How do I set is_active_sidebar?

I believe, reading your question, you are asking how to call up a widget that you’ve registered? If so, in the overall sidebar template (likely, sidebar.php), at the point where you want the widget to show, if the sidebar widget is named ‘sidebar-test’, add:

<?php if ( is_active_sidebar( 'sidebar-test' ) ) dynamic_sidebar( 'sidebar-test' ); ?>