Apply the custom spacing controls to the PHP rendering of the Elementor Section or Column.

before-render-column-or-section.php

<?php
/*
 * Utilities - helper functions for Elementor customization.
 */

/**
 * Generate spacing classes for an element given an array of spacing items.
 * @param $spacing_items Array 
 * @return Array An array where each element is a spacing class.
 */
function get_spacing_classes($spacing_items) {
	$spacing_classes_array = array();

	foreach ( $spacing_items as $spacing_item ) {
		$spacing_classes_array[] = "{$spacing_item['property']}-{$spacing_item['direction']}-{$spacing_item['heading_level']}";
		
		if ($spacing_item['zero_xs'] === 'yes') {
			$spacing_classes_array[] = "{$spacing_item['property']}-{$spacing_item['direction']}-none-xs";
		}

		if ($spacing_item['zero_sm'] === 'yes') {
			$spacing_classes_array[] = "{$spacing_item['property']}-{$spacing_item['direction']}-none-sm";
		}

		if ($spacing_item['zero_md'] === 'yes') {
			$spacing_classes_array[] = "{$spacing_item['property']}-{$spacing_item['direction']}-none-md";
		}

		if ($spacing_item['zero_lg'] === 'yes') {
			$spacing_classes_array[] = "{$spacing_item['property']}-{$spacing_item['direction']}-none-lg";
		}

		if ($spacing_item['zero_xl'] === 'yes') {
			$spacing_classes_array[] = "{$spacing_item['property']}-{$spacing_item['direction']}-none-xl";
		}
	}

	return $spacing_classes_array;
}

/*
 * Add custom classes to the Section or Column based on the value of the 'mld_spacing_items' field 
 * that we added above. This hook is called when any element is rendered in the front end
 * but the user is not using the Elementor Editor or Editor Preview.
 */ 
add_action( 'elementor/frontend/element/before_render', 'before_render_column_or_section');
function before_render_column_or_section($element) {
	// Check to make sure that the element is either a Section or Column
	$class_name = get_class( $element );
	
	if ( $class_name === 'Elementor\\Element_Column' || $class_name === 'Elementor\\Element_Section') {
	
		$settings = $element->get_settings();

		/*
		 * Grab spacing data from the $settings array.
		 */
		$spacing_items = get_spacing_classes($settings['mld_spacing_items']);
 
		if ( $settings['spacing_items_override'] !== 'yes' ) {
			/*
			* Add the spacing classes to the column or section's wrapper (outermost element).
			* This is what the '_wrapper' key refers to. The element that the spacing class is 
			* added to will be different than the element that the spacing class is added to in 
			* the Editor Preview, due to limitations in the plugin for how the Section and Column elements
			* are set up in the Editor Preview versus on the front end.
			* add_render_attribute() is defined in Element_Base class.
			*/
			$element->add_render_attribute('_wrapper', 'class', $spacing_items);
		}
		
	}
	
}