Creating If/Else in WordPress

CMS & WordPress
1

I’m trying to create an if/else. The idea is that if there is a right widget assigned to the page, then display the widget and content like this:

content goes here
right widget goes here

else only display this:

content goes here

I’m trying to work this out by using this:

    <?php 
            if(is_active_sidebar('right-column')){
                echo '<main id="main" class="site-main" role="main">';
while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
get_template_part( 'content', 'page' );
if ( comments_open() || '0' != get_comments_number() ) :
                        comments_template();
                    endif;
endwhile;
echo '</main>';
                echo '<div class="col-lg-4 col-md-4 col-sm-6 col-xs-12">';
                dynamic_sidebar('right-column');
                echo '</div>';
                } else {
                echo '<main id="main" class="site-main" role="main">';
while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
get_template_part( 'content', 'page' );
if ( comments_open() || '0' != get_comments_number() ) :
                        comments_template();
                    endif;
endwhile;
echo '</main>';
}
            ?>

What’s happening is that I’m encountering a PHP error (blank page), so obviously I’m missing something in the code. Anyone have an idea where I’m missing something?

2

See if you get any error message when you have your debugging turned on. Go to your wp-config.php file and change

define('WP_DEBUG', false);

to

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

Just remember to change it back to false before the site goes live.

3

Thanks, WebMachine. I was able to modify the code to something like this:

<?php 
            if(is_active_sidebar('right-column')){
                echo '<main id="main" class="site-main col-lg-8 col-md-8 col-sm-6 col-xs-12" role="main">';
                while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
                get_template_part( 'content', 'page' );
                endwhile;
                echo '</main>';
                echo '<div class="col-lg-4 col-md-4 col-sm-6 col-xs-12">';
                dynamic_sidebar('right-column');
                echo '</div>';
                } else {
                echo '<main id="main" class="site-main" role="main">';
                while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
                get_template_part( 'content', 'page' );
                endwhile;
                echo '</main>';    
                }
            ?>

It seems to have worked when I ran a few tests.