How do I get an array of widgets?

Question

Pretty often I use one widget area placed in the footer of my theme, what displays its widgets as columns. As a theme developer I try to offer as much flexibility as possible. So if the theme user wants a specific amount of columns in the footer, than 1, 2, 3 or 4.. columns. It shouldn't be any problem, they all will fit perfectly (as long as css supports it).

Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to render my widgets in a similair way as posts are rendered. I want an array of widgets of a specific area, so I can count them and calculate what column class should be used on the container element of the widget.

Answer 1

How do I get an array of widgets?

You can look into

$sidebars_widgets =  wp_get_sidebars_widgets();
print_r( $sidebars_widgets );

Here's an output example:

Array
(
    [orphaned_widgets_1] => Array
        (
            [0] => text-6
        )

    [wp_inactive_widgets] => Array
        (
            [0] => text-7
            [1] => rss-2
        )

    [sidebar-1] => Array
        (
            [0] => recent-posts-3
            [1] => recent-posts-4
            [2] => text-9
            [3] => calendar-2
            [4] => categories-3
            [5] => search-4
            [6] => text-8
            [7] => categories-2
        )

    [sidebar-2] => Array
        (
            [0] => search-5
        )

    [sidebar-3] => Array
        (
            [0] => recent-posts-2
        )

)