[wp-hackers] register_setting firing callback when widget is added?!

[Matt Jacob]

This is probably the most bizarre WP issue I've come across in a long 
time, so I apologize if it's difficult to make sense of what I'm talking 
about. I'll do my best to describe the problem clearly, though.

I have a method that gets hooked into admin_init, like so:

> add_action('admin_init', array($this, 'initialize_admin'));

> public function initialize_admin() {
>     register_setting('my_group', 'my_name', array($this, 'validate_options_page'));
> }

Group and option names were changed to make the code shorter.

I also have a widget that my plugin provides. When I drag that widget 
into an available widget area, I get a PHP fatal error about trying to 
use an object as an array. (I store my plugin's settings in an object 
and save it as a single option in the DB.)

I've tracked the error down to inside my validate_options_page method. 
The question, then, is: why the heck is my validation callback firing 
when activating my widget?

I'm thoroughly and legitimately stumped here. I'm hoping someone else 
has some good insights into this problem.

Matt