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I'm getting the feeling that adding Widgets via MySQL query is not as simple as I thought. I was under the impression all data is stored in the options table, but it seems like I was wrong.

Any idea how to place a widget via $wpdb? What data should be written down? And where?

Thanks!

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Placing widgets via a MySQL or something MySQL abstracted via the global variable $wpdb that is an instance of the WPDB class is not trivial.

That's not because MySQL is something complicated or because $wpdb is useless at all but this has do something with the way the widget configuration is stored inside the mysql database options tables.

But there is always a work around. The nature of the widget configuration is stored inside the mysql database options tables. Just read the widgets configuration out of the option (get_option), edit it as you wish (use var_dump to inspect how that array is used) and then store it back into mysql via update_option.

That done you should be able to edit this "via mysql" (e.g. in the database) while making the settings of your wish.

This is quite a quick answer but it probably solves your issue.

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  • Thanks. I actually already started doing just the debugging you suggested. Works pretty slow so far. Seems like the widget metadata is somewhat dynamic. Still testing for results, though.
    – konzepz
    Commented Nov 22, 2010 at 0:10
  • @konzepz: It's an array that contains multiple widget entries. var_dump() is the best you can get so far I'm aware of. So true, it's slow, but just for a hint: The format of that data is not documented anywhere. Welcome to wordpress :). Install xdebug (!) to have this better displayed.
    – hakre
    Commented Nov 22, 2010 at 0:28
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    Interesting post: shibashake.com/wordpress-theme/wordpress-widget-system
    – konzepz
    Commented Nov 22, 2010 at 1:16
  • @konzepz: yes, it pretty well describes the basic facts and is explaining the structure of the array. good catch, thanks for sharing the link.
    – hakre
    Commented Nov 22, 2010 at 1:19
  • Actually, it looks pretty useful, since it's describing the use for wp_get_sidebars_widgets and wp_set_sidebars_widgets commands!
    – konzepz
    Commented Nov 22, 2010 at 10:24

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