Title: WP_Customize_Widgets::get_widget_control
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# WP_Customize_Widgets::get_widget_control( array $args ): string

## In this article

 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Retrieves the widget control markup.

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$args`arrayrequired

Widget control arguments.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 string Widget control form HTML markup.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function get_widget_control( $args ) {
    	$args[0]['before_form']           = '<div class="form">';
    	$args[0]['after_form']            = '</div><!-- .form -->';
    	$args[0]['before_widget_content'] = '<div class="widget-content">';
    	$args[0]['after_widget_content']  = '</div><!-- .widget-content -->';
    	ob_start();
    	wp_widget_control( ...$args );
    	$control_tpl = ob_get_clean();
    	return $control_tpl;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-wp-customize-widgets.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-customize-widgets.php#L1166)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/class-wp-customize-widgets.php#L1166-L1175)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [wp_widget_control()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_widget_control/)`wp-admin/includes/widgets.php` |

Meta widget used to display the control form for a widget.

  |

| Used by | Description | 
| [WP_Customize_Widgets::get_widget_control_parts()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control_parts/)`wp-includes/class-wp-customize-widgets.php` |

Retrieves the widget control markup parts.

  | 
| [WP_Customize_Widgets::get_available_widgets()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_available_widgets/)`wp-includes/class-wp-customize-widgets.php` |

Builds up an index of all available widgets for use in Backbone models.

  |

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_customize_widgets/get_widget_control/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [3.9.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.9.0/) | Introduced. |

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