index.php and archive.php might be the same but don’t have to be the same. index.php will display your blog post archive and in the absence of archive.php (or other more specific archive files) it will display your date, author, etc. archives as well. But it doesn’t have to. You can, if you want, display your … Read more
consider to use: $postspage_id = get_option(‘page_for_posts’); and then change the rspective line in your code to: $leftSidebar = get_post_meta( $postspage_id, ‘_my_meta’, true ); from: http://www.blog.highub.com/cms/wordpress/wordpress-front-page-posts-page-id/
Untested, but try: <?php echo get_the_title( get_option( ‘page_for_posts’ ) ); ?> But it’s somewhat hackish. Really, the page_on_front and page_for_posts are intended to be nothing more than placeholders for the site front page and blog posts index page.
In WordPress 4.2 the editor was removed on whichever page was assigned to show Latest Posts for whatever reason. The following function below ( original solution found here by crgeary ) will re-add the editor and remove the notification: You are currently editing the page that shows your latest posts. Here’s some information on the … Read more
Don’t forget that WordPress was primarily designed to be a blogging CMS, so when it comes to theme development, developers often opt for a non-standard approach in exchange for the potential for more features. Theme developers have three options when they approach this, one of which (#2 below) you mentioned. Directly edit the index.php to … Read more
If by ‘blog page‘ you meant a static page set as posts page in the Reading Settings, then you could check it by doing this: if ( is_front_page() && is_home() ) { // Default homepage } elseif ( is_front_page() ) { // static homepage } elseif ( is_home() ) { // blog page } else … Read more