WordPress - Uses dynamic_sidebar to split widgets into an array allowing more control over widget placement.

wp.function.get.sidebar.widgets.array.php

/**
 * Splits the HTML of each individual widget
 * up into chunks of strings accessible by array.
 *
 * @param string $sidebar_id
 * @return array
 */
function get_widgets($sidebar_id) {
	$delimiter = '-' . md5(uniqid()) . '-';
	$delimiter_cb = function($settings) use($delimiter) {
		echo $delimiter;
		return $settings;
	};
	
	ob_start();
	
	add_filter('widget_display_callback', $delimiter_cb, 10, 1);
	dynamic_sidebar($sidebar_id);
	remove_filter('widget_display_callback', $delimiter_cb, 10);
	
	$html = ob_get_clean();
	$widgets = explode($delimiter, $html);
	$widgets = array_filter($widgets);
	$widgets = array_values($widgets);
	
	return $widgets;
}