Breukie’s Categories Widget for Wordpress
Porting my old website to Wordpress is really starting to get shape and resulted in yet another free widget for you to download and use 
On this website I (want to) use multiple sidebars for different parts of this website. Because I need to have (multiple) categories on most sidebars too, I needed a way to set up more category instances. Also I needed a couple of parameters in several sidebars and thought of a couple of other blogs and websites based on wordpress, in which I would like to have more category instances and specific cool parameters of the wp_list_categories function, available for their owners. As you might know, the wp_list_categories function only exists in Wordpress version 2.1 and higher, but the parameters for “wp_list_categories()” still act like the tags “list_cats()” and “wp_list_cats()” that are deprecated. It has a couple of different parameters and it includes blogroll link categories.
Like my other free widgets, it is a pretty simple widget, but it will definatally do the trick for you too!
Description
Breukie’s Categories Widget is a wordPress widget, to replace the standard categories widget by Automattic. This widget displays pages on your sidebar using the wp_list_categories function, utilizes all available parameters for this function like hierarchy, order and exclude categories in your sidebar. You can also set up to 9 intances of this widget in your sidebar(s).
Requirements
Only for Wordpress 2.1+.
Support
Any questions like support, bug reports, feature requests or any of this kind for this widget, can be posted in my forum. To post a message there, log in with your account, or register first if you do not have one. Still … I am curious what you think of this widget, so feel free to comment 
Installing
- Unzip to wp-content/plugins/widgets.
- Go to WP admin -> plugins and activate Breukie’s Categories Widget.
- Go to WP admin -> presentation -> sidebar widgets, to add the widget to your sidebar(s).
- Select how many Breukie’s Categories Widgets you want to show and/or setup the parameters of the widget.
- If you are updating from an earlier version, deactivate, delete old version, upload new version and activate it.
Small FAQ
I ticked the checkbox for the “Show Option All” parameter, but I see no change?
- As of WordPress version 2.1 this parameter does not have any effect on your Category display yet. I included this parameter allready so it wil work as soon as this parameter is or will be in full use.
I use the “Hierarchy” parameter, but I also want to use the “Child off” parameter?
- It is not possible to use those two parameters at the same time in the same instance. Ticking the checkbox for the “Hierarchy” parameter will allways switch off the “Child off” parameter, whatever you set it to. If you think of it, it is actually very logical. The “Child off” parameter only displays categories that are children of the category identified by its ID.
I use the “Child off” parameter, but I now also see categories with no posts?
- If the “Child off” parameter is used, the “Hide Empty” parameter will be set to false automatically by the wp_list_categories function itself.
I use the “Child off” parameter, but I don’t see any categories?
- The “Child off” parameter will show you specific children of a specific category, but if there are no posts in a parent category, the parent category will not be displayed
Version History
Version 2.1
- Made wordpress 2.2 compatible.
Version 2.0
- Bug fix.
- Added and corrected Read Me File.
- Finishing touches.
Version 1.0
- Added all available parameters.
- Cleaned up code.
Download
Breukie’s Categories Widget v2.1 - downloaded 3525 times.
mei 16th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
[...] gave up on the King widget and instead downloaded and installed Breukie’s Categories widget. This worked fine except that every time I made a change to the widget in the admin section, it [...]
mei 18th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Hello Breukie!
I just downloaded your WP widgets(all 4 of them) but being absolutely new to blogging and having no knowledge of PHP etc I don’t figure it out how to actually use them. I set up 3 instances of categories in sidebar and all 3 of them display the same content. I was thinking I will be able to manage these 3 instances of categories independently and that’s what I need. I don’t understand how to do it. There is no manual available for using your pluggins, can you help me?
Thank you.
mei 19th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Hi LBnuke,
I am going to update my wordpress to the latest version today and will look into the problem you have.
More later.
Hi Constantine,
After my update I will help you too
HTH
mei 19th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Thanks very much, breukie
Not sure if I will need it for my own site anymore, but I will try it anyway since I use wordpress a lot for other projects and can think of plenty of handy uses for your widget!
mei 22nd, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Hi Lori and Constantine,
For wordpress 2.2 compatibility, please download the latest version of my widget and reinstall it
HTH
mei 28th, 2007 at 2:35 am
[...] Breukie’s Categories Widget for Wordpress | Arnold Breukhoven (tags: WordPress Plugin) [...]
mei 31st, 2007 at 1:00 am
I installed your widget but it didn’t work putting it in the wp-content/plugins/widgets directory so I put it in the wp-content/plugins/ directory and I was able to turn it on in the plugin admin section. I went to sidebar widgets and slid it in, excluded a few cats and saved but nothing happens. Every time I click ’save changes’ the widget defaults back to the original settings of nothing. I am using WP 2.1.3
juni 1st, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Hi breukie- I’m using the latest version of the categories widget (2.1) with Wordpress 2.1, and I’m having a lot of problems. The title doesn’t change (I typed in ‘Contents’ but it still says ‘Categories’), the empty categoreis show (even though I checked Hide Empty Categories), and its not eliminating the category number I entered in the “Eliminate Categories” field.
Yikes! I must be doing something really wrong!
Help?
Thanks - Laura
juni 8th, 2007 at 11:57 am
[...] da poco e mi ero fatta la stessa domanda ieri (se ho capito bene la tua domanda ) Ho trovato il ‘Breukie’s Categories Widget’. Provato e funziona perfetamente per aggiungere nuove categorie. Basta seguire le istruzione (in [...]
juni 8th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Breukie, thanks a lot for this genial plugin.
I was looking for something like it everywhere!
juni 11th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Same issues as LBnuke » WordPress 2.2. I love this widget, but there are problems…
Every time I make any changes to my widgets, the Categories widget doesn’t keep my excluded category and feed image URL and I have to re-do them everytime
juni 18th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Hi Arnold! I really enjoy your plugins! Thanks.
But, I am having problems with the Categories Plugin. I am using WP2.2, and I cannot get the settings to “stick”. And somehow, the results I do get are not logical. When I only want 2 specific Categories in one Instance, I have typed their names in, separated by a comma. This only works sometimes.
The most serious problem is that the changes do not stay. And when I change themes, the settings revert to default.
I have downloaded the latest version (2.1) and still not improvement.
Any ideas?
Peter
juni 24th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
This great plugin stopped working completely when I upgraded to 2.2.1
juni 24th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Hi Breukie,
You mention that you’ve set up your WP to handle different widgetized sidebars on different pages. I was about to write exactly that for my blog too. Is your code for that available? If not, could you describe the general approach?
Thanks!
juni 30th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
[...] Visit [...]
juli 2nd, 2007 at 9:49 am
You have this block 2 times in Your code and forgot to comment one out.
Zhat is why i have no changes on options change.
//$show_option_all = $options[$number]['show_option_all'] ? ‘1′ : ‘0′;
//$show_count = $options[$number]['show_count'] ? ‘1′ : ‘0′;
//$hide_empty = $options[$number]['hide_empty'] ? ‘1′ : ‘0′;
//$use_desc_for_title = $options[$number]['use_desc_for_title'] ? ‘1′ : ‘0′;
//$hierarchical = $options[$number]['hierarchical'] ? ‘1′ : ‘0′;
juli 6th, 2007 at 5:29 am
just downloaded your plugin, but unfortunately when I customized the widget and save changes the changes are lost - don’t know if this is a 2.2x problem or not, just that it isn’t working
augustus 2nd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
[...] 2ã€å°è¯•ä½¿ç”¨Breukie’s Categories Widgetæ’件，效果并ä¸ç†æƒ³ï¼Œä¸èƒ½è§£å†³Categories排åºçš„问题。å–消之。缺çœçš„Categories Widget是用nameåšæŽ’åºçš„，改用手工给categoryåç§°åŠ ä¸Šæ•°å—çš„æ–¹å¼æš‚时解决。 [...]
augustus 6th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Hi Breukie,
the widget isn’t storing the settings like child, exclude, include etc. Making it useless. And what a shame as the concept is great and I could really use such a widget
augustus 24th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Arnie!
PLEASE can you respond. I really need the Category Widget functions, but none of the categories I include (or exclude) in instances of the Widget, are included or ecxluded accordingly.
The settings do not ’stick’… I cannot change the Name of each widget instance and none of the settings for category inclusion or exclusion are visible in the Blog (and are lost when I return to the widget set-up boc.
Help, PLEASE!!!
I am using Version 2.1, with WP 2.2.2
augustus 28th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Hi there, this plug-in is godsent, but I’m having a slight problem using it in wordpress 2.2.2 - I’ve downloaded the 2.1 release of your category-plugin, but it refuses to remember the ‘exclude category’ when I set it to exclude nr. 2, which is the blogroll-category - any thoughts on what I’m doing wrong? or is this something introduced by wordpress 2.2.2?
best regards,
andre
augustus 29th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Hi,
I tried to exclude categories from showing up in the sidebar but I still see them.
Is this option working in WP 2.2?
augustus 31st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
[...] Puoi usare Breukie’s Categories Widget. [...]
september 4th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Likewise, running wp 2.2 and downloaded this plugin for the first time. However, the text fields don’t retain any settings, and the word I typed in for “Title widget” (I didn’t use any funny punctuation) didn’t change. In essence, it really didn’t do anything different. Any ideas what happened? I followed your installation instructions to the letter, and the extended options menu pops up like it’s running fine. Thanks!
september 8th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Hi,
I have tested your plugin on a vanilla (unmodified and with no other plugins) wordpress 2.2.2 blog and have discovered that the plugin GUI works fine from the Presentation/Widgets menu but that all options entered into the GUI are ignored except the title.
Is the plugin supposed to be compatible with 2.2.2?
Thanks, d.
september 10th, 2007 at 6:10 am
I downloaded and installed your widget v.2.1 on WP v.2.2.3 and am having problems. When I set options in the widget, such as “child of” or “include” or “exclude” categories, it does not acknowledge or even save these settings. It did save my title and the hierarchical check, however these are ignored as it displays in my sidebar with just “Categories” as the title and lists all of my categories, not even in hierarchical format. Am I doing something wrong or is this perhaps not compatible with my theme (Bluebird) or version of WP? Thanks!
oktober 2nd, 2007 at 5:28 pm
[...] usare questo plugin, fa esattamente quel che ti [...]
oktober 12th, 2007 at 7:38 am
i had actived the plgin i can add the widgets on the admin but when i try to configure it notthing happen ?
oktober 17th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Hey,
I use version 2.3 of wordpress and when I use your widget the settings doesn’t save. You know what’s the problem?
oktober 27th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Hi, great work…but I can’t get it to work!! Why does it lose widget settings every time?
I mean, it doesn’t save them, no matter how I try…Is there any fix for it? using Wordpress 2.3….thanks a lot! Dario
oktober 29th, 2007 at 2:45 am
Help! Okay, I downloaded the widget but can’t upload to that directory because there is no such directory. I’m using WP 2.3.1 in which widgets are integrated. I went looking for any info on such a simple question: where do you put new widgets?? Nothing!!! Should I create wp-content/plugins/widgets ?
november 18th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Doesn’t seem to work with 2.3. If you set any of the parameters in the widget panel, it still just displays a normal category list, ignoring all the options.
december 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 pm
how can it be used to display a single blogroll category?
thanks
december 30th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
breuki, what a great plugin!
i’ve just installed it on WP 2.3.2, it works well. but when i try excluding categories, nothing happens and the IDs are not saved. any ideas? thanks!
regards,
abhilash
januari 7th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Hi,
installed this on Wordpress 2.3.1 and it wont save any settings (except for the checkboxes).
Will you be updating as this is a very useful widget!
Thanks
Mark
januari 20th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
This plugin is exactly what I need - the ability to define individual category lists for different category groups, but unfortunately I am not able to get it to work. I am using WP 2.3.2 and am trying to to show only one group of post categories in my left sidebar. The categories I want to show are all children of category 154. But I am not able to get anything in the plugin to work. It does not use the title that I put in, rather just displays the default “Categories” and when I input parameters for “child of” or “exclude” or “include” none of them hold, rather they disappear from the widget admin screen as soon as I save and of course, the changes do not reflect in my sidebar. Is the plugin not compatible with WP 2.3+ or am I doing something wrong? Thanks!
januari 22nd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
[...] Plugin Homepage [...]
januari 23rd, 2008 at 11:35 pm
This widget sounds very good for my purpose!
I just tried to use it on 2.3.2 but it does not remember my configuration except “title” and the checkboxes.
Please kindly email me when you fixed it for 2.3. Thanks
januari 29th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Don’t think this works with wp 2.3.2 can you verify?
februari 26th, 2008 at 9:24 am
good day to you!
thanks for the widgets - I do hope you are still writing them!!!
As I understand it in wordpress the hierargy is as follows -
Pages
Category(ies) within pages
Posts within categories
BUT I COULD NOT FIND ONE PLUGIN WHERE THE PAGES ARE SHOWN AS A DROP-DOWN LIST LIKE THE ONE FINDS WIDGETS FOR CATEGORIES!!
I FOUND A WIDGET WHERE YOU CAN LINK CATEGORIES TO PAGES - BUT THIS LINK IS ONLY DISPLAYED IN A TABLE USED BY ADMIN.
WOULD IT BE ABLE TO DESIGN A WIDGET WHERE -
PAGES ARE DIPLAYED IN A DROP DOWN
AND WHEN SELECTING A PAGE THE CATEGORIES FOR THAT PAGE IS DISPLAYED
AND WHEN SELECTING A CATEGORY THE POSTS TO THAT CATEGORY IS DISPLAYED????
I WOULD - AND I AM SURE MANY MANY WORDPRESS USERS WILL REALLY APPRECIATE A WIDGET LIKE OUTLINED ABOVE - SINCE IT WOULD MAKE NAVIGATION SO MUCH EASIER!!!!!
WHEN WRITING A POST A CATEGORY MUST BE SELECTED - AND YOU CANNOT SAVE THE POST UNLESS THE CATEGORY HAS BEEN SELECTED - ALREADY IMPLEMENTED ON MY SITE
KIND REGARDS
CHARLES
april 15th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Hi, this widget is compatible with wordpress 2.5 ?? thanks
juni 20th, 2008 at 12:55 am
With Wordpress 2.5.1 I found that the settings weren’t saved, so I only could see the defaults.
I made the following changes, around line 255:
for ($i = 1; $i <= $number; $i++) {
$name = ‘Breukie\’s Categories ‘ . $i;
register_sidebar_widget($name, ‘widget_breukiescategories’, $i);
register_widget_control($name, ‘widget_breukiescategories_control’, 460, 400, $i);
}
I basically just simplied the code and it started working. Curious to know if I broke something else!
Hope this helps. Email me if you want me to send a diff.
juli 24th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
This is a great plug in
augustus 1st, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Hello Breukie!
I just downloaded your WP widgets (all 4 of them) but being absolutely new to blogging and having no knowledge of PHP etc I don’t figure it out how to actually use them. I set up 3 instances of categories in sidebar and all 3 of them display the same content. I was thinking I will be able to manage these 3 instances of categories independently and that’s what I need. I don’t understand how to do it. There is no manual available for using your pluggins, can you help me?
I use wordpress 2.6
Thank you.
november 10th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Hi, I really like yr plugin and thank you so much for this.
I want to use in my blog but I got a problem.
Activating plugin is ok but whatever I type to exclude or include any numbers, they lost after I click “Save Changes” button. I mean yr widget cannot save any data so only default list is display.
I’m using Wordpress 2.6.2 and I tested with 2.6.3 as well. Both fail.
Could you please help me checking yr widget?
Thanks in advance!
november 24th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Seems to me that none of these plugs work for 2.6.+. Pity.
december 18th, 2008 at 6:21 am
i’ve tried to exclude or include categories separated with “,” like “1,2,3″ but when i’m pressing save widget loosing input data. what might be wrong?
december 18th, 2008 at 6:40 am
function widget_breukiescategories_control($number)
has setup of
$show_option_all = $options[$number]['show_option_all'] ? ‘checked=”checked”‘ : ”;
$show_count = $options[$number]['show_count'] ? ‘checked=”checked”‘ : ”;
…..
parameters but no setup for $exclude and $include and etc parameters that are using lately in input controls such as
<input style=”width: 300px;” id=”breukiescategories-feed_image-” name=”breukiescategories-feed_image-” type=”text” value=”" />
december 18th, 2008 at 6:41 am
i mean
<input style=”width: 300px;” id=”breukiescategories-feed_image-” name=”breukiescategories-feed_image-” type=”text” value=”" />
december 31st, 2008 at 3:28 am
[...] Breukie’s Categories Widget [...]
februari 13th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Breukie, you should get a lifetime php coding prohibition. I don’t know what are you smoking while coding, but your make VERY SIMPLE LOGIC errors in your plugins making them unusefull.
Look at this:
if ( $hierarchical == ‘1′ )
// ANDER DOET HIERARCHY HET NIET!
$child_of = ”;
} else {
$child_of = ‘&child_of=’ . $child_of;
}
WHY THE FUCK you checking $herarchical variable to do something with $child_of?
maart 29th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Hello breukie,
this plugin is a very,very good thing and makes some things easier. But it will not run under Wordpress 2.7. - ist this right? Do you devolop this Plugin further on? I hope, that would be great - please let me know.
Regards
juke
mei 12th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
will this plugin work in wordpress 2.7?
will it be upgraded?
mei 21st, 2009 at 10:49 am
I’ve category with many subcategories.
Is it possible to show only the subcategories but not the category?
juli 27th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Breukie, you’ve made my day!! Excellent widget!!! I had to find a way to choose what categories to display, among too many, and your widget has just the perfect content I need!! Thank you sooooo much!!!
juli 28th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
but it doesn’t work well on the 2.8 version. I had to input the data on the php sheet.
thank you anyway!
november 19th, 2009 at 5:00 am
how can I pull the category widget in body area of wordpress. Lack php skills, but from the posts here, it looks feasible. PLease advise. Thanks!!
januari 25th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
To all users of this plugin.
My apologies, I haven’t updates my website, let alone my plugins for a long while. To be more exact, my last update was 2 more than 2 years ago.
The issues described in your comments are known to me and will be solved. I am now in the progress of updating and upgrading my website and after that will update my plugins too.
To all of you I’d like to day: I am sorry for the inconvenience
Please keep in mind that these plugins are free and to donwload just because it might help you and I like to share it with you all.