Category: Beta

Today we’re releasing Sensei LMS 3.0 Beta 3 and WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0 Beta 3.

Sensei LMS 3.0

Here are the most notable changes since Beta 2:

• Actions are now fired when the enrolment status is changed. (See the New Filters section below for more details.)
• We added the sensei_enrolment_learner_calculation_job_batch_size filter for setting the batch size of the learner calculation job.
• We introduced a provider journal store that is disabled by default, but can be enabled using the sensei_enable_enrolment_provider_journal filter.
• We’ve significantly reduced the amount of data that was being stored in the database for course enrolments.

You can see what else changed in Beta 3 here or you can download Sensei LMS 3.0 Beta 3 here.

WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0

The most notable change in WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0 Beta 3 is that we added the sensei_wc_paid_courses_migration_inactive_memberships_provide_manual_enrolment filter to enable blocking users with inactive memberships from being manually enrolled when the migration runs.

Testing

As always, please test the beta release 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.

If you’ve already tested either Beta 1 or Beta 2 on your staging site, you should take the following steps prior to testing Beta 3:

• Deactivate and delete the Beta 1/Beta 2 version of Sensei LMS.
• Restore the database backup for your staging site.
• Download Beta 3 and unzip it to your wp-content/plugins folder. You can choose to either override your existing folder, or rename it to something else before unzipping, if applicable.
• Activate Sensei LMS 3.0.0 Beta 3.

The above steps are necessary to ensure the course enrolment migration process executes again. If you haven’t tested any of the beta releases prior to this, there’s no need to restore a database backup.

For Developers

Sensei LMS

New Filters

• sensei_comment_counts_include_sensei_comments – Whether or not to include Sensei comments in the comments count.
• sensei_course_enrolment_store_results – Whether or not to store course enrolment results.
• sensei_enable_enrolment_provider_journal – Whether or not to enable journal storage.
• sensei_enrolment_course_calculation_job_batch_size – Set the batch size for the number of learners to query when the course calculation job runs.
• sensei_enrolment_history_size – Set the maximum number of historical entries that are stored for every user, course and provider.
• sensei_enrolment_learner_calculation_job_batch_size – Set the batch size for the number of learners to query when the learner calculation job runs.
• sensei_enrolment_message_log_size – Set the maximum number of log messages that are stored for every user, course and provider.
• sensei_frontend_learner_enrolment_handler – Enable providers to specify a custom course sign-up handler.

New Actions

• sensei_course_enrolment_status_changed – Fires when the course enrolment status changes.
• sensei_manual_enrolment_learner_enrolled – Fires when a learner is manually enrolled.
• sensei_manual_enrolment_learner_withdrawn – Fires when a learner’s manual enrolment is withdrawn.

WooCommerce Paid Courses

New Filter

• sensei_wc_paid_courses_migration_inactive_memberships_provide_manual_enrolment – Whether or not to block users with inactive memberships from being manually enrolled.

Please note that the release date has been moved to April 22nd, 2020 April 27th, 2020. Feel free to leave a comment on this post if you find any issues while testing Beta 3.

Today we’re releasing a second beta for Sensei LMS 3.0 and WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0.

Sensei LMS 3.0

Here are the important changes in Sensei LMS 3.0 Beta 2:

• We’ve added a filter to bypass enrolment functionality altogether.
• The “Manually Enrolled Learners” filter is now hidden when not needed.
• We fixed an issue with the comment template not displaying for messages.

You can see what else changed in Beta 2 here or you can download Sensei LMS 3.0 Beta 2 here.

WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0

Here are a few things we’ve fixed in WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0 Beta 2:

• The display of products in the product selector was being cut off in WordPress 5.4.
• A PHP warning that was logged when running some enrolment jobs.
• A fatal error when deactivating WooCommerce before WooCommerce Paid Courses.

For Developers

Sensei LMS

• New Filter: sensei_is_enrolled – Allow default enrolment handling to be bypassed.
• Deprecated Method: Sensei_Main::activation

As always, please test the beta release 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.

Sensei LMS 3.0

Sensei LMS 3.0 is now available for testing. This is a major release that introduces the concept of course enrollments. Previously, a learner had access to a course if they had progress in that course (i.e. they were listed in Learner Management). As of Sensei LMS 3.0, a learner has access to a course if they are enrolled in that course.

Separating course progress from course enrollment means that removing a learner from a course will still retain their progress. This means that the learner will be able to pick up where they left off should they enroll in the course again later:

A learner is automatically (manually) enrolled when they click the Take this Course button on the course page. Administrators and teachers can also enroll learners by clicking the Manually enroll learner button in Learner Management. Similarly, learners can be unenrolled by clicking the Remove manual enrollment button. Only courses that a learner is enrolled in will be displayed on their My Courses page.

Here are some of the other enhancements and fixes you’ll find in 3.0:

• Module content is only displayed if the learner is enrolled in the course.
• Improved support for the Twenty Twenty theme.
• Added support for bulk editing lessons.
• Teachers are now able to reset progress and edit the course start date of a learner.
• Fixed video playback for question media attachments.
• Fixed the ability to add multiple learners to a course.

See what else is in this release.

Testing Sensei LMS

You can download the Sensei LMS 3.0 beta here. One of the most important things to test in this release is that course access for learners is preserved; that is, ensuring that the same learners who had access to the course prior to updating to Sensei LMS 3.0 still have access to the course after updating to Sensei LMS 3.0.

If you find a bug, please submit an issue on Github or leave a comment here. Our tentative release date is April 15th. UPDATE: The release date has been pushed back to April 22nd April 27th, 2020.

WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0

WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0 has been updated to support enrollments. The rules for determining when a learner is enrolled have been simplified and are as follows:

• When selling a course using a simple or variable product, a learner will be enrolled if the status of their order is Processing or Completed. If the order status is changed to something else, or the order is moved to the trash, they will be unenrolled.
• WooCommerce Subscriptions: When selling a course using a simple or variable subscription, a learner will be enrolled if the status of their subscription is Active or Pending Cancellation. If the subscription status is changed to something else, or the subscription is moved to the trash, they will be unenrolled. The status of the order associated with the subscription is not used to determine enrollment.
• WooCommerce Memberships: When using a membership to grant access to a course, a learner will be enrolled if the status of their membership is Active, Free Trial (only applicable when using subscriptions), Complimentary or Pending Cancellation (only applicable when using subscriptions). If the membership status is changed to something else, or the membership is moved to the trash, they will be unenrolled. Neither the status of the order nor the status of the subscription (if applicable) associated with the membership are used to determine enrollment.

Here are some of the other enhancements and fixes you’ll find in 2.0:

• A confirmation modal will be displayed when the products attached to a course are updated. Altering any existing products may update the enrolment status of learners based on whether or not they have purchased that product. Once this modal is confirmed, it will not be displayed again for at least 1 week.
• Added support for searching and selecting from a large number of products when attaching a product to a course.
• The woocommerce CSS class is now only added to the single course page.

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.

Just as with Sensei LMS, the most important thing to test in this release is that course access for learners is preserved. This is applicable for all types of courses including free, paid, and courses sold as part of a subscription or membership.

If you find a bug, please leave a comment here. Our tentative release date is April 15th. UPDATE: The release date has been pushed back to April 22nd April 27th, 2020.

For Developers

If you’re a developer, here are the technical details of what’s changed in Sensei LMS 3.0 and WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0.

Sensei LMS 3.0

Template File Changes

• archive-course.php – Added container around controls and header.
• course-results.php – Replaced Sensei_Utils::user_started_course with Sensei_Course::is_user_enrolled.
• single-course/modules.php – Replaced Sensei_Utils::user_started_course with Sensei_Course::is_user_enrolled.

New Filters

• sensei_background_job_actions – Get a list of background job actions that are handled by the class.
• sensei_can_access_course_content – Whether or not the user can view course content.
• sensei_can_user_manually_enrol – Checks if the currently logged in user can manually enroll in a given course.
• sensei_can_user_view_module – Whether or not the user can view module content.
• sensei_course_archive_page_url – Filter the course archive page URL.
• sensei_course_enrolment_providers – Get all registered course enrolment providers.
• sensei_is_legacy_enrolled – Whether or not a user was enrolled in a course prior to Sensei LMS 3.0.0.
• sensei_legacy_enrolment_check – Whether or not to use the legacy enrolment check. Legacy check uses course progress to determine enrolment.
• sensei_module_course_signup_notice_level – Customize the alert level for the course sign-up notice message on the module page.
• sensei_module_course_signup_notice_message – Customize the course sign-up notice message on the module page.
• sensei_module_show_course_signup_notice – Whether or not to show the course sign-up notice on the module page.
• sensei_scheduler_class – Override the default class that implements Sensei_Scheduler_Interface.
• sensei_should_defer_enrolment_check – Whether to defer the enrolment check to the end of the request.
• sensei_user_all_access – Whether or not a particular user has access to all of Sensei LMS without restriction.

New Actions

• sensei_before_learners_enrolled_courses_query – Fires before querying the courses a learner is enrolled in.
• sensei_enrolment_results_calculated – Notify upon calculation of enrolment results.

Deprecated Functions & Methods

• quiz_questions – Use Sensei_Templates::get_template
• sensei_check_prerequisite_course – Use Sensei_Course::is_prerequisite_complete
• Sensei_Admin::delete_user_activity – Use Sensei_Learner::delete_all_user_activity
• Sensei_Course::course_query
• Sensei_Course::filter_my_courses
• Sensei_Course::get_archive_query_args
• Sensei_Frontend::sensei_course_image – Use Sensei()->course->course_image
• Sensei_Frontend::sensei_get_template_part – Use Sensei_Templates::get_part
• Sensei_Frontend::sensei_lesson_image – Use Sensei()->lesson->lesson_image
• Sensei_Frontend::sensei_lesson_quiz_meta – Use Sensei_Lesson::footer_quiz_call_to_action
• Sensei_Learner::get_all
• Sensei_Learner::get_all_active_learner_ids_for_course
• Sensei_Learner_Management::get_learner_full_name – UseSensei_Learner::get_full_name instead.
• Sensei_Learner_Management::load_data_object – Use new Sensei_Learners_$name
• Sensei_Learners_Admin_Bulk_Actions_Controller::get_query_args
• Sensei_Learners_Admin_Bulk_Actions_Controller::learners_admin_menu
• Sensei_Learners_Main::data_table_footer
• Sensei_Lesson::user_not_taking_course_message
• Sensei_Main::run_updates
• Sensei_Utils::delete_all_user_activity – Use Sensei_Learner::delete_all_user_activity
• Sensei_Utils::sensei_get_user_question_answer_notes – Use Sensei()->quiz->get_user_question_feedback
• Sensei_Utils::sensei_grade_question_auto – Use Sensei_Grading::grade_question_auto
• Sensei_Utils::sensei_grade_quiz_auto – Use Sensei_Grading::grade_quiz_auto
• Sensei_Utils::sensei_save_quiz_answers – Use Sensei_Quiz::save_user_answers
• Sensei_Utils::user_started_course – To check if a learner is enrolled, use Sensei_Course::is_user_enrolled. To check if a learner has course progress, useSensei_Utils::has_started_course.

Deprecated Filters

• sensei_all_access – Use sensei_user_all_access
• sensei_couse_access_permission_message
• sensei_display_start_course_form – Use sensei_can_user_manually_enrol
• sensei_is_course_content_restricted
• sensei_learners_learners_columns – Use sensei_learners_default_columns
• sensei_learners_learners_columns_sortable – Usesensei_learners_default_columns_sortable
• sensei_user_can_register_for_course

WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0

New Filters

• sensei_wc_paid_courses_course_block_editor_l10n_data – Filter localization data for the block editor script.
• sensei_wc_paid_courses_memberships_auto_enrol_courses – Whether or not to automatically enrol users in courses that are part of this membership.
• sensei_wc_paid_courses_memberships_is_signed_up – Check if a user should be initially signed up for a course.
• sensei_wc_paid_courses_subscriptions_get_active_subscription_statuses – Get the active subscription statuses.
• sensei_wc_paid_courses_subscriptions_get_subscription_types – Get the subscription types for products.

New Actions

• sensei_wc_paid_courses_course_product_added – Fires after adding a product to a course.
• sensei_wc_paid_courses_course_product_removed – Fires after removing a product from a course.
• sensei_wc_paid_courses_course_product_toggled – Fires after making any change to the products attached to a course.

Deprecated Classes

• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Frontend\Quizzes
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions

Deprecated Functions & Methods

• Sensei_WC::activate_subscription
• Sensei_WC::alter_can_user_view_lesson
• Sensei_WC::cancel_order
• Sensei_WC::complete_order
• Sensei_WC::course_update
• Sensei_WC::get_learner_course_active_order_id
• Sensei_WC::is_my_courses_page
• Sensei_WC::is_wc_subscriptions_active
• Sensei_WC_Memberships::add_wc_memberships_notice
• Sensei_WC_Memberships::display_start_course_form_to_members_only
• Sensei_WC_Memberships::is_course_access_restricted
• Sensei_WC_Memberships::is_my_courses_page
• Sensei_WC_Memberships::on_wc_memberships_user_membership_saved
• Sensei_WC_Memberships::start_courses_associated_with_membership
• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Courses::activate_purchased_courses
• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Courses::activate_purchased_courses_my_courses_page
• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Courses::activate_purchased_single_course
• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Courses::remove_active_course
• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Frontend\Courses::should_filter_subscription_course
• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Frontend\Lessons::course_signup_notice_message
• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Frontend\Lessons::do_show_course_signup_notice
• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Frontend\Quizzes::course_signup_notice_message
• Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Frontend\Quizzes::init
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::activate_subscription
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::get_subscription_permission
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::get_subscription_types – Use Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Course_Enrolment_Providers\WooCommerce_Subscriptions::get_subscription_types
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::get_subscription_user_started_course
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::has_user_bought_subscription_but_cancelled
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::is_user_eligible_for_access
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::is_wc_subscriptions_active – Use Sensei_WC_Paid_Courses\Course_Enrolment_Providers\WooCommerce_Subscriptions::is_active
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::load_wc_subscriptions_integration_hooks
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::user_has_non_subscription_product_for_course
• Sensei_WC_Subscriptions::was_user_added_without_subscription

Deprecated Filters

• sensei_wc_paid_courses_memberships_auto_start_course
• sensei_wc_paid_courses_memberships_auto_start_courses – Use sensei_wc_paid_courses_memberships_auto_enrol_courses

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.

Thank you to all our testers and contributors!

Sensei LMS

The next release of Sensei LMS 2.2.1 is now ready for testing! This release includes some performance enhancements and bug fixes:

• HTML is now allowed in question titles. This fixes an issue with LaTeX markup not working in quiz questions.
• Fixed an issue with a database error message being displayed when viewing a course feed.
• Fixed a layout issue with the Academia theme.
• Fixed an issue that could result in some themes displaying a broken layout.
• Loading the teacher dropdown on the Courses page is faster. Performance is noticeably improved when there are a lot of teachers.
• Rewrite rules are no longer flushed when courses and lessons are saved. This bug had the potential to break permalinks.

See what else is in this release.

Deprecated Methods

• Sensei_Course::flush_rewrite_rules has been deprecated with no replacement
• Sensei_Lesson::flush_rewrite_rules has been deprecated with no replacement

Testing Sensei LMS

You can download the Sensei LMS 2.2.1 beta here. If you find a bug, please submit an issue on Github or leave a comment here. Our tentative release date for Sensei LMS 2.2.1 is October 23rd.

WooCommerce Paid Courses

The next release of WooCommerce Paid Courses focuses on closing some gaps in the integration with WooCommerce Memberships.

Here are some of the improvements you’ll find in 1.2.0:

• Courses purchased via a membership will now be included in the confirmation notice that a user sees after purchase:
• Additionally, the order confirmation email will list any courses that were purchased as part of a membership.
• When the status of an order containing a membership is manually changed to Processing or Completed, the purchaser is automatically enrolled in any courses tied to that membership. Similarly, cancelling or refunding an order containing a membership removes the purchaser from any courses tied to that membership.
• To protect against undesirable behaviour that can occur when a course is sold standalone AND as part of a membership that uses the same product, a warning will now appear on the Edit Course and Edit Membership Plan pages so that corrective action can be taken:
• The Course Component widget, as well as the Paid and Free filters that may appear on the course archive page, have been updated to include course memberships.

New Filters

• sensei_wc_paid_courses_get_product_courses – Filter the array of courses attached to the given products.
• sensei_wc_paid_courses_memberships_block_editor_l10n_data – Filter the localization data for the block editor script.

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 here. Our tentative release date for WooCommerce Paid Courses 1.2.0 is October 23rd.

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.

Thank you to all our testers and contributors!

The Sensei LMS and Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.1 betas are ready for testing.

Sensei LMS 2.1

Here are the highlights of the Sensei LMS 2.1 release:

• We added an Edit Course button to the lesson page to enable easier navigation to the course page (currently only available in the classic editor).
• We made the queries on the Analysis page more performant. This should help speed things up for sites with a significant number of learners.
• We fixed an issue with teachers not being able to save course settings in the block editor.
• We fixed a long-standing issue with the module status overlapping the module name on single course page for long module names.
• We’ve enabled the ability to add more HTML elements to Sensei notices.
• We added some event logging to the WordPress dashboard. More details can be found here.

See what else is in this release.

Template File Change

• single-course/modules.php – Moved the location of module status to inside the header element

New Hook

• sensei_complete_lesson_redirect_url – Disable the redirect that occurs after completing a lesson

Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.1

In addition to the changes from Sensei LMS, there are a couple of additional items in the Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.1 release:

• We fixed an issue with the course purchase confirmation not being displayed on the correct page. The confirmation notice will now show on the Order Received page after a course is purchased.
• We replaced a call to the deprecated WooCommerce Memberships get_content_restricted_message function.

Release Testing

You can download the Sensei LMS 2.1 beta here. Beta testers will receive the Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.1 beta directly to their inbox. Our tentative release date for both Sensei LMS and Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.1 is June 17th.

If you find a bug in the beta, please submit an issue on Github or leave a comment here.

As this is a beta release, please test it 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.

Thank you to all our testers and contributors!