Update Widget Settings is a WordPress ability from Ultimate Addons for Elementor — usable via Easy MCP AI, which connects Claude, ChatGPT, and any AI assistant to your site.
Install Free Plugin →Update Widget Settings
WritePartially updates the settings of an existing widget element in an Elementor post by merging new key/value pairs into its current settings.
Requires the Ultimate Addons for Elementor (Header Footer & Elementor) plugin on WordPress 6.9+ (the WP Abilities API). No ability registers unless the plugin's 'Enable AI Tools' master switch (uae_mcp_settings.enable_abilities) is turned on in settings. Most abilities require the 'manage_options' capability; a smaller set of read/discovery abilities (template and page listing, the Elementor builder read/list/schema abilities, active-template lookup, display-rule locations, and design tokens) instead require only 'edit_posts' or 'read'. Abilities that act on a specific page, post, or template additionally check the current user's per-object 'edit_post' (or 'delete_post') capability on that item. Separately, every non-readonly (Write or Destructive) ability is gated behind a site-wide 'Allow Modifications' setting at registration time: if it is off, none of those abilities are even registered with the WP Abilities API, regardless of capability checks — this covers all template/page CRUD, widget/extension toggles, display-rule updates, theme/settings changes, and the Elementor builder writes alike, not just the builder ones. Eight of those abilities (the seven Elementor page-builder writes — build, insert-widget, update-widget, remove-element, move-element, add-section, add-column — plus pages-create) additionally re-check this same setting explicitly inside execute() as a redundant safeguard.
What it does
Given post_id, element_id, and a settings JSON string, the handler locates the element recursively in the post's element tree and merges the new settings into its existing settings array, leaving unspecified keys untouched, then saves the tree. If settings is omitted or empty, it returns a 400 WP_Error listing the widget's current setting keys so the calling AI can retry with correct key names. If the element_id isn't found anywhere in the tree, it returns a 404 error.
See it in action
You ask your AI assistant
"Change the heading text of element el_789 on post 42 to "Welcome to Our Site"."
Inputs
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| post_id | integer | Yes | Any Elementor-enabled post ID (page, post, or HFE template). |
| element_id | string | Yes | Element ID to update (from builder-get-structure). |
| settings | string | Yes | JSON string of the settings to change; only provided keys are merged into the widget's existing settings. |
Returns
Returns success and a human-readable message confirming which element and post were updated (or, when settings is empty, a WP_Error listing the widget's current setting keys).
Permission
permission_callback requires current_user_can('edit_posts'); execute() also calls check_modifications_allowed() (403 unless 'Allow Modifications' is enabled) and validate_elementor_post() (Elementor-post validation plus current_user_can('edit_post', ID) on that specific post).
More Ultimate Addons for Elementor abilities
Activate Widget
Enables a specific HFE widget by its slug.
Add Column to Section
Adds a new column to an existing section or container in an Elementor post, redistributing column widths automatically.
Add Section/Container
Adds a new structural layout element (a section with columns on legacy sites, or a flex container on container-mode sites) to an Elementor post.
Build Complete Layout
Builds a complete Elementor layout — sections, columns, and widgets — from a single JSON structure, replacing all existing content on the target post.
Bulk Toggle All Widgets
Activates or deactivates every HFE widget at once.
Clear Elementor Cache
Clears the Elementor CSS cache globally to regenerate all stylesheets.