Checking if a Widget has Been Activated in WordPress
Sometimes, it is extremely difficult to find out if a function already exists in WordPress or if you need to create one yourself to get it to function how you need it to. I had created a widget for my Magazine Basic 2.0 free premium theme and I needed to make sure that if it was added to a user’s sidebar, then certain functionality would occur.
I couldn’t find out how to do it so I decided to use PHP Sessions. The only problem with this is that WordPress doesn’t allow you to upload a theme to WordPress.org that uses Sessions. So I searched and searched and finally found what I need buried deep in the WordPress code. To check if a widget has been activated you need to use the following code.
is_active_widget('name_of_widget')
Replace name_of_widget with the original function name of your widget. If you were using my Features Post widget then the code to check if it is activated would be:
is_active_widget('widget_myFeature')
Hi, I wanted to follow up the functionality discussed in your post with an example of how to use it if you develop widgets or plugins. In my blog post, I wrote about how to find out whether your widget/plugin is activated even if it’s on an external website.
This is helpful for getting usage statistics, etc.
if i use the new API, what is the name_of_widget ? please
The name_of_widget would be the function name of your widget. There are other variables as well. Check this link.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/is_active_widget
love the websites theme
Thanks bavotasan. I’ve been working on a plugin and widget and one part depends on another being there. I was just assuming it was installed for now, so this is very handy. Thank you.