ProPanel

ProPanel

NOTE
Want to get ProPanel? Upgrade to PLUS or PRO from your account!
ProPanel is a reporting upgrade included with the PLUS and PRO packages. When activated it will give you additional insight into your courses, including completion metrics and the latest learner activity.
Using filters you can view data for a specific course, user, or group. The email feature allows you to quickly send messages to the filtered users. You can even put the reports onto the front-end of your site using ProPanel shortcodes.
Table of Contents [show]1 Installation2 Dashboard & Widget Overview2.1 Overview Widget2.2 Activity Widget2.3 Reporting Widget2.3.1 Additional Options2.4 Chart Widget3 Front-end Shortcodes3.1 Optional Parameters4 Extending the Functionality5 Overriding ProPanel Templates6 FAQ & Troubleshooting6.1 Was this article helpful to you?
Installation

To Install ProPanel:

Go to PLUGINS > ADD NEW
Click UPLOAD PLUGIN
Browse for and select the file that you downloaded after purchase. It will be in a .zip format.
Click Install Now
Click Activate Plugin

NOTE
Remember to add your ProPanel license number under LEARNDASH LMS > SETTINGS > PROPANEL LICENSE
Dashboard & Widget Overview
By default, ProPanel will only be visible to Admins and Group Leaders.

Admins will see all data
Group Leaders will only see data relating to the groups that they manage
NOTE: This can be extended to other roles by enabling the “propanel_widgets” capability using a role editing plugin

ProPanel contains four reporting widgets located on the WordPress backend dashboard. These widgets come available when you install and activate ProPanel. You can adjust the position of the widgets by dragging and dropping them to your desired dashboard location.
If you do not want to display a particular widget, use the Screen Options tab (top right of the dashboard) to toggle visibility.
Overview Widget
Displays the number of students, courses, pending assignments, and pending essays (to be approved by admin or group leader). Each item is a clickable link that will let you view the selected section with more details.

Activity Widget
This widget displays real-time activity on your courses. Supported activities include course completion, lesson and topic completion, and quiz completion. Associated data such as timestamp, score, and steps will be displayed when applicable.
You can also export course and quiz reports via the buttons at the top of the widget. These reports will include the filtered data only.
Admins will be able to view all user activity while Group Leaders can only view activity of users who are in their group(s).
The number of items shown per page is dependent on the pagination in the ProPanel Reporting widget (see below for more information).

Reporting Widget
A widget that enables you to filter by course, user, and/or group. You can use any combination of these filters to narrow down your results. Below are some examples.
User Filter → Select a user → Select a progress status
This generates a list of courses in which that specific user is enrolled, along with progress statistics for those courses.
Course Filter → Select a course → Select a progress status
This generates a list of users enrolled in the selected course, along with progress statistics for each user.
Group Filter → Select a group → Select a progress status
This generates a list of users in the selected group, along with progress statistics for each user.

Additional Options

Email lets you communicate with the users selected in the Filters section.
Pagination will control the output of both lists in the Reporting widget as well as the Activity widget.
Full Page will take you to a full page view of the Reporting widget for a distraction-free and full-width environment.

Chart Widget
Once the ProPanel Reporting Widget is set to filter by group, course, or user, you will notice two charts appear.
On the left is the overall Progress Distribution chart. This will show user or course distribution between “Not started,” “In Progress,” and “Completed” course statuses.
On the right is a breakdown of all users or courses that are “In Progress” in the selected filter (In Progress Breakdown). By default, the in progress will be distributed in 20% increments (20, 40, 60, 80, and 100). These increments along with many other items can be changed using the filters discussed in the Developer section below.

Front-end Shortcodes
You can use ProPanel on the front-end of your website. This can be done in one of two ways:

Use the existing front-end template which can be accessed by appending /?ld_propanel to your URL. This is only visible to administrators or group leaders. You can also use the following shortcode on any page: [ld_propanel widget=”link”]
Create your own template using the ProPanel shortcodes. They can be used anywhere within the main content of a page or post, an HTML or Text widget, or a page builder. NOTE: This is for Classic Editor only.

When ProPanel is installed, the Shortcode Wizard will display a ProPanel menu item. Once selected, you will have the option to insert a link to the pre-built template or to insert the widget shortcodes.
ProPanel Shortcode Options
Optional Parameters

per_page: Can be used to limit the output. If not provided, the default Settings > Reading option will be used.
Example usage: [ld_propanel widget=”activity” per_page=”5″]

The next two parameters go together. They are not required. But if one is used, then the other is required:

filter_type: If provided, this needs to be ‘user’ or ‘course’. This is the same as the Filter Type dashboard filter.
Example usage: [ld_propanel widget=”activity” filter_type=”user”]
filter_id: This is the ID of the type being filtered. This is the same as the second selector on the filter widget. If filter_type is passed as ‘user,’ then this is the user ID to filter on. If filter_type is ‘course,’ then this is the Course ID to filter on.
Example usage: [ld_propanel widget=”activity” per_page=”5″ filter_type=”user” filter_id=”153″]

The following two elements let the administrator control the HTML output. This is helpful if you want to add custom CSS to the ProPanel widgets.

html_id: By default, the ID will be set to ‘learndash-propanel-shortcode-1a2b3c‘ with some unique hash appended to the end. This will change on each page reload. The first part is required. This parameter allows control over the later part of the element.
Example usage: To append an ID of wrapper to the end of the element → [ld_propanel_activity html_id=”wrapper”] The result will look like this:

html_class: This parameter works similarly to html_id except it will allow the addition of multiple classes to the same HTML wrapper element.
Example usage: To add classes of class1 and class2 to the wrapper → [ld_propanel_activity html_class=”class1 class2″] The result will look like this:

NOTE
The existing learndash-propanel-activity-shortcode and learndash-propanel-activity classes are added by ProPanel and cannot be removed.
Extending the Functionality
You have the ability to customize the existing Course and Quiz Reports. For example, you now have full control over the report columns (see this code snippet as an example).
Two filters are available to you:

To customize the filter chart data, use this snippet.
To include admin users in the reporting, use this snippet.

By default, Admins and Group Leaders have access to ProPanel. If you wish to extend this functionality to another user role, then you can do so by granting the ProPanel capability to the desired user role by leveraging a plugin like User Role Editor.
Overriding ProPanel Templates
If you wish to customize or change ProPanel then you will need to override the existing templates. The structure of ProPanel is as follows:

Within the plugin directory you will find a /templates folder. It is in this folder where you will find the files that can be changed or overridden.
To override one of these templates, it should to be copied to either a child or parent theme and placed into a directory /ld-propanel.
For example, if you want to override the Overview widget then the output for this is located in:/templates/ld-propanel-overview.php.
To override, copy that template file to the active theme directory into a folder ld-propanel/ld-propanel-overview.php and then make the needed changes. This will protect your change when upgrading ProPanel (but may not protect you from theme updates).
FAQ & Troubleshooting
I don’t have ProPanel. How can I purchase it?
ProPanel only comes with the Plus or Pro package. You can upgrade your account to either package by selecting the “Upgrades” link on your account.
I installed ProPanel, but I don’t see a menu item. Where is it?
ProPanel does not have a menu item. You will find ProPanel located on your admin dashboard, and you should see four new widgets.
My reporting widgets do not load any data. Why?
Make sure you are running the latest version of LearnDash. Then, go to LEARNDASH LMS > SETTINGS > UPGRADE DATA and upgrade both the Course and Quiz data.
When I attempt to export my data, nothing happens. Why can’t I export my course or quiz data?
Check with your hosting provider to see if object caching is enabled. If it is, request to have this disabled and the reports will generate.
My language has special characters that aren’t displaying properly on the report export, how can I fix this?
Enter this code snippet into your theme’s functions.php file.
Check out this webinar for an in-depth look and walk-through on ProPanel, its features, and how to use it.

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Technical Requirements

Technical Requirements

Before installing WordPress & LearnDash, you should first verify that your hosting environment is running the minimum recommended requirements, as defined by WordPress:

PHP version 7.4 or greater
MySQL version 5.6 or greater OR MariaDB version 10.1 or greater
HTTPS support
PHP memory limit of 128 MB or greater (LearnDash-only requirement)

Most of these values can be checked on your hosting provider’s end. You can directly ask your developer or contact your host to verify if they meet the minimum requirements. If your hosting provider doesn’t support these requirements, consider switching to one of our recommended hosting options.

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Course Builder

Course Builder

The LearnDash course builder provides an easy, intuitive way to build out your courses. You can add new sections, lessons, topics & quizzes without ever leaving the page. This article explains how to use every aspect of the course builder to make creating & editing courses a breeze.
NOTE
The course builder is enabled by default, but if you don’t see it when editing your course, double-check that it’s enabled in your global course settings.
Table of Contents [show]1 Access the Course Builder1.1 For Existing Courses1.2 Creating Your First Course?2 Course Builder Overview3 Add Content to Your Course3.1 Section Headings3.2 Lessons3.2.1 Create New Lessons3.2.2 Add Existing Lessons3.2.3 Edit a Lesson Title3.2.4 Edit a Lesson’s Content3.2.5 Remove a Lesson3.3 Topics3.3.1 Create New Topics3.3.2 Add Existing Topics3.3.3 Edit a Topic’s Title3.3.4 Edit a Topic’s Content3.3.5 Remove a Topic3.4 Quizzes3.4.1 Create New Quizzes3.4.2 Add Existing Quizzes3.4.3 Edit a Quiz Title3.4.4 Edit Quiz Settings & Questions3.4.5 Remove a Quiz4 Rearrange Course Content4.1 Drag & drop4.2 “Move” Arrows4.3 Was this article helpful to you?
Access the Course Builder
There are a few ways you can access the LearnDash course builder.
For Existing Courses
If you’ve already created a course:

Navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > COURSES
Hover over an existing course
Click the “Builder” link

Alternatively, you can click on the course title or “Edit” link to bring up the “Edit Course” page. Once there, click the “Builder” tab in the top navigation bar.

Creating Your First Course?

Navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > COURSES
Click the “Add New” button at the top of the page
Click the “Builder” tab in the top navigation bar

Course Builder Overview
At the top of the course builder, you’ll see:

The total number of steps in the course

This is comprised of all lessons, topics & and the final quiz that have been assigned to the course

An “Undo” link, after you’ve made your first edit
A link to “Expand All” or “Collapse All” course steps

This makes it easier to see all steps at once, and more quickly rearrange, add or remove course steps

Immediately following this, you’ll see all of your course content. This is where you’ll spend the majority of your time building out your course.

Add Content to Your Course
There are multiple ways to add content with the course builder. How you go about adding your content will depend on a few things:

what type of content you’re adding
personal preference

IMPORTANT
All new content created via the Course Builder (i.e. Lessons, Topics, and Quizzes) is automatically published and set to “Public” once the changes are saved for the course.
Section Headings
Section headings (requires LearnDash 3.0+) provide a simple way to break your course into sections. They don’t contain any actual content, and are simply a text-only heading that can be placed between any two lessons. They work in a similar fashion to chapters in a book.

Click on the lesson before where you want the section heading to appear
Click the “New Section Heading” link
Type your heading
Hit ENTER, or click the “Add Section Heading” button

To edit a section heading…

Click on its title
Make your edits
Press ENTER or click the “Save” button

To remove a section heading…

Hover over the section heading
Click the red “Remove” link

For the remainder of the content we’re going to discuss (lessons, topics & quizzes), you have two options:

create them first, one at a time, and then use the course builder to add them to your course, -or-
create them with the course builder, organize them within the course however you’d like, and then go back later to add content to them

This depends on your own personal preference and how you’ve chosen to develop your course content.
Lessons
Aside from section headings, lessons will likely be the first type of content you’ll want to add to your course. You can create brand new lessons directly from the course builder, or add existing lessons that you’ve already created. Let’s take a look at each.
Create New Lessons

Click the “New Lesson” link
Type the name of your lesson
Press ENTER, or click the “Add Lesson” button

Add Existing Lessons
Your existing lessons can be found in the “Lessons” box in the sidebar. By default, your most recent lessons are shown, but you can click “View all” to see all lessons, or use the search box to find a specific lesson by title.
IMPORTANT
Shared Course Steps must be enabled or existing lessons, topics, and quizzes will not be available for selection.
NOTE
If you don’t see the lessons box depicted below, click the icon to display the sidebar.

There are multiple ways to add existing lessons.
Add a single lesson: Hover over a lesson in the lesson box and click the “Add” button. This will add the lesson to the end of your course.

Add multiple lessons: Select the checkbox next to multiple lessons, and then click the “Add Selected” button. This will add all selected lessons to the end of your course.

Drag & drop: If you’d like to add lessons in a particular spot within your course, you can click & hold down your mouse, drag the lesson to the course builder in the spot you want it, and then release. This will place the lesson in your specified location within the course.

Edit a Lesson Title

Click on the title of the lesson
Make your edits
Hit ENTER or click the “Save” button

Edit a Lesson’s Content
If you’d like to edit the content within a lesson, you can click the blue “Edit” link that appears when you hover over a lesson.

NOTE
This will open the “Edit Lesson” page in the same window. Be sure to save any edits to your course first.
Remove a Lesson
Hover over the lesson you’d like to remove from the course, and click the red “Remove” link.
Topics
Topics are completely optional, but are great for breaking up content within a lesson. A course must contain at least one lesson in order to add a topic. Let’s walk through how to create new topics, as well as add existing ones, with the course builder.
Create New Topics

Make sure your course has at least one lesson. Follow the instructions above to add your first lesson.
You need to expand the lesson by either clicking “Expand all” at the top of the builder, or click the down arrow to the right of the lesson
Click the “New Topic” link
Type the name of your topic
Hit ENTER, or click the “Add Topic” button

Add Existing Topics
IMPORTANT
Shared Course Steps must be enabled or existing lessons, topics, and quizzes will not be available for selection.
Your existing topics can be found in the “Topics” box next to the course builder. By default, your most recent topics are shown, but you can click “View all” to see all topics, or use the search box to find a specific topic by title.

There are multiple ways to add existing topics.
NOTE
Before adding topics, you should click on the lesson where you want to insert a topic. This will select the lesson, highlighting it with a grey background & blue border.
Add a single topic: Hover over a topic in the topic box and click the “Add” button. This will add the topic to the end of whichever lesson you currently have selected.

Add multiple topics: Select the checkbox next to multiple topics, and then click the “Add Selected” button. This will add all selected topics to the end of your currently selected lesson.

Drag & drop: If you’d like to add topics in a particular spot within your course, you can click & hold down your mouse, drag the topic to the course builder in the spot you want it, and then release. This will place the topic in your specified location within the course.
Edit a Topic’s Title

Click on the title of the topic
Make your edits
Hit ENTER or click the “Save” button

Edit a Topic’s Content
If you’d like to edit the content within a topic, you can click the blue “Edit” link that appears when you hover over a topic.

NOTE
You can open this link in a new tab so you can easily return to the course builder without losing your place.
Remove a Topic
Hover over the topic you’d like to remove, and click the red “Remove” link.
Quizzes
Quizzes can be added to lessons & topics, or as a final quiz to the course itself. Any combination of these will work. You can create new quizzes directly from the course builder, or pull in existing quizzes you’ve already created.
Course quizzes are located at the bottom of the course builder, under the “FINAL QUIZZES” heading. Lesson & topic quizzes can be found within the lesson/topic that they belong to.
Create New Quizzes

Navigate to the lesson/topic where you want to add a quiz (or simply scroll to the “FINAL QUIZZES” section at the bottom)
Click the “New Quiz” link
Type the name of your quiz
Hit ENTER, or click the “Add Quiz” button

Add Existing Quizzes
IMPORTANT
Shared Course Steps must be enabled or existing lessons, topics, and quizzes will not be available for selection.
Your existing quizzes can be found in the “Quizzes” box in the sidebar. By default, your most recent quizzes are shown, but you can click “View all” to see all quizzes, or use the search box to find a specific quiz by title.
There are multiple ways to add existing quizzes.
Add a single quiz: Hover over a quiz in the quiz box and click the “Add” button.

Add multiple quizzes: Select the checkbox next to multiple quizzes, and then click the “Add Selected” button.

Drag & drop: If you’d like to add quizzes in a particular spot within your course, you can click & hold down your mouse, drag the quiz to the course builder in the spot you want it, and then release. This will place the quiz in your desired location within the course.
Edit a Quiz Title

Click on the title of the quiz
Make your edits
Hit ENTER or click the “Save” button

Edit Quiz Settings & Questions
If you’d like to edit the quiz settings and/or quiz questions, click the blue “Edit” link that appears when you hover over a quiz.

NOTE
You can open this link in a new tab so you can easily return to the course builder without losing your place.
Remove a Quiz
Hover over the quiz you’d like to remove, and click the red “Remove” link.
Rearrange Course Content
In addition to adding content, you can also use the course builder to rearrange lessons, topics & quizzes. There are two ways to move content around.
Drag & drop
Immediately before each section heading, lesson, topic & quiz, you’ll find an icon with 6 dots. When you hover over this icon, your cursor will turn into a hand. This means you can click, hold down, and drag that piece of content to another place within your course.

“Move” Arrows
Also located before each section heading & lesson, you’ll find up and down arrows above and below the drag & drop icon. Clicking these arrows will move the content either up or down.
NOTE
At this time, the move arrows are only available for section headings & lessons, not topics or quizzes.

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General Settings

General Settings

The General tab contains the majority of LearnDash’s global settings. It is organized into the following sections.
Table of Contents [show]1 Design & Content Elements1.1 Active Template1.1.1 LearnDash Legacy1.1.2 LearnDash 3.01.2 Colors1.3 Focus Mode1.3.1 Focus Mode Content Width1.4 Login & Registration1.5 Logo Upload1.6 Video Responsive CSS2 Admin User Settings3 Global Pagination Settings4 REST API Settings4.1 Was this article helpful to you?
Design & Content Elements
NOTE
This group of settings was introduced in LearnDash 3.0.

Active Template
The active template determines how your LearnDash elements (courses, lessons, topics, quizzes, etc.) will appear to users. While your WordPress theme still controls the look & feel of your site as a whole (header, footer, pages, blog posts, etc.), this setting controls the design & layout of your course elements. There are currently two options:

Legacy: The original LearnDash design used on all versions of LearnDash up to & including version 2.6 (essentially, everything before 3.0). If you were using a LearnDash version prior to 3.0, you can safely upgrade to LearnDash 3.0 and you’ll remain on the Legacy theme.
LearnDash 3.0: An updated design released with version 3.0 of LearnDash, which includes new login & registration features, along with a focus mode for distraction-free learning. Enabled by default on all new LearnDash installations of version 3.0 or higher.

THEME/PLUGIN ISSUES
If you’re using the LearnDash 3.0 template and having issues with a LearnDash-optimized theme or plugin, please contact the theme/plugin developer, and ask if they support the new LearnDash templates.
WARNING
If you’ve customized the legacy LearnDash template files in your theme, switching to the LearnDash 3.0 template could cause those customizations not to appear.
LearnDash Legacy
If you were using LearnDash prior to version 3.0, LearnDash Legacy is the design your site was using. When you upgrade to version 3.0, this will continue to be your default design.
Upgrading to LearnDash 3.0 will not automatically change your active template.
The LearnDash Legacy template uses the original version of the LearnDash template files. Some new features, such as Focus Mode & Login/Registration, will not work with the legacy template. You’ll need to switch to the LearnDash 3.0 template to use these features.
We recommend new LearnDash customers utilize the LearnDash 3.0 template, but there are a few reasons why existing users might want to continue using LearnDash Legacy:

You’ve made your own customizations to the LearnDash template files
You’ve written custom CSS to change the appearance of LearnDash elements on your site
You’re using a plugin that modifies the design of LearnDash, and has not yet implemented compatibility with the LearnDash 3.0 template (ex: Design Upgrade, Visual Customizer, Social Learner, etc.)

Even if you’ve started using LearnDash at version 3.0 or higher, you may still use the LearnDash Legacy template, but it is not recommended, as new features will not become available to you.
LearnDash 3.0
The LearnDash 3.0 template introduces new features, as well as a brand new design for all your course, lesson, topic & quiz pages.
Once enabled, a new group of settings will appear below the dropdown menu.
NOTE
These additional settings are only available when using the LearnDash 3.0 template.
Colors
You can customize the colors of three main types of elements within LearnDash:

Accent Color: The main color used throughout the theme (buttons, action items, and other callouts.
Progress Color: The color used for all successful progress-related items (completed items, certificates, and progress bars).
Notifications, Warnings, etc.: The color used for warnings and other important messages.

Focus Mode

Focus Mode is a feature available in LearnDash 3.0 that enables a distraction-free learning experience when viewing lessons, topics & quizzes.
Focus Mode Content Width

When Focus Mode is enabled you can further customize the content delivery experience by setting the width of the content container. This refers to the width of the actual lesson content and not the width of Focus Mode itself, which will still take up the full screen.
The options include:

Default (960px) – Recommended
Narrow (768px)
Wide (1180px)
Extra-wide (1600px)
Full-width

For a detailed walkthrough of this feature, and how to set it up, please see our Focus Mode article.
Login & Registration

When the Login & Registration setting is enabled, LearnDash will use a customized registration process.
For a detailed walkthrough of this feature, and how to set it up, please see our login & registration article.
Logo Upload
Uploading a logo is optional, but if you’re using either of the Focus Mode or Login & Registration features, we recommend you upload a logo. This will be used in the following places:

Focus Mode: When Focus Mode is enabled, this logo will appear in the top corner of the header bar, above the course navigation.

Login & Registration: When using LearnDash’s Login & Registration, this logo will appear at the bottom of the login form, just below the “Login” button.

Video Responsive CSS
When enabled, this setting will make videos using the Video Progression feature responsive to the screen size they are playing on.
If you notice video display issues then disable this setting because it means that your WordPress theme has a built-in feature that makes your videos responsive.
Admin User Settings

The admin user settings determine how your site administrators will be treated as they navigate through a course. These settings will apply to all users who have been assigned the Administrator role.

Course Auto-Enrollment: Enable this setting to give administrators access to all courses automatically. If you’d prefer to require administrators to enroll (just like everyone else on your site), turn this setting off.
Bypass Course Limits: Enable this setting to allow administrators to access course content in any order, and bypass all progression and/or access limitations that you may have set for the course. Turn this setting off to force administrators to navigate course content exactly how you’ve set it up.
Include in Reports: Enable this setting to include course activity by administrators in all LearnDash reporting, including ProPanel. Turn this setting off to exclude administrator activity in reports.

Global Pagination Settings

Whenever you list out all of your courses, lessons, topics and/or quizzes, you can control how many are displayed on the page at a time. Your global pagination settings control this output, which affects all LearnDash shortcodes & widgets, as well as the main content table listed on the course page.
If you have more items than the number you enter here, pagination will be displayed at the bottom of the list.
NOTE
By default, everything in this section defaults to 20 items per page. You can change it to any number you’d like, or enter 0 to disable pagination and show all items.

WP Profile: This setting will become the default for all courses, shortcodes & widgets. If you’d like to change this on a course-by-course basis, you can override it in the course display settings.

The following per page settings apply to user profiles in the WordPress admin area (USERS > ALL USERS, click on “Edit”), as well as LearnDash widgets that display course & quiz information.

Course progress per page: Under Course Info, look for the section called “Course progress details:”. This controls the number of courses displayed at a time.
Quizzes per page: Under Course Info, look for the section called “You have taken the following quizzes:”. This controls the number of quizzes displayed at a time.

The following setting applies when editing a quiz.

Backend Question Widget: This setting determines how many questions are displayed in the metabox on the quiz edit screen. As long as you’re using the quiz builder, this setting will not matter, and can just be left at the default value.

The following applies to shortcodes and widgets:

Shortcodes & Widgets: This setting determines how many of a specific type of information is displayed at a time on widgets and shortcodes, including the courseinfo  widget. This setting can be individually overridden by adding attributes to specific shortcodes.

REST API Settings

The REST API is mainly for developers. If you don’t know what the REST API is, you can leave these settings at their default values.

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PayPal Settings

PayPal Settings

LearnDash comes with built-in support for accepting payments via PayPal. No additional plugins or add-ons are needed, although there are some required settings that you must fill out before you can sell your courses with PayPal.
Along with our Stripe integration, this is one of the simplest ways to start selling your LearnDash courses.
You will need to register for a free PayPal account before you can accept payments, and your account must be verified (read about verified accounts).
NOTE
LearnDash currently supports PayPal Payments Standard only.
Table of Contents [show]1 Should You Use PayPal?2 Walkthrough Video3 Sign Up for a PayPal Account4 PayPal Settings4.1 PayPal Email4.2 PayPal Currency4.3 PayPal Country4.4 PayPal Cancel URL4.5 PayPal Return4.6 PayPal Notify URL4.7 Use PayPal Sandbox5 Course Configuration6 The User Experience7 FAQ8 Troubleshooting8.1 Was this article helpful to you?
Should You Use PayPal?
You should consider using PayPal to accept payments if:
✅ you’re looking for a quick & easy way to start selling courses
✅ you offer one course, or only a few courses, with a simple payment structure
You might not want to use PayPal if:
❌ you want to customize the user’s checkout experience
❌ you are creating a fully functional membership site
❌ you’re selling other products in addition to courses
❌ you want to closely manage the account creation & login process
If you’re looking for more robust member management, a customizable checkout experience or integrations with other WordPress plugins or services, check out our ecommerce & membership add-ons.
Walkthrough Video

Sign Up for a PayPal Account

Navigate to paypal.com and follow the instructions for registering a new account

BUSINESS OR PERSONAL?
We highly recommend setting up a business account. You can read about the difference in PayPal’s docs.
Once you’ve set up & verified your PayPal account, continue reading for instructions on configuring your PayPal settings.
PayPal Settings

Your PayPal settings must be filled in before you can accept payments.

In your WordPress admin area, navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > SETTINGS
Click on the PayPal Settings tab

Now let’s go through each option:
PayPal Email
This is the email address that you used to set up your PayPal account.
IMPORTANT
Seller Email (what is entered as PayPal Email in the PayPal settings on the website) and Receiver Email (the primary email of the PayPal account) have to be identical.
PayPal Currency
This is a three-letter code that corresponds to the country in which you reside.
Common currency codes include:

USD for United States Dollar
CAD for Canadian Dollar
AUD for Australian Dollar

See a list of PayPal currency codes here.
PayPal Country
This is a two-letter code that corresponds to the country in which you reside.
Common country codes include:

US for United States
CA for Canada
AU for Australia

See a list of PayPal country codes here.
PayPal Cancel URL
This is where a user will be redirected if they cancel their payment, or the payment fails.
You could create a custom page with your support or contact information, or simply send the user back to your homepage.
Enter the full URL, beginning with https://.
PayPal Return
This is where a user will be redirected after a successful payment is made.
We recommend creating a custom “thank you” or “next steps” page, or sending them to a login or account page.
Enter the full URL, beginning with https://.
IMPORTANT
Please make sure your PayPal account has automatic redirects enabled. Otherwise you will be forced to click “Return to Merchant” each time and if you do not the enrollment will not be completed properly.
PayPal Notify URL
This URL should be pre-populated for you, and should not be changed. It is required for LearnDash to communicate with PayPal.
If this option is blank, you should add the following URL, replacing “yoursite.com” with your real domain name.
https://yoursite.com/sfwd-lms/paypal
Use PayPal Sandbox
If your site is still in development, and you want to test a PayPal payment, you can set up a Sandbox account with PayPal.
Check this box to enable Sandbox mode. Be sure to uncheck it, and save your settings, once you go live.
Course Configuration
After you’ve configured your PayPal settings, the final thing you need to do is set up a course to accept payments.

In the WordPress admin area, navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > COURSES
Click on the course you’d like to sell with PayPal
Click on Settings at the top
Scroll down to Course Access Settings
Set the “Access Mode” to one of two values:

Buy Now: Use “Buy Now” for one-time payments
Recurring: Use “Recurring” if you’d like to set up a recurring payment (aka: subscription)

And finally, enter your price in the Course Price field. Ex: 29.99

The currency symbol will be added automatically for you
If your price is an even dollar amount, you may omit the decimal point & cents (ex: 29)

For recurring payments, you need to include the “Billing Cycle” in days, weeks, months or years.

The User Experience
When users visit your course page, they will see a “Take this Course” button (this language can be customized using custom labels). When a user clicks this button, they will be sent to PayPal.com where they can choose their payment method and complete their purchase. The transaction will take place on PayPal’s website.
Users may choose any of the following PayPal payment methods:

Credit Card
Debit Card
Linked Bank Account
PayPal Balance

After payment is complete, the user will be redirected to whatever URL you entered in your PayPal Return settings above. A new user account is automatically created, and that user is enrolled into the course they just purchased.
FAQ
Can I use both PayPal AND Stripe?
Yes. You will need to install the Stripe integration & configure your settings (instructions here). Once you’ve configured both payment methods, users will be presented with two options when they click the “Take this Course” button. It will look like this:
(design may vary based on your theme)

When will I receive my money?
You need to manually withdraw your money from PayPal. Learn more about PayPal’s options for transferring money to your bank.
Can I set up recurring payments (aka: subscriptions)?
Yes. In the course settings, just set your “Access Mode” to “Recurring,” and choose a billing cycle.
Can I offer coupons or discounts?
No. The LearnDash PayPal integration does not allow you to offer discounts. Consider using one of our other ecommerce or membership add-ons.
Troubleshooting
Verify the “Return URL” is reachable.
Please copy the Return URL and paste it into a browser. The page should load but produce blank output. If it returns any HTTP 404/403 error it generally means the rewrite rules need to be flushed. Please go to Settings > Permalinks > Save Changes. If that doesn’t work please see other troubleshooting tips below.

Paid users are not automatically enrolled in the course.
Please make sure:

You have verified your PayPal account.
Your email address in PayPal Account matches the one in LearnDash PayPal Settings
You have cURL enabled on your website server
IPN simulator doesn’t return any errors
Currency is entered correctly
Country Code is entered correctly

Error: “Path to the CA certificates not set. Please add it to curl.cainfo in the php.ini file. Otherwise, PayPal may not work.”
This error is related to the way in which your SSL certificate was installed. Please contact your hosting provider and send them a copy of the error message.
IPN Simulator returns Payment Status: Pending Completed?:NO
If PayPal returns that the payment status as pending, processing is aborted. Please verify that your account is setup to accept payments without having to approve them manually.
Running the PayPal Notify URL through the PayPal IPN Simulator returns an error.
This means that the PayPal server and your server are not communicating properly. Please contact your host and to get help figuring out why the request is not going through.
“IPN was not sent, and the handshake was not verified. Review your information.”
This means that the PayPal server and your server are not communicating properly. Please contact your host and to get help figuring out why the request is not going through.

My “Take this Course” button is missing.
By default, all site administrators are automatically enrolled in all courses, so they will not see the “Take this Course” button. You can either log out of your account and refresh the page, or view your course page in a private browsing window (or a completely different browser).

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Permalinks (URLs)

Permalinks (URLs)

Permalinks determine how WordPress choses the URLs to use for different types of content on your site. LearnDash provides additional permalink settings to let you customize how your URLs are structured for courses, lessons, topics & quizzes.
If you’re using custom labels, we recommend you update your LearnDash permalink settings to match your labels.
WARNING
If you’re going to customize your LearnDash permalinks, we recommend you do it only once, at the beginning of your setup. Changing your permalinks multiple times, or after you’ve already created a bunch of content, could lead to broken links & 404 errors.
Table of Contents [show]1 Default Permalinks2 Custom Permalinks2.1 Category & Tag Permalinks3 Nested URLs3.1 Shortening Nested URLs3.1.1 How WordPress URLs work3.1.2 How Nested URLs Work3.1.3 Custom Rewrite Rules3.2 Was this article helpful to you?
Default Permalinks
By default, your LearnDash content will use the following URLs:

Courses: https://yoursite.com/courses/course-name/
Lessons: https://yoursite.com/lessons/lesson-name/
Topics: https://yoursite.com/topic/topic-name/
Quizzes: https://yoursite.com/quizzes/quiz-name/

Custom Permalinks
You can customize the part of the URL that immediately follows https://yoursite.com/.
Let’s say you’re using the following custom labels:

Courses → Tracks
Lessons → Modules
Topics → Lessons
Quizzes → Tests

Let’s also assume you want to use the singular version of each custom label in your URL. For example, instead of yoursite.com/tracks/track-name/, you want yoursite.com/track/track-name/. Here’s how you’d set this up in the permalink settings.

In the WordPress admin area, navigate to SETTINGS > PERMALINKS
Scroll down to LearnDash Permalinks
Update the text in each of the first 4 fields to your desired URL structure
Click Save Changes at the bottom

Category & Tag Permalinks
If you’re using categories and/or tags for your courses, lessons or topics, you can change those permalinks as well.

Stay on the same page, SETTINGS > PERMALINKS
Scroll down to LearnDash Taxonomy Permalinks
Update the text in each field to your desired URL structure
Click Save Changes at the bottom

Nested URLs
Nested URLs will restructure lesson, topic & quiz URLs so they are nested hierarchically within the course URL.
Here’s the default topic URL (with nested URLs turned OFF):
https://yoursite.com/topic/topic-name/
With nested URLs turned ON, the URL becomes:
https://yoursite.com/courses/course-name/lessons/lesson-name/topic/topic-name/
NOTE
If Shared Course Steps is enabled in Course Settings, nested URLs is required and will be automatically enabled.
Shortening Nested URLs
NOTE
The following information gets a little technical.
How WordPress URLs work
Let’s review how WordPress handles rewrite rules for custom post types.
When registering a custom post type—like LearnDash does for courses, lessons, topics & quizzes—WordPress will create a rewrite rule for the custom post type with a URL structure using both the post type slug & post slug pair. A rewrite rule is how WordPress handles URL requests from the browser and matches them to the correct page. This results in default URLs that look like this:

Courses: https://yoursite.com/courses/course-name/
Lessons: https://yoursite.com/lessons/lesson-name/
Topics: https://yoursite.com/topic/topic-name/
Quizzes: https://yoursite.com/quizzes/quiz-name/

When a browser makes a request to the URL https://yoursite.com/lessons/lesson-name/, WordPress will parse this URL and match it against the rewrite rules and determine the user is requesting a lesson post type and not a course, post, page, etc. This works the same with taxonomies where WordPress creates a similar pattern:

Category: https://yoursite.com/category-slug/category-name/
Tag: https://yoursite.com/tag-slug/tag-name/

The reason WordPress uses this ‘paired’ post type slug + post slug logic is because post slugs are not unique across all post types. In other words, you are allowed to have both a lesson and a topic with the same slug.
If post slugs were global, then you wouldn’t need the post type slug part of the URL and could just use:

Lesson: https://yoursite.com/lesson-name/
Topic: https://yoursite.com/topic-name/

WordPress posts and pages are the exception to this ‘paired’ logic. You will notice that page URLs do not have the /page/ prefix. These built-in post types were in place long before WordPress added the changes to support custom post types, so the rewrite logic is handled differently.
How Nested URLs Work
When enabling the Nested URLs feature in LearnDash, we had to keep this post type slug + post slug ‘paired’ logic. This is why the URL for a topic becomes:
https://yoursite.com/courses/course-name/lessons/lesson-name/topic/topic-name/
The solution used by LearnDash for Nested URLs is one we consider will work across all customer sites. By using the post type slug + post slug ‘paired’ logic, and following recommended WordPress guidelines, we can always match the course elements during a URL request.
Custom Rewrite Rules
It is still possible to create your own custom rewrite rules using standard WordPress hooks. You would hook into the generate_rewrite_rules action (documentation). This hook lets you add your own custom rewrite pattern to replace or supersede the default rules.
For example, you could add a pattern to create shortened topic URLs by removing the lesson and topic post type slugs, resulting in this:
https://yoursite.com/courses/course-name/lesson-name/topic-name/
This assumes a lesson will ALWAYS follow a course post slug (and it does) and a topic will ALWAYS follow a lesson post slug (and it does). You could still encounter a problem with quizzes, since a quiz can be standalone or attached to the end of a course, lesson or topic.

Standalone Quiz: https://yoursite.com/quizzes/quiz-name/
Course Quiz: https://yoursite.com/courses/course-name/quiz-name/
Lesson Quiz: https://yoursite.com/courses/course-name/lesson-name/quiz-name/
Topic Quiz: https://yoursite.com/courses/course-name/lesson-name/topic-name/quiz-name/

Since WordPress does not consider post slugs to be unique across all post types, there is no way to formulate a rewrite rule pattern to pick out the quiz in the URL without the post type slug ‘paired’ logic.

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LearnDash Login & Registration

LearnDash Login & Registration

NOTE
This feature was introduced in LearnDash 3.0 and works with the LearnDash 3.0 template. This feature does not work with the Legacy template.
There are many ways to handle an existing user’s login & new user’s registration process. LearnDash has always provided great flexibility for you to choose how to handle this. As of version 3.0, we now have our own built-in login & registration process. You no longer need a third-party plugin to create a seamless login and/or registration process for your users.

Table of Contents [show]1 Walkthrough Video2 Enable LearnDash Login & Registration3 Upload a Login Logo4 How It Works4.1 Logged In Users4.2 “Open” & “Closed” Courses4.3 “Free” Courses4.4 “Buy Now” & “Recurring” Courses4.5 Shortcode Option4.5.1 Using The Shortcode as a Menu Item5 Setting Up WordPress User Registration6 FAQ & Troubleshooting6.1 Was this article helpful to you?
Walkthrough Video

Enable LearnDash Login & Registration
There are four important steps in order to enable LearnDash login & registration:

You must be using LearnDash 3.0 or higher
You must select “LearnDash 3.0” as your active template
You need to enable the Login & Registration option in the LearnDash general settings
IMPORTANT: You need to enable registration for your WordPress site by selecting the Anyone can register checkbox located under SETTINGS > GENERAL (only necessary if you want to allow registration)

Upload a Login Logo
While not required, we recommend uploading a logo to use on the login screen. This logo will appear below the login form. To upload a logo:

Navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > SETTINGS
In the Design & Content Elements section, look for Logo Upload
Click the Select image button
Choose an image from your Media Library, or upload a new one
Click Use this image at the bottom
Be sure to save your changes

You can remove your image by clicking the X, or upload a new one by repeating the steps above.

How It Works
The native LearnDash login & registration works in a few different ways, depending on the following:

Whether or not the user is currently logged in
The access mode assigned to the course

NOTE
LearnDash login & registration does not affect the default WordPress login page located at yoursite.com/wp-login.php. You can still use a third-party plugin to customize the default WordPress login page, and users can still login that way.
Logged In Users
Logged in users will never see a login link because they are already logged in.

If the user has access to the course, they’ll see a progress bar at the top of the page, and be able to navigate through the course steps
If the user is logged in but does not have access to the course, they’ll see the “Take this Course” button

“Open” & “Closed” Courses
These course access modes will never show a login link, and thus will never use this feature.

Open courses are available to everyone, even those not logged in. Since it is not necessary to login to view these courses, no login link is shown.
Closed courses are most commonly used for integrating with a third-party ecommerce or membership plugin. Login & course access is usually handled via the third-party plugin.

“Free” Courses
Visitors viewing a course with access mode set to “Free” will see a Login to Enroll button. Upon clicking this button, a registration form will appear for the user to sign up for an account to gain access to the course (or login if they already have an account).

“Buy Now” & “Recurring” Courses
Visitors viewing a course with access mode set to “Buy Now” or “Recurring” will see a login link in the “Take this Course” section. If the user has already purchased & enrolled into the course, they can use the “Login” link to open the registration form & sign into their account. If not, they can click the “Take this Course” button to pay via your configured payment gateway (Stripe, PayPal or 2Checkout) or use our optional new registration flow.
Introduced in LearnDash 3.6, the new registration flow for the native LearnDash registration page acts like traditional eCommerce platforms with a registration and checkout page. They may also register using this new method without purchasing a course.
This new registration flow no longer asks the users to set their password separately from an email after purchasing a course. Once the registration process is done, they will be redirected to a specific page based on the following rules:

If the per course redirect is set the user will be redirected to the specified redirect URL.
If it is not set they will be redirected to the option in the payment gateway settings (per the payment gateway).
If that isn’t set we use the registration success option from the new registration tab.

Check out our detailed article here regarding the Registration Tab.

Shortcode Option
If you would like to use the log-in modal pop-up somewhere other than a course page, then you can do so by using the following shortcode:
[learndash_login]
You can place this shortcode onto a regular WordPress page, post, widget (for the sidebar), and it will display a Login link for visitors, and a Logout link for anyone who is logged-in.
When a visitor clicks on the Login link, the LearnDash login & registration modal will appear.
Using The Shortcode as a Menu Item
If you want to add the Login & Registration modal as a WordPress menu item then it is possible by adding a custom link to your menu.

Navigate to APPEARANCE > MENUS
Select the desired menu location
At the top right of the screen, select the Screen Options tab
Select all options under Show advanced menu properties

Under the Add menu items section, select Custom Links 
— In the URL field, add #login
— In the Link Text field, add “Login”
NOTE: The Link Text is not what will be shown in the menu. That will be configured in Step #7.

Click Add to Menu 
Expand the new menu item and add the following:
— In the CSS Classes (optional) field, add ld-button
— In the Description field, add [learndash_login login_label=”Login” logout_label=”Logout”]

Click Save Menu

Setting Up WordPress User Registration
In this webinar we will show you how to easily configure a better experience for your students. Whether you are using LearnDash or not, these tips will help you get your WordPress user registration just right!

If you are looking into customizing your User Registration process even further (i.e. making it more aesthetically pleasing, leveraging sign-ups for success, and even going as far as changing and updating your email notification options) here is a follow-up webinar that talks about Advanced User Registration with LearnDash.

FAQ & Troubleshooting
The login form is visible but the option to register is not available.
Follow the instructions in this FAQ to enable registration for your WordPress site.
Can I allow users to create a password at registration?
The registration fields are WordPress defaults and can be modified with code or a plugin.
Can I create a completely custom registration form with unique fields?
Only default WordPress supported fields are supported. If you need a completely custom registration form then you will need to use Gravity Forms.

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2Checkout Integration

2Checkout Integration

The LearnDash 2Checkout integration is one of several options for selling your courses. If you already have a 2Checkout account, or you like what their payment gateway has to offer, you can use this integration to sell courses on your LearnDash site.
NOTE
You will need to register for a free 2Checkout account before you can use this integration.
The 2Checkout integration will allow you to sell courses, but it doesn’t come with a lot of flexibility. If you’re looking for more robust member management, a customizable checkout experience or integrations with other WordPress plugins or services, check out our ecommerce & membership add-ons.
For other simple ways to accept payments, consider our built-in PayPal integration or the free Stripe add-on.
Table of Contents [show]1 Who Should Use the 2Checkout Integration?2 Sign Up for a 2Checkout Account3 Install the 2Checkout Integration4 2Checkout Settings4.1 Enable Instant Notification System (INS)4.2 Merchant Code4.3 INS Secret Word4.4 Approved URL (Header Redirect)4.5 Demo Mode5 Course Configuration6 The User Experience7 FAQ7.1 Was this article helpful to you?
Who Should Use the 2Checkout Integration?
You should consider using the 2Checkout integration if:
✅ you’re looking for a quick & easy way to start selling courses
✅ you want to use the 2Checkout payment gateway
You might not want to use the 2Checkout integration if:
❌ you want to customize the user’s checkout experience
❌ you are creating a fully functional membership site
❌ you’re selling other products in addition to courses
❌ you want to closely manage the account creation & login process
Sign Up for a 2Checkout Account

Navigate to 2checkout.com and follow the instructions for registering a new account
Once your account is set up, you can navigate to secure.2checkout.com to access your account settings, as well as the information you’ll need to set up the LearnDash integration

Install the 2Checkout Integration
Option 1: Add-ons Menu (requires an active LearnDash license)

In your WordPress admin area, navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > ADD-ONS
Locate the 2Checkout for LearnDash add-on
Click Install Now
Click the Activate Plugin button

Option 2: Manual Upload

Download the plugin file (must be logged in to download)
In WordPress, navigate to PLUGINS > ADD NEW
Click Upload Plugin
Browse for the .zip file you downloaded in Step 1
Click Install Now
Click Activate Plugin

2Checkout Settings
To finish setting up the integration, there are a few pieces of information you’ll need to provide to LearnDash. Let’s walk through each one, and show you where to find the information in your 2Checkout account.
All the information you need can be found in your 2Checkout Dashboard.
Enable Instant Notification System (INS)

In 2Checkout, navigate to Integrations > Webhooks & API
Scroll to the Instant Notification System (INS) section
Check the box to enable INS
Click Update

Merchant Code
To locate your merchant code in 2Checkout:

Still on the Integrations > Webhooks & API page
Under the API section, you’ll find your Merchant Code

INS Secret Word
To locate your INS secret word in 2Checkout:

Still on the Integrations > Webhooks & API page
Under the Secret Word section, you’ll find your INS secret word

Now you’ll switch over to your WordPress admin area to enter the information.

Navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > SETTINGS
Click the 2Checkout Settings tab at the top
Enter your merchant code & INS secret word from above

Approved URL (Header Redirect)
This one is a little different. You actually have to provide the approved URL to 2Checkout.

Copy the URL that is displayed in the box
Navigate your 2Checkout Dashboard
Go to the Integrations > Webhooks & API page
Find the Redirect URL section
Check the box to Enable return after sale
Paste the URL in the Approved URL box
In the Return Method dropdown, choose Header redirect
Click Update

Demo Mode
Enable demo mode if you’d like to perform a test transaction, without any money exchanging hands.
After you’ve confirmed everything is working properly, you’ll want to disable this to begin receiving actual payments on your live site.
Course Configuration
After you’ve configured your 2Checkout for LearnDash settings, the final thing you need to do is set up your course to accept payments.

In the WordPress admin area, navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > COURSES
Click on the course you’d like to sell with 2Checkout
Click on Settings at the top
Scroll down to Course Access Settings
Set the “Access Mode” to one of two values:

Buy Now: Use “Buy Now” for one-time payments
Recurring: Use “Recurring” if you’d like to set up a recurring payment (aka: subscription)

And finally, enter your price in the Course Price field. Ex: 29.99

The currency symbol will be added automatically for you
If your price is an even dollar amount, you may omit the decimal point & cents (ex: 29)

For recurring payments, you need to include the “Billing Cycle” in days, weeks, months or years.

The User Experience
Now when a user navigates to your course page, and they click the “Take this Course” button, they will be redirected to 2Checkout to complete their purchase.
After payment is complete, a new user account is automatically created, and that user is enrolled into the course they just purchased.
FAQ
Does 2Checkout support payments in my country?
Please reference 2Checkout’s list of supported countries.
How do I issue refunds and/or cancel subscriptions for my customers?
Issuing refunds and canceling subscriptions is done from your 2Checkout account, not from LearnDash or this add-on.
Are users automatically removed from a course if they are issued a refund?
No. You can remove the course access from their profile.

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bbPress Integration

bbPress Integration

The LearnDash bbPress integration creates the ability for you to link bbPress forums to LearnDash courses. When you associate a forum with a course, any student who has access to that course will be able to post in the corresponding forum. There are a few options which we’ll discuss below.
NOTE
You need to have both the LearnDash and bbPress plugins installed & activated before you can activate the “bbPress for LearnDash” plugin.
Table of Contents [show]1 Installation2 How it Works2.1 Create a Forum2.2 Associate Forums with Courses2.3 Additional Options2.3.1 Post Limit Access2.3.2 Message Shown to Users with No Access2.3.3 Forum View3 Course Forum Widget3.1 Add a Course Forum Widget3.2 Was this article helpful to you?
Installation
Option 1: Add-ons Menu (requires an active LearnDash license)

In your WordPress admin area, navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > ADD-ONS
Locate the bbPress for LearnDash add-on
Click Install Now
Click the Activate Plugin button

Option 2: Manual Upload

Download the plugin file (must be logged in to download)
In WordPress, navigate to PLUGINS > ADD NEW
Click Upload Plugin
Browse for the .zip file you downloaded in Step 1
Click Install Now
Click Activate Plugin

How it Works
Before you can associate a forum with a course, you’ll need to create a new forum in bbPress. If you’ve already done this, you can skip this step.
We’re also assuming you have already created a LearnDash course. You will need at least one course to set up this integration.
Create a Forum

Navigate to FORUMS > NEW FORUM
Give your forum a title
(optional) Write an intro message & adjust the forum attributes (type, status, visibility, etc.)

Associate Forums with Courses
Now it’s time to associate a forum with a course.

On the Edit Forum page, scroll down to the LearnDash bbPress Settings box
Under Associated Course(s), click on a course to associate it with that forum
NOTE: You may select one or more courses. Hold down the CTRL key (CMD on Mac) to select multiple courses.
If you select multiple courses by mistake, you can use the “Clear All” button to start over

Once you’ve selected a course (or courses), be sure to publish or update your forum.
Now any user who has access to that course will also have access to the forum. If a user is not part of the course, they will not be allowed to view or post in the forum.
That’s all that’s needed to set up the integration, however, let’s take a look at a few additional options.
Additional Options
Post Limit Access
This only applies if you’ve associated more than one course with the forum. There are two ways you can decide who has access to the forum:

All (default): Users must have access to all selected courses in order to post in the forum
Any: Users only need to have access to one of the selected courses in order to post in the forum

Message Shown to Users with No Access
This is where you can customize the message shown to users who do not have access to the forum. By default, the message reads:
This forum is restricted to members of the associated course(s).
You can customize this message to include a link to purchase the course, or any other message you’d like. Basic HTML is supported.
Forum View
If you’d like for non-enrolled users to view forum threads & topics, but not be able to post replies, check this box.
Enabling this option will disregard the message above. Non-enrolled users will see the forum and all of it’s topics, but will not be able to post or reply.
Course Forum Widget
The bbPress LearnDash integration also adds a Course Forum widget that you can use in any sidebar.

The widget will automatically detect which course is currently being viewed, and display a link to the associated forum for that course.

A forum link is also displayed when viewing any lesson, topic or quiz within the associated course
If no forum has been associated with the course, no link will be displayed

Add a Course Forum Widget

Navigate to APPEARANCE > WIDGETS, or click on the Widgets panel in the WordPress Customizer
Add the Course Forum widget to any sidebar location
(optional) Give the widget a title
Click the Save button

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Easy Digital Downloads Integration

Easy Digital Downloads Integration

The LearnDash Easy Digital Downloads integration creates the ability for you to sell your courses using the Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) ecommerce plugin. The integration works with the free version of EDD, but some payment gateways require paid extensions.
Easy Digital Downloads is not required to sell LearnDash courses, but is one of several ecommerce integrations we offer to provide a more robust ecommerce & checkout experience for your users.
NOTE
Both the LearnDash and EDD plugins need to be installed & activated to use the “EDD for LearnDash” plugin.
Table of Contents [show]1 Why Use Easy Digital Downloads?2 Installation3 How it Works3.1 Create a Product3.2 Link a Course to an EDD Product4 FAQ & Troubleshooting5 Additional Resources5.1 Was this article helpful to you?
Why Use Easy Digital Downloads?
A few reasons why you might want to use EDD to sell your courses:
✅ Use additional payment gateways not directly supported by LearnDash (anything other than PayPal, Stripe & 2Checkout)
✅ Offer coupons or discount codes
✅ Sell courses in a bundle (i.e. one price provides access to multiple courses)
✅ Sell access to courses as an ongoing subscription
✅ You want to control the emails sent to course enrollees
Learn more about all of EDD’s features »
Installation
Option 1: Add-ons Menu (requires an active LearnDash license)

In your WordPress admin area, navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > ADD-ONS
Locate the EDD for LearnDash add-on
Click Install Now
Click the Activate Plugin button

Option 2: Manual Upload

Download the plugin file (must be logged in to download)
In WordPress, navigate to PLUGINS > ADD NEW
Click Upload Plugin
Browse for the .zip file you downloaded in Step 1
Click Install Now
Click Activate Plugin

How it Works
Before you can sell a LearnDash course with EDD, you need to:

create a LearnDash course
create a product in EDD

We’ll assume you have already created a LearnDash course.
Create a Product
EDD calls their products “downloads,” so you can think of downloads & products synonymously.

Navigate to DOWNLOADS > ADD NEW
Fill out any pertinent information about your product (see this help article)

Link a Course to an EDD Product
Now it’s time to associate this product with the appropriate LearnDash course. Doing so will mean that once a product is purchased, the user will have access to the associated course.

On the Edit Download page, scroll down & look in the sidebar for the LearnDash box
Check the box for Is this a LearnDash course?
Click in the text box under “Which course?”. You can select a course from the dropdown list, or start typing to search all courses.
NOTE: You may link multiple courses to a single product.

When you’re finished editing your product, be sure to click the “Publish” or “Update” button to save your changes.
FAQ & Troubleshooting
Why wasn’t a user created and enrolled into the associated course(s) after purchase?
There are a few reasons why this might happen. First, make sure that the “Require Login” option is selected in the Easy Digital Downloads settings.

Navigate to DOWNLOADS > SETTINGS
Click on the Misc tab
Click on the Checkout link
Check the box for Require Login
Click the Save Changes button

Next, if you are using PayPal, make sure you have verified your account.
Last, purchases must have a status of “Complete” before the LearnDash integration will trigger account creation & course enrollment. To check the status of an order in EDD:

Navigate to DOWNLOADS > PAYMENT HISTORY
Look in the Status column to confirm the order’s status

See this support article on the Easy Digital Downloads site for more details.
Can I use any payment gateway in Easy Digital Downloads to sell courses?
Yes, the integration will work with any EDD payment gateway (as well as free products). Here’s a complete list of EDD payment gateways.
Additional Resources

See this article from another LearnDash user on restricting individual lessons based on EDD’s variable pricing

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