Sensei LMS 3.7 contains some important bug fixes and performance improvements, and adds an integration with the Site Health tool.
One especially important bug fix involves a pesky issue where some learners were being added to a course or lesson multiple times. This was preventing those learners from making progress in the course. As part of that fix, we’ve also brought back the ability to remove a learner’s progress at the lesson level.
Upon upgrading to 3.7, indexes are automatically added to the comments table if they don’t already exist. As Sensei LMS stores a lot of data in this table, this should noticeably improve the performance of large sites.
We’ve also added an integration with the Site Health tool. The integration does some checks on the status of the learner enrolment job and migration, and will also let you know if your theme is using outdated Sensei template files:
When a learner purchases one or more courses, those courses are now listed on the Order Details page. Clicking on any of the courses takes the learner right to that course:
We’ve also added a Courses section to the sidebar of the My Account page, which navigates to the learner’s My Courses page:
Developers: For new hooks, deprecations and template file changes, please see the beta release post.
To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.
Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.
You can download the Sensei LMS 3.7 beta here. Alternatively, if you don’t have a staging site, you can use our Sensei LMS Test Site. You will be given the same level of access as a teacher, so some functionality may not be available. Please note that the test site integrates with Smartlook to record your visit. Smartlook is GDPR compliant out of the box, and any recordings will be automatically deleted after 1 month.
If you find a bug, please submit an issue on Github or leave a comment on this post. Our tentative release date is January 21st.
WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.3
WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.3 contains a couple of small improvements that we think will make a big difference in helping your learners get started after purchasing a course:
Added a link to the My Courses page on the My Account page.
Added a Courses section to the order details page so that learners can see which courses they’ve purchased.
When a product is sent to the trash, remove that product from all applicable courses.
Don’t copy the product over when duplicating a course. This ensures that any learners who purchased the original course don’t gain access to the duplicated course.
New Filter
sensei_wc_paid_courses_my_account_menu_courses_position – Change the position of the Courses item in the My Account menu.
Deprecations
Sensei_WC::course_link_from_order
Sensei_WC::generate_order_notice
Testing WooCommerce Paid Courses
Beta testers will receive the WooCommerce Paid Courses beta directly to their inbox. If you would like to sign up to be a beta tester and have a valid license, please fill out the beta tester signup form using the same email address you used to purchase your license.
If you find a bug, please leave a comment on this post. Our tentative release date is January 21st.
As these are beta releases, please test them on a staging site and not your live site. If you don’t have a staging site, you can use the WP Staging plugin to create one.
When creating a new course, these blocks are automatically added to the page for you. They are equivalent to the elements that already appear on the course page, but because they have been rewritten as blocks, it’s now possible to change how they look, adjust their order, or remove them altogether:
Take Course
The Take Course block is a button that enables a registered user to enrol in the course. Once enrolled, the Take Course button is no longer displayed for that user. The block can be customized by changing its style, colors or border.
Contact Teacher
The Contact Teacher block enables registered users to contact the teacher. The user is not required to be enrolled in the course in order to send a message to the teacher. Similar to Take Course, the Contact Teacher block can have its style, colors and border customized.
Course Progress
Course Progress displays the user’s progress in the course. This block is only visible to users who are already enrolled. The course progress block enables you to customize the border radius, progress bar height, and colors.
Course Outline
In addition to displaying the modules and lessons that make up a course, the course outline block enables you to build your course structure right inside the editor! Any modules or lessons you add to the block will be created automatically once the course is saved:
Please note that it’s not currently possible to add existing modules or lessons to the course outline block. Given this, the recommended flow for creating a new course is to start with the course outline block, and then add content to the individual modules and lessons once they’ve been created.
You can learn more about how to use these blocks in our documentation. A future release will add more blocks for both lessons and quizzes.
What If I Don’t Want to Use Blocks?
If you’d rather not use blocks for new courses, you can remove them in the editor and the PHP template will be used to render the course as before. This will create a consistent experience for learners until you’re able to update existing courses to also use blocks.
What Else is in This Release?
Here are some other enhancements and fixes you’ll find in 3.6:
Ensure analysis export works with RTL languages.
Fix incorrect rounding of maximum file size for file upload questions.
Ensure learners who have already viewed a quiz see the latest updates the next time they view it.
Remove wrapper elements from templates. This should improve the look of Sensei pages on some themes.
WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.2 extends the Take Course block, and changes it to a Purchase Course button if there is a single product attached to the course, or pricing cards if there are multiple products attached to the course:
Developers: For new hooks, deprecations and template file changes, please see the beta release post.
To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.
Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.
*Please note that the test site integrates with Smartlook to record your visit. Smartlook is GDPR compliant out of the box, and any recordings will be deleted automatically after 1 month.
WooCommerce Paid Courses
Here’s what’s changed in Beta 2:
Purchase Course Block
Warn learner when buying a product containing a course they are already taking
Expand the editor and the frontend to support many purchase blocks
Ensure variable products work with purchase block
Other
Fix typo in package generation to include `lang` folder
Sensei LMS 3.6 is now available for testing. This release introduces a number of blocks that are available when adding or editing courses:
Take Course button
Contact Teacher button
Course Progress
Course Outline
When creating a new course, these blocks are automatically added to the page for you. They are equivalent to the elements that already appear on the course page, but because they have been rewritten as blocks, it’s now possible to change how they look, adjust their order, or remove them altogether.
Course Outline Block
The course outline block is especially noteworthy. In addition to displaying the modules and lessons that make up a course, the course outline block enables you to build your course structure right inside the editor. Any modules or lessons you add to the block will be created automatically once the course is saved:
What Else is in This Release?
Here are some other enhancements and fixes you’ll find in 3.6:
Ensure analysis export works with RTL languages.
Fix incorrect rounding of maximum file size for file upload questions.
Ensure learners who have already viewed a quiz see the latest updates the next time they view it.
Remove wrapper elements from templates. This should improve the look of Sensei pages on some themes.
You can download the Sensei LMS 3.6 beta here. Alternatively, if you don’t have a staging site, you can use our Sensei LMS Test Site. Please note that the test site integrates with Smartlook to record your visit. Smartlook is GDPR compliant out of the box, and any recordings will be deleted automatically after 1 month.
WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.2
WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.2 integrates with the Take Course block, changing it to a Purchase Course button if there is a single product attached to the course, or pricing cards if there are multiple products attached to the course:
Testing WooCommerce Paid Courses
Beta testers will receive the WooCommerce Paid Courses beta directly to their inbox. If you would like to sign up to be a beta tester and have a valid license for WooCommerce Paid Courses that has not expired, please fill out the beta tester signup form using the same email address you used to purchase your license.
If you find a bug in Sensei LMS or Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses, please submit an issue on Github or leave a comment here. Our tentative release date is December 10th.
For Developers
If you’re a developer, here are the technical details of what’s changed in Sensei LMS 3.6.
Sensei LMS 3.6
Template File Changes
templates/course-results.php – Changed article element to div and removed section.
templates/course-results/lessons.php – Changed article element to div.
templates/single-course.php – Removed article and section elements.
templates/single-lesson.php – Removed article and section elements.
templates/single-message.php – Removed article and section elements.
templates/single-quiz.php – Removed article and section elements.
New Filters
sensei_block_type_args – For WordPress < 5.5, filters block arguments. For WordPress >= 5.5, use register_block_type_args instead.
sensei_use_sensei_template: Whether to use Sensei’s templates and content wrappers.
sensei_use_wp_register_link – Force Sensei to output the default WordPress user registration link.
New Action
sensei_loaded: Fires once all global objects have been set in Sensei LMS.
Deprecated Functions & Methods
Sensei_Admin::get_lesson_order
Sensei_Lesson::on_lesson_published
Sensei_Core_Modules::reset_none_modules_transient
There are no deprecations or new hooks in WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.2.
As these are beta releases, please test them on a staging site and not your live site. If you don’t have a staging site, you can use the WP Staging plugin to create one.
We’ve been hard at work developing our first block for Sensei LMS — the course outline block! This block streamlines the course building experience, and enables you to make simple design changes to the course outline that is displayed on the course page.
Although the block is not yet released, we’re making it available now on our test site for you to experiment with. We’ll use your feedback to make further improvements to the block prior to its release.
After logging into our test site and creating a new course, you will see the course outline block, where you can choose to create a module or a lesson:
Clicking on Create a module updates the block with a view that enables you to add a module, module description, and lesson. You can add as many modules and lessons as needed for your course:
Fundamentally, the course outline block helps you to develop the basic structure of your course. Once you save your changes, any modules or lessons that have been added to the block are automatically created behind the scenes. Similarly, any changes you make to the block for an existing course are carried over to the individual modules and lessons.
Block Settings
The course outline block offers a variety of settings that enable you to adjust styles, colors, typography and other design elements:
Future Blocks
The course outline block is the first of several blocks we are planning to build for the course page. Blocks currently in development include:
Take this Course button
Contact Teacher button
Course progress bar
We will add these blocks to the test site as they become available. In the meantime, these elements continue to be rendered on the site using the existing PHP template.
How to Try the Course Outline Block
To try the course outline block, follow these steps:
Once you’ve logged in, create a new course. The course outline block will already be added to the page.
Add modules and lessons, change the block settings, and see what the block looks like as a learner.
Once you’re done, navigate back to the Courses page and click the link in the notice to share your feedback with us:
*Important: The test site integrates with Smartlook to record your visit. We will use the screen recordings to identify block functionality that may be confusing to use, and to make improvements that help make the block more intuitive. Smartlook is GDPR compliant out of the box, and any recordings will be deleted automatically after 1 month.
Sensei LMS 3.5 has just been released and brings with it the ability to export courses, lessons and questions. This means you can export course content from one site and import it into another one, making it easier than ever to transfer courses between Sensei LMS sites.
Exporter
Sensei’s new export functionality is available from the Sensei LMS > Export menu. This first iteration supports exporting courses, lessons and questions in zip format. The downloaded zip file contains individual CSV files, one per selected content type:
Sample Course
We’ve also added a new option to the setup wizard to install a sample course. This course is created in draft status so that it’s not publicly available, and walks you through how to get started with Sensei LMS:
You can reach the setup wizard at any time by going to Courses > All Courses, clicking the Help tab at the top, and then clicking the Setup wizard button:
What Else is in this Release?
Courses with any status are displayed in the Course Prerequisite dropdown. Previously, only published courses were listed.
We fixed an issue with duplicate content sometimes being imported.
We fixed an error in the setup wizard that occurred when navigating to a previous step.
For Developers
If you’re a developer, here’s what you need to know about Sensei LMS 3.5.
Deprecated Code
includes/3rd-party/wordpress-importer.php – Deprecated the entire file.
To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.
Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.
In WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.1, it’s easier than ever to remove a learner’s enrollment. No more searching for orders — learners can now be removed with a single click! And restoring their enrollment is just as easy!
With this release, we are also bumping the minimum supported version of WordPress to 5.2 and PHP to 7.0 to match WooCommerce.
Remove Enrollment
For enrolled learners, a new Remove Enrollment link is displayed when hovering over a learner in Learner Management. Clicking this link removes the learner from the course, revoking their access. The status of any order, subscription or membership associated with the learner’s enrollment is unaffected.
Please note that if the course is tied to a product, subscription or membership, and the learner purchases that product / subscription / membership again, they will be re-enrolled in the course:
Restore Enrollment
Unenrolled learners who previously purchased a course can have their enrollment restored by clicking the Restore Enrollment link. This will re-enroll the learner in the course, and enrollment will once again be controlled by the associated order / subscription / membership:
Enroll
Unenrolled learners who do not have an active order / subscription / membership associated with their enrollment (for example, for a free course or one where an administrator enrolled them directly via Learner Management) can be re-enrolled by clicking the Enroll link. Fundamentally it does the same thing as restoring an enrollment — it enrollers the learner in the course — only there is no order / subscription / membership controlling enrollment:
We hope these changes help to streamline the management of your learners!
For Developers
If you’re a developer, here’s what you need to know about WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.1.0.
To update, please head over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.
Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.
As of Sensei LMS 3.4, we plan to follow WooCommerce’s lead and adopt an L-2 sliding window support policy for WordPress Core. This means that Sensei LMS will be guaranteed to work on the most recent version of WordPress, plus the latest release from the previous two versions. For example, Sensei LMS 3.4 (currently set for release on August 6th), will support WordPress 5.4.2, 5.3.4 and 5.2.7.
We will also match our minimum required version of PHP with WooCommerce, which is currently set to PHP 7.0.
Why Are We Doing This?
Sensei’s most popular extension, WooCommerce Paid Courses, requires that WooCommerce be installed in order for it to work. Because of this dependency, it follows that WooCommerce Paid Courses should use the same minimum version requirement for WordPress and PHP as WooCommerce uses. Given that Sensei LMS is also a dependency of WooCommerce Paid Courses, it too should specify the same requirement.
We hope that you’ll join us in moving forward the WordPress platform and the PHP programming language, and in helping to keep all sites running Sensei LMS up to date with the latest, greatest, and most secure software available.
Sensei LMS 3.3 has just been released and brings with it the ability to import courses, lessons and questions! You can also use the importer to update existing course content en masse.
Importer
Sensei’s new import functionality is available from the Sensei LMS > Import menu. This first iteration supports importing courses, lessons and questions in CSV file format:
A future release will add export functionality, making it even easier to transfer course content between Sensei LMS sites!
To download CSV files with sample data, or to learn more about the expected file format, please see our import documentation.
What Else is in this Release?
Appended random text to the file name of file upload questions to make it more difficult for external users to view them.
Added new CSS classes for preview and completed lessons not in a module to allow for easier element targeting.
Fixed an issue with the setup wizard Features step not saving if nothing was selected.
For Developers
If you’re a developer, here’s what you need to know about Sensei LMS 3.3.
New Filters
sensei_import_attachment_request_timeout – Filter the HTTP request timeout value when retrieving an external attachment.
sensei_import_csv_delimiter – Set the default delimiter to use when importing CSV files.
sensei_import_csv_delimiter_options – Specify the different delimiters that will be tried when importing CSV files.
sensei_learner_enrolled_courses_args – Customize the query arguments used to fetch the courses a learner is enrolled in.
New Action
sensei_data_port_complete – Fires when the import job completes.
Deprecated Code
Sensei_Grading::load_data_object – Use new Sensei_Grading_Main or new Sensei_Grading_User_Quiz
To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.
Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.
