wordpress custom modules/widget areas on the page? can i make my own?

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im kind of a wordpress noob so please excuse my inexperience.

so long story short, ive been tasked with creating a WP theme (kinda simple) but, one of the areas, around footer area, has a few things they want, like a 2ndary menu/ bread crumbs etc…maybe even custom html box etc that i can do other things with later on, which i know WP provides via plugins / widgets etc but, my question is

how can i make a custom area to “hook” these onto a specific area of a page?

for example, in joomla, i can mark any part of a page with named hooks and thereafter,
select whatever module i want to work with, assign said widget to the area by name and thats it, style it there after.

Does wordpress have anything like this?i know theyre different platforms but is there anything like it or a wordpress equivalent to achieve this.

i see for example that most of the widgets etc, go into the wp_sidebar.
can i make my own area or are there other hooks that simulate what i described above?

Any tips/answers, links to read/research i gladly and humbly appreciate.

Thank you in advanced.

3 Answers
3

You can add additional widgetized sidebars to your theme by adding to your theme’s functions.php.

If you have not already added widget support in the theme, include:

if (function_exists('register_sidebar'))

Then add:

// Footer Widgets
register_sidebar(array(
  'id' => 'footerwidgets',
  'name' => 'FooterWidgets',
  'description' => 'Widgets here are shown in the footer',
  'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
  'after_widget'  => '</div>',
  'before_title' => '<h2>',
  'after_title' => '</h2>'
));

Then in your theme add <?php dynamic_sidebar( 'FoooterWidgets' ); ?>

Now simply go into Appearance >> Widgets to add whatever you like to this area.

WordPress Codex – Widgetizing Themes

If you have not already added widget support, include

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