Johannes Pille is right TwentyEleven’s widgets such as Archives and Meta are hardcoded into their sidebar.php
Here is what I would do:
First define your sidebars in your functions.php like so:
if ( function_exists('register_sidebars') )
register_sidebar(array(
'name'=>'Left Sidebar',
'before_title' => '<h2 class="label">',
'after_title' => '</h2>',
'description' => 'Items placed here will be shown in the left sidebar.'));
As you can see in the above code you are naming the sidebar “Left Sidebar”. You can change this to whatever you want but I generally choose to use placement terms so that way I know what part of the page the widget will show on.
Next you will want to put this in your theme where you want the sidebar to show:
<?php if(function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar('Left Sidebar')):else: ?>
Now you will want to put this next:
<li id="calendar">
<h2>
<?php _e('Calendar'); ?>
</h2>
<?php get_calendar(); ?>
</li>
<?php wp_list_pages('title_li=<h2>Pages</h2>'); ?>
<li>
<h2>
<?php _e('Categories'); ?>
</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_cats('sort_column=name&optioncount=1&hierarchical=0'); ?>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<h2>
<?php _e('Archives'); ?>
</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>
</ul>
</li>
<?php get_links_list(); ?>
<li>
<h2>
<?php _e('Meta'); ?>
</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_register(); ?>
<li>
<?php wp_loginout(); ?>
</li>
<?php wp_meta(); ?>
</ul>
</li>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
The
closes the “if” function at the beginning of this string. What this will do is if there are no widegts place in the sidebar these default ones will appear until one is added.
If you want them there all the time without people changing it but still want them to be able to add content of their own you can just place the hardcoded widgets outside the “if” statements like this:
<li id="calendar">
<h2>
<?php _e('Calendar'); ?>
</h2>
<?php get_calendar(); ?>
</li>
<?php wp_list_pages('title_li=<h2>Pages</h2>'); ?>
<li>
<h2>
<?php _e('Categories'); ?>
</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_cats('sort_column=name&optioncount=1&hierarchical=0'); ?>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<h2>
<?php _e('Archives'); ?>
</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>
</ul>
</li>
<?php get_links_list(); ?>
<li>
<h2>
<?php _e('Meta'); ?>
</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_register(); ?>
<li>
<?php wp_loginout(); ?>
</li>
<?php wp_meta(); ?>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<?php if(function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar('Left Sidebar')):else: ?>
<?php endif; ?>
I will suggest in order to be adding these to your theme (in the case you want something else) that you look at the WordPress Codex Function reference here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference#Theme-Related_Functions
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Here is how to have a set of default widgets for in the admin area.
First you must know that WordPress comes with 12 standard widgets. You can view them here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/the_widget
If you want to remove some of the standard widgets here is how you go about doing so:
function remove_some_wp_widgets(){
unregister_widget('WP_Widget_Calendar'); //removes calendar widget
unregister_widget('WP_Widget_Search'); // removes the search widget
unregister_widget('WP_Widget_Recent_Comments'); // removes recent comments widget
}
add_action('widgets_init',remove_some_wp_widgets', 1);
You would add the above code into your functions.php file of your theme. This will hide them. (not necessarily remove them)
If you want to add a custom widget to the admin area i would suggest that you read this article on how to register a new widget.
http://dev7studios.com/resources/wordpress-development-for-designers-part-1/