This section covers technical details for developers working with header and footer variation data programmatically.

Custom Post Type Details

	Header	Footer
Post type	memberlite_header	memberlite_footer
Public	No (admin-only, not queryable on the frontend)	No (admin-only, not queryable on the frontend)
Block editor	Enabled (show_in_rest is true)	Enabled (show_in_rest is true)
Supports	Title, Editor, Revisions, Custom Fields	Title, Editor, Revisions, Custom Fields
Capabilities	All mapped to edit_theme_options	All mapped to edit_theme_options
Admin location	Memberlite > Headers	Memberlite > Footers

Theme Mods

• Global header:memberlite_default_header_slug — stores the post_name (slug) of the assigned header variation, or '0' for the default header.
• Global footer:memberlite_default_footer_slug — stores the post_name of the assigned footer variation, or '0' for the default footer.
• Location-specific footers: Stored as separate theme mods for each content type (blog/archives, single posts, pages).

Post Meta

• Per-page header override:_memberlite_header_override on page posts — stores the post_name of the assigned header variation.
• Per-page footer override:_memberlite_footer_override on page posts — stores the post_name of the assigned footer variation.
• Sticky header per-variation:_memberlite_header_sticky (boolean) on the memberlite_header post itself.

Filter Hooks

• memberlite_header_post_name: Filters the resolved header post_name before it is used.
• memberlite_footer_post_name: Filters the resolved footer post_name before it is used.
  

Cache

The list of header and footer variations is cached in transients (memberlite_header_variations and memberlite_footer_variations) for 12 hours. The cache is automatically cleared whenever a variation post is saved, trashed, or permanently deleted.

Cleanup on Deletion

When a variation post is permanently deleted, Memberlite automatically:

• Removes the relevant theme mod if it referenced the deleted post.
• Clears any per-page override meta values that referenced the deleted post.

This prevents orphaned assignments from leaving the Customizer dropdown or per-page settings pointing to a nonexistent variation.

Rendering

The memberlite_render_header_variation() and memberlite_render_footer_variation() functions look up the post by slug and render its block content via do_blocks(). If the post is not found or not published, they return false, and the theme falls back to the default header or footer template part.