Support for Drupal 7 is ending on 5 January 2025—it’s time to migrate to Drupal 10! Learn about the many benefits of Drupal 10 and find migration tools in our resource center.
Problem/Motivation
Panels is hugely flexible but challenged to provide consistent sitewide elements like sidebar blocks. See #1557842: Allow Feature module exports to add Panes to Existing Panels and #1713524: Mini Panels + the Sidebar Problem.
Proposed resolution
One potential solution is to provide a minipanel that can be shared between multiple features or apps. This minipanel would then be added to many panels pages. A feature author wanting to add to a sitewide sidebar would alter the minipanel.
Remaining tasks
Requires #1713678: Define approach for true exportables.
Then implement en empty mini-panel exportable.
Comments
Comment #1
jwilson3One workaround that works today, but is slightly limited and "hacky" is to use the region_pane module that comes with panels_extras. You add normal Drupal regions in your theme, then add your content to those regions using either the context or block module. Finally, using the region_pane module, you add that theme region to some corresponding panel region on one or more panels using the normal Panels "add content" UI.
This workaround doesnt solve the underlying problem that panels still cannot let you *define* sitewide content. It is also limited by the module you choose to use for placement of content/blocks into theme regions. In other words, you don't get all of the goodness that panels gives you (such as contexts, panel args etc).
Comment #2
nedjoSee documentation here #1642308-11: Define best practices for block placement in Panopoly-based distros or sites for options.