Using wp_category_checklist in a widget

The problem is that to make the update method of widget class work, the name inputs on the form method should be set via $this->get_get_field_name('name_of_the_field'); but wp_category_checklist has no argument to setup the name of the inputs (checkboxes).

However, wp_category_checklist uses a walker class to print the checkboxes and allow customizing it. By default the class used is Walker_Category_Checklist, and the method that prints the checkboxes is start_el.

That method has no filter to allow editing of the input names, but we can create a custom walker, that accepts params to setup the name. If this walker extends Walker_Category_Checklist, we only need to override start_el method (mostly copying from original).

The code:

// This is required to be sure Walker_Category_Checklist class is available
require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/template.php';
/**
 * Custom walker to print category checkboxes for widget forms
 */
class Walker_Category_Checklist_Widget extends Walker_Category_Checklist {

    private $name;
    private $id;

    function __construct( $name="", $id = '' ) {
        $this->name = $name;
        $this->id = $id;
    }

    function start_el( &$output, $cat, $depth = 0, $args = array(), $id = 0 ) {
        extract( $args );
        if ( empty( $taxonomy ) ) $taxonomy = 'category';
        $class = in_array( $cat->term_id, $popular_cats ) ? ' class="popular-category"' : '';
        $id = $this->id . '-' . $cat->term_id;
        $checked = checked( in_array( $cat->term_id, $selected_cats ), true, false );
        $output .= "\n<li id='{$taxonomy}-{$cat->term_id}'$class>" 
            . '<label class="selectit"><input value="' 
            . $cat->term_id . '" type="checkbox" name="' . $this->name 
            . '[]" id="in-'. $id . '"' . $checked 
            . disabled( empty( $args['disabled'] ), false, false ) . ' /> ' 
            . esc_html( apply_filters( 'the_category', $cat->name ) ) 
            . '</label>';
      }
}

Now, probably in same file we can write the widget class:

/**
 * An example of widget using wp_category_checklist on form
 */
class TestCategoryWidget extends WP_Widget {

    function __construct(){
        parent::__construct( false, 'TestWidget');
    }

    function widget( $args, $instance ) { 
        // Displays the widget on frontend 
    }

    function update( $new_instance, $old_instance ) {
        $instance = $old_instance;
        $instance['widget_categories'] = $new_instance['widget_categories'];
        return $instance;
    }

    function form( $instance ) {
        $defaults = array( 'widget_categories' => array() );
        $instance = wp_parse_args( (array) $instance, $defaults );    
        // Instantiate the walker passing name and id as arguments to constructor
        $walker = new Walker_Category_Checklist_Widget(
            $this->get_field_name( 'widget_categories' ), 
            $this->get_field_id( 'widget_categories' )
        );
        echo '<ul class="categorychecklist">';
        wp_category_checklist( 0, 0, $instance['widget_categories'], FALSE, $walker, FALSE );
        echo '</ul>';
    }

}

Finally, register the widget:

function TestCategoryWidgetInit() {
    register_widget( 'TestCategoryWidget' );
}

add_action( 'widgets_init', 'TestCategoryWidgetInit' );