LearnPress – Backup & Migration Tool vs Widget Areas for LearnDash

LearnPress is a WordPress LMS Plugin by ThimPress. The LearnPress – Backup & Migration Tool is a crucial add-on (or extension) for users of the LearnPress WordPress LMS plugin, designed to streamline the management of course content and data. It addresses the common need to back up, migrate, or duplicate LearnPress courses, as well as providing a seamless one-click migration from other popular LMS platforms like TutorLMS and LearnDash into LearnPress. LearnPress Backup & Import/Export Functionality Selective Export/Import: Depending on the specific add-on version, there might be options to selectively export or import certain aspects of a course, rather than the entire course. This could mean exporting only quizzes, or lessons, for example. LearnPress Migration Functionality – Effortless LMS Migration Tool The most powerful feature addition to this add-on is a streamlined, one-click migration tool for facilitating seamless transitions from other LMS systems to LearnPress. This feature helps users looking to switch LMS platforms while preserving their valuable course content, student data, and instructor information. Currently, our migration tool supports converting data from the following platforms to LearnPress: TutorLMS LearnDash MasterStudy (Developing – Coming soon!) Here’s a detailed breakdown of the migration tool’s functions and benefits: Main Functionality: Automated Data Transfer: The tool automates the complex process of transferring data from supported LMS platforms (like TutorLMS or LearnDash) to LearnPress. This eliminates the need for manual data entry or complex database manipulation, saving time and effort. Data Mapping: In cases where data structures are different between other LMSs and LearnPress, the tool intelligently maps data fields to ensure accurate transfer. Benefits for Users: Cost Effective: By automating a complex process, this add-on saves the user from paying developers for the migration process. Moreover, this plugin is free to download as well! Technical considerations The add-on requires both LearnPress and the other LMS system you are migrating from to be installed and activated on your WordPress site. It is highly recommended to back up the website before starting the migration process. Other free add-ons for LearnPress are available in WordPress: LearnPress Wishlist – add courses to a wishlist for students. LearnPress Course Review – review course for enrolled students. LearnPress Prerequisites Courses – require student to pass some courses in order to enroll other course. LearnPress bbPress – add bbPress Forum support for LearnPress. LearnPress BuddyPress – add BuddyPress support for LearnPress. Premium Plugins (add-ons) for LearnPress WordPress LMS Plugin Certificates add-on for LearnPress – adding drag & drop certificates builder as well as selecting designed certificate for each LMS course, your student will get particular certificate when they finished a course. Co-instructors add-on for LearnPress – multiple instructors support for each LMS course. Collections add-on for LearnPress – making LMS courses collection by selecting number of courses, this is helpful if you want to combine multiple LMS courses into a collection for a group of skills. Stripe Payment method for LearnPress – Stripe payment method for LearnPress WordPress LMS Plugin. WooCommerce add-on for LearnPress – using WooCommerce as payment gateway for LearnPress WordPress LMS Plugin. Other note Documentation is available in ThimPress site. LearnPress github repo.

Widget Areas for LearnDash simply gives you more places to add custom content in LearnDash. By utilizing built-in LearnDash action hooks, we assign widget areas (also known as “sidebars”) to various locations throughout your LearnDash pages. Available LearnDash Widget Areas Focus Mode: Sidebar: Above Navigation Focus Mode: Sidebar: Below Navigation Focus Mode: Content: Start Focus Mode: Below Content Course Page: Content: Start Course Page: Content: End Group Page: Content: Start Group Page: Content: End Requires the “LearnDash 3.0” Active Template. Tested with LearnDash 4.23. How to Use Upon activating the plugin, new widget areas will appear on the Appearance > Widgets screen in your WordPress admin area. You can also access them via the Customizer (Appearance > Customize > Widgets). Simply add the blocks/widgets you’d like to insert into the corresponding widget areas. Be sure to click the “Save” button at the bottom. Navigate to a page that contains that widget area, refresh, and your new widgets will be there. Types of Content to Add WordPress comes with a set of default widgets, several of which might be useful. If you’re using the new block editor, all blocks will also be available to you. Add a simple Paragraph block with some basic text Add an Image or Video/Embed block for more visual content Add a Navigation Menu widget to insert a custom menu you’ve created Add your own Custom HTML widget to embed an or write your own code TIP: You can use the LearnDash Student and LearnDash Visitor blocks to display a block’s contents only to enrolled students or unenrolled visitors. LearnDash Widgets LearnDash comes prepackaged with a few widgets, but there’s probably only one that makes sense in these widget areas. Add a Course Progress Bar to the top or bottom of your Focus Mode sidebar Feel free to experiment with the other LearnDash widgets. Elementor Templates If you’re using Elementor Pro, you can create a custom section and embed it anywhere on your site, including in your new LearnDash widget areas. There are two ways to do this: When you go to insert a block/widget, select the Elementor Library widget. Choose a template from the dropdown menu. Click “Save.” Navigate to Templates > Saved Templates. Copy the shortcode next to the template you want to insert. Now you’ll insert a Shortcode block into the widget area, and paste the shortcode. For more information, see the article in Elementor’s knowledge base. Widget Area CSS Class Names If you need to target the widget areas to apply custom styles using CSS, you can use the following class names. All widget areas have the .ldx-widget-area class. Focus Mode: Sidebar: Above Navigation – .ldx-widget-area.fm-nav-before Focus Mode: Sidebar: After Navigation – .ldx-widget-area.fm-nav-after Focus Mode: Content: Start – .ldx-widget-area.fm-content-start Focus Mode: Below Content – .ldx-widget-area.fm-content-bottom Course Page: Content: Start – .ldx-widget-area.course-content-start Course Page: Content: End – .ldx-widget-area.course-content-end Group Page: Content: Start – .ldx-widget-area.group-content-start Group Page: Content: End – .ldx-widget-area.group-content-end Example Usage: .ldx-widget-area.fm-nav-before { margin: 1em; } This would add 1em of spacing around the widget area that appears above the navigation in the Focus Mode sidebar. In addition, all widgets placed inside of a widget area have a class of .ldx-widget. Show/Hide Widgets on Certain Devices While not a direct feature of this plugin, you can show/hide widgets on different devices using another free plugin. Install & activate the Widget Options plugin Navigate to the widget that you’d like to adjust the visibility on Scroll to the bottom and click on the tab with the mobile phone Choose to either show or hide on the checked devices Check the appropriate devices Click “Save” Show/Hide Widgets on Specific Course/Lesson/Topic Pages Another feature of the free Widget Options plugin (mentioned above) is to only show widgets on specific course, lesson, topic or quiz pages. Install & activate the Widget Options plugin Navigate to the widget that you’d like to adjust the visibility on Scroll to the bottom and click on the settings cog icon Click on the Logic tab In the text box, you can use the is_single() conditional tag to only display that widget on a specific page Use the ID of the course, lesson, topic or quiz 👉 How to find the ID of LearnDash content Example: This would only display the widget on the page with an ID of 7: is_single( '7' ) If you wanted to display a widget on multiple pages (with IDs of 1, 2 and 3), your code would look like this: is_single( array( 1, 2, 3 ) ) There are many more WordPress conditional tags you can use. From within WordPress Visit “Plugins > Add New” Search for “Widget Areas for LearnDash” Click the “Install” button Click the “Activate” button Navigate to “Appearance > Widgets” or open the Customizer to start adding blocks/widgets to your new widget areas