metabox - display all registered meta boxes

i want to display the list of all the meta boxes of each post. the global variable wp_meta_boxes would not print anything on the screen. how can i print the value of the array to get the list of all metaboxes details.

<?php
global $wp_meta_boxes;
pr(wp_meta_boxes);
?>

But the screen is empty doesn't print anything.

i want to display the list of all the meta boxes of each post. the global variable wp_meta_boxes would not print anything on the screen. how can i print the value of the array to get the list of all metaboxes details.

<?php
global $wp_meta_boxes;
pr(wp_meta_boxes);
?>

But the screen is empty doesn't print anything.

• metabox

Share Improve this question edited Dec 29, 2018 at 8:27 sophy asked Dec 29, 2018 at 8:20 sophysophy 1111 bronze badge 2

• I'm not totally sure how this all works, but I'd guess at the very least you'd need a minimal loop to have $wp_meta_boxes set. But at first glance I'd say this is only set in edit mode anyway: it looks like each post type sets up a 'register metaboxes' handler, and that's called from do_action( 'add_meta_boxes_post', $post ); (or change 'post' in the action name to some other post type) but only in classes that start with edit, and that's what populates $wp_meta_boxes. What exactly do you want to find - the contents of a particular box for a post? – Rup Commented Dec 29, 2018 at 8:42
• i want to get the list of all the metaboxes for all posts – sophy Commented Dec 29, 2018 at 9:05

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 0

All the meta boxes are kept in a multidimensional array, called $wp_meta_boxes. It will display all of the meta boxes registered for a specific screen and a specific context.

Use the following code:

function get_meta_boxes( $screen = null, $context = 'advanced' ) {
    global $wp_meta_boxes;

    if ( empty( $screen ) )
        $screen = get_current_screen();
    elseif ( is_string( $screen ) )
        $screen = convert_to_screen( $screen );

    $page = $screen->id;

    return $wp_meta_boxes[$page][$context];          
}

Now, if you want to get an array that contains all of the meta boxes that are of "normal" priority, you have to use the following code:

$dashboard_boxes = get_meta_boxes( 'dashboard', 'normal' );