Possible to preset a widget's contents via a plugin script?

Question

This plugin is a simple demo test to see if I can dynamically populate a pre-existing widget area with text. In this case, my theme has created the widget area "home-header-widget" and I'm trying to populate it with the contents of 'text' below. I'm stuck at the line...

$sidebars_widgets[$sidebar_id] = "widget_text-".$id;

In that I'm not certain how to obtain a reference to the dynamically created text widget object in order to preset its contents and place it inside my 'home-header-widget'...

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Widget Test
*/
function cb_activate_widgettest(){

$sidebar_id = 'home-header-widget';
$sidebars_widgets = get_option('sidebars_widgets');
$id = count($opts)+1;
$sidebars_widgets[$sidebar_id] = array("text-".$id);

$ops = get_option('widget_text');
// find an $id that works...
$ops[$id] = array(
  'title' => 'foo hoo',
  'text' => 'bar mitz', // content?
);
update_option('widget_text', $ops); 
update_option('sidebars_widgets', $sidebars_widgets);

}

register_activation_hook(__FILE__, 'cb_activate_widgettest');
?>

Answer 1

There are a few mistakes in your code:

1. You need to specify the instance ID manually, for eg. 2. If you want to append a text widget, and not overwrite the sidebar's contents, then try using $id = count($opts)+1, or you could just generate a random ID.

2. Use the widget_ID_base-instance_ID in $sidebars_widgets[$sidebar_id] = "widget_text-".$id;, and put that inside a array:

   $sidebars_widgets[$sidebar_id] = array("text-".$id);

Answer 2

How to preset a sidebar widget with default content via script?
How to add multiple copies of a widget from "available widgets"
https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/5282/code-to-dynamically-populate-a-widget-with-preset-content

This is your fourth topic on widget setup, could this not have been addressed inline with any of your other widget topics?

I feel these widget topics are starting to become a little duplicative.