Loading scripts only if a particular shortcode or widget is present

I needed a way to filter a page/posts content before it was loaded so I could add scripts to the header if a specific shortcode was present. After much searching I came across this on http://wpengineer.com

function has_my_shortcode($posts) {
    if ( empty($posts) )
        return $posts;

    $found = false;

    foreach ($posts as $post) {
        if ( stripos($post->post_content, '[my_shortcode') )
            $found = true;
            break;
        }

    if ($found){
        $urljs = get_bloginfo( 'template_directory' ).IMP_JS;

    wp_register_script('my_script', $urljs.'myscript.js' );

    wp_print_scripts('my_script');
}
    return $posts;
}
add_action('the_posts', 'has_my_shortcode');

which is absolutely brilliant and did exactly what I needed.

Now I need to extend it a bit further and do the same for sidebars. It can be by a particular widget type, shortcode, code snippet or anything else that would work to identify when the script needs to be loaded.

The problem is I can’t figure out how to access the sidebars content before the sidebar is loaded (the theme in question will have several sidebars)

You can use the function is_active_widget . E.g.:

function check_widget() {
    if( is_active_widget( '', '', 'search' ) ) { // check if search widget is used
        wp_enqueue_script('my-script');
    }
}

add_action( 'init', 'check_widget' );

To load the script in the page where the widget is loaded only, you will have to add the is_active_widget() code, in you widget class. E.g., see the default recent comments widget (wp-includes/default-widgets.php, line 602):

class WP_Widget_Recent_Comments extends WP_Widget {

    function WP_Widget_Recent_Comments() {
        $widget_ops = array('classname' => 'widget_recent_comments', 'description' => __( 'The most recent comments' ) );
        $this->WP_Widget('recent-comments', __('Recent Comments'), $widget_ops);
        $this->alt_option_name="widget_recent_comments";

        if ( is_active_widget(false, false, $this->id_base) )
            add_action( 'wp_head', array(&$this, 'recent_comments_style') );

        add_action( 'comment_post', array(&$this, 'flush_widget_cache') );
        add_action( 'transition_comment_status', array(&$this, 'flush_widget_cache') );
    }