Obtaining Wordpress custom widget options using AJAX - ajax

Question

I am writing a custom widget on WordPress. This custom widget will be used to display a specific item belonging to a Custom Field that I have also set up.
With the code blow, I'm having some troubles:
public function form( $instance ) {?>
<?php
$args = array(
'hide_empty' => true,
'exclude' => 2,
);
$categories = get_categories($args); ?>
<p>
<label for="<?php echo esc_attr( $this->get_field_id( 'team' ) ); ?>">Team:</label>
<select id="<?php echo esc_attr( $this->get_field_id( 'team' ) ); ?>" name="<?php echo esc_attr( $this->get_field_name( 'team' ) ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['team']; ?>" style="width:100%;" >
<?php
foreach($categories as $team) {
echo '<option value="'.$team->term_id.'">'.$team->name.'</option>';
}
?>
</select>
</p>
<?php
$args_players = array(
'post_type' => 'player'
);
$players = get_posts($args_players);
?>
<p>
<label for="<?php echo esc_attr( $this->get_field_id( 'player' ) ); ?>">Player:</label>
<select id="<?php echo esc_attr( $this->get_field_id( 'player' ) ); ?>" name="<?php echo esc_attr( $this->get_field_name( 'player' ) ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['player']; ?>" style="width:100%;" >
<?php
foreach($players as $player) {
echo '<option value="'.$player->ID.'">'.$player->post_title.'</option>';
}
?>
</select>
</p>
<?php
}
The Custom Post Field is called "Player" and the idea is to display a "Featured Player" on the sidebar. Each "Player" belongs to a "Team", that is selected in this specific fragment of the previous code:
$args = array(
'hide_empty' => true,
'exclude' => 2,
);
$categories = get_categories($args); ?>
<p>
<label for="<?php echo esc_attr( $this->get_field_id( 'team' ) ); ?>">Team:</label>
<select id="<?php echo esc_attr( $this->get_field_id( 'team' ) ); ?>" name="<?php echo esc_attr( $this->get_field_name( 'team' ) ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['team']; ?>" style="width:100%;" >
<?php
foreach($categories as $team) {
echo '<option value="'.$team->term_id.'">'.$team->name.'</option>';
}
?>
</select>
</p>
This works as expected, but the other fragment of the code should gather "Players" from the selected "Team".
I have tried several options but I can't seem to find something that actually works, and I was wondering if I could use AJAX to achieve this.
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

you can access the widget's options like this:
public function ajax_call(){
$instance = $this->get_settings();
wp_send_json(array(
'instance' => $instance
));
}