

Hi @westonruter, I just put my text widget back up here - ​http://www.qpractice.com - you have to scroll to see it appear.

It does not display to my logged in members (subscribers), or me. It's on every non-logged in page, but not in the customizer anywhere ​https://www.evernote.com/l/AAmEt6AfvmZBB7CN9mrUZ-6FnDTyT52Bae8
The widget is sticky message, based on this - ​http://briangardner.com/genesis-sticky-message/

In general, I think the widgets in the customizer are hard to work with because you have to go to the page they're on. So that's extra clicks vs. having all in one place like the admin dashboard. The way menus are done is better because you can access them all at once.

[westonruter]

OK, so you're talking about an entire widget _area_ (sidebar) only being displayed to non-authenticated visitors? Do you have such an “Anonymous User” sidebar? I thought you were referring to one specific widget. This being the case, the reason why the sidebar is not being displayed is because the Customizer thinks that the sidebar doesn't belong on the current template (which it doesn't, because you are logged-in), and so it hides it from being displayed.

Does your theme template code have something like this:

if ( ! is_user_logged_in() ) {
    dynamic_sidebar( 'anonymous-visitors' );
}

If so, then you can quickly resolve your problem by changing this to:

if ( ! is_user_logged_in() || is_customize_preview() ) {
    dynamic_sidebar( 'anonymous-visitors' );
}

This will ensure the sidebar can be managed in the Customizer.

[lisaleague]

Nope, I con't have a conditional like that - just

if ( ! is_user_logged_in() ) {

I have -

genesis_register_sidebar( array(
	'id'          => 'sticky-message',
	'name'        => __( 'Sticky Message', 'bg-mobile-first' ),
	'description' => __( 'This is the sticky message widget area.', 'bg-mobile-first' ),
) );

add_action( 'genesis_before', 'mobile_first_sticky_message' );
function mobile_first_sticky_message() {
	if ( ! is_user_logged_in() ) {
		genesis_widget_area( 'sticky-message', array(
			'before' => '<div class="sticky-message">',
			'after'  => '</div>',
		) );
	}
}

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'mobile_first_sticky_message_scripts' );
function mobile_first_sticky_message_scripts() {
	wp_enqueue_script( 'mobile-first-stickey-message', get_bloginfo( 'stylesheet_directory' ) . '/js/sticky-messages.js', array( 'jquery' ), '1.0.1' );
	
}

so would I just change to

if ( ! is_user_logged_in() || is_customize_preview() ) {

If so that's an easy fix. Sorry, I thought it was a customizer thing.

[westonruter]

Replying to lisaleague:

so would I just change to

if ( ! is_user_logged_in() || is_customize_preview() ) {

If so that's an easy fix. Sorry, I thought it was a customizer thing.

Exactly! That should be all you need.

[lisaleague]

Thanks @westonruter, now I will actually use the customizer more:)

Since I was a big opponent of menus in the customizer, I have to say that that's actually better than I thought. This gives me a possible idea for a fix for a missing link in the menu panel.