Pre-Setup

In this tutorial we'll setup WPLMS theme and some plugins to convert a WP site into a working LMS just like the demo.

Modifying Config

Since the theme comes packed with a lot of plugins, the size of the theme is larger than that of a normal WordPress theme. We suggest you to modify the wp-config.php file in your WordPress setup for smoother upload process and later on functioning of the website.

To modify the wp-config file in your WP setup follow below steps:

1. Locate the root WordPress directory in your server
2. Locate the file wp-config.php
3. Add below code after the line define('DB_COLLATE', ''); in the file and save.

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '128M' ); 

Note: You will require FTP/Cpanel detials of your server to edit the file.

Preparing Files

When you download WPLMS from Themeforest, you get the full WPLMS package. This is the full package, which includes sample data zip file and this documentation.

Uploading the full package will give you an error of no stylesheet found

You need to first unzip the package and locate the file WPLMS.zip and use only this file to upload in WordPress Appearance themes section.

Note: If you're still unable to Install the theme, refer to the alternate way in the Video Tutorials.

Note: Only upload the WPLMS.zip file in WordPress Themes.

Uploading & Activating

Once your WordPress setup is ready and you have the right file for upload, you simply have to upload the theme in Appearance Themes section.

Uploading the Theme

Grid systems are used for creating page layouts through a series of rows and columns that house your content. Here's how the Bootstrap grid system works:

1. Download WPLMS theme from your Themeforest account.
2. Login to Admin panel in your WordPress site.
3. Go to Appearance section in the WordPress Admin panel.
4. Go to Themes section in Appearance.
5. Click on Add New button.
6. Click on the link upload.
7. Click the button Choose file and select the wplms.zip downloaded from Themeforest.
8. Click on Install Now.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Activating theme

1. After the theme has been successfully uploaded in WordPress, click on Activate link to activate the theme.
2. After activating the theme, if you open your WordPress site. You would see several messages, which we’ll cover in later sections.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Installing Plugins

After the theme is installed and activated, you'll get notification to install plugins. Some of these plugins are required and some are recommended. Here is a list of plugins and their functions :

1. BuddyPress : The main plugin required for theme to function as LMS.
2. BBPress : Recommended plugin to enhance LMS experience.
3. WooCommerce : The Required plugin if you want to sell courses in LMS.
4. Vibe Course Module : The main plugin required for LMS to connect with BuddyPress. Contains all the necessary features of LMS.
5. Vibe Custom Types : This is a Required plugin which is the backbone of LMS.
6. Vibe Shortcodes : The Optional plugin is recommended if you want to use inbuilt shortcodes LMS.
7. WPLMS Events : The Optional plugin is recommended if you want to use inbuilt Events in LMS. An Event supports physical location (Map), date, time and can be connected to a course. A Course can have its own events calendar.
8. WPLMS Assignments : The Optional plugin is recommended if you want to use assignments functionality in your theme. An Assignment is like a question which allows students to upload their files and has time duration in hours/days. Assignments can be connected to a Unit or an Event and can be included in course evaluation. So when course percentage is calculated it takes into account, the assignment marks along with quiz marks.
9. WPLMS Front end : The Optional plugin is recommended if you want to enable Front end Course creation in LMS.
10. Layerslider : The Optional plugin is recommended to build beautiful sliders. If you do not want any slider in your theme, then you need not install this plugin

There are other plugins which can be used to enhace the experience and useful for mainenance of system:

1. BuddyPress security check : MAths Security Check placed at the bottom of registeration to keep a check on spam.
2. BuddyPress Group documents : Useful for sharing documents in group.
3. WP FB Auto connect : Adds a Login by FB link in Login panel.

Follow below steps to install and activate the plugins:

1. After activating the theme, you’ll see a notification on the top of your WordPress admin panel, to install the necessary plugins. These plugins have been specifically designed for the theme to function as a LMS.
2. Click on Begin Installing plugins link in the notification.
3. You’ll get a list of plugins you need to install to get started with the theme. The list comprises of following plugins : BuddyPress, WooCommerce, Vibe Course Module, Vibe Shortcodes, Vibe Custom Types, LayerSlider.
4. Click on the Install Plugin link in front of each of the plugin.
5. The plugin with then install and activate automatically.
6. After the plugin has been installed and activated, click on go back to plugins install page.
7. Follow steps 4,5,6 to install all the plugins required for the theme. Once all the plugins have been installed the install plugins notification would no longer appear and you should see an LMS tab in your WP admin screen.

Screenshot Walkthrough

One Click theme setup

This is the most important step in setting up WPLMS. We've prepared one click setup functionality for WPLMS to avoid users going through the unnecessary hassles of setting up the theme.

One click setup would only take about 2 minutes to setup the theme in your site. There are two options available for this :

1. Setup with Sample data : This button would install the demo data and convert your WordPress setup just like the demo.
2. Setup without Sample data : This option would also install few important pages and all the necessary settings for the theme.

Watch on Youtube

Note: You can skip the rest of this document if you're setting up theme using one click setup !

Manual setup : Importing Data

If you're not importing sample data you can move over to the next part in documentation.

This is last and final part of theme setup. In this part we import data from various sources and setup the site. It is to be noted that the importer only imports WordPress media. So BuddyPress media isn't imported during this process.

Importing Options Panel

To import the options panel, follow below steps:

1. Go to WPLMS Options Panel (Vibe Options Panel) in WordPress Admin
2. Locate the Import/Export Tab
3. Click on Import form URL
4. Paste below URL in the URL field and click import.

http://vibethemes.com/envato/wplms?feed=vibeopts-wplms&secret=7eaa2c4ef2b146be88a45601f18f66bf

Screenshot Walkthrough

Manual Setup : Uploading Sample Data File

The WPLMS download package contains a file called sampledata.zip. This file includes the sampledata file. Follow below steps to upload and import sample data :

1. Unzip sampledata.zip to get the sampledata.xml file
2. Go to WP Admin -> Tools -> Import
3. Select import from WordPress, Install the WordPress importer plugin if necessary
4. Upload the File sampledata.xml
5. Create a new user for each user in sample data
6. Check Download & Import Media if you want to import images and other sample media from the Demo [ This takes a lot more time as it downloads all the images and videos from the Demo site to your current installation.]
7. Click Import data

Screenshot Walkthrough

Manual Setup : Setting Up installed Data

Once the sample data has imported, you need to do few setings to make your demo site look similar to the WPLMS DEMO.

1. Setup Menus, Go to WP Admin -> Appearance -> Menus and assign relevant menus to relevant location
2. Set the home page. Go to WP Admin -> Settings -> General and assign a static page as your home page and select Home as your home page.
3. Import the demo slider from WP admin -> Layerslider -> Import Sliders -> All Sliders :

Manual Setup : BuddyPress Settings

This section contains several important settings for BuddyPress. Some of these settings are required and some are recommended for WPLMS.

Components

Buddypress comes with several inbuilt and useful components, such as Friends, Groups, Activity, Notifications etc. Each of which can be used effectively in an LMS. So we recommend enabling the following components in BuddyPress:

BuddyPress Pages

BuddyPress required several important pages to function. These pages are connected to important inbuilt components in the BuddyPress.

The pages selected in this setting show sitewide information for the component.

Privacy can be controlled for each of the above pages from the Vibe Options Panel -> BuddyPress and Course Manager section. So you can enable/disable viewership of each of the above pages from the options panel. For example: Site Activity can be enabled only for Instructors and Admins on the Site.

BuddyPress Settings

This section contains important settings for BuddyPress.

The default settings are just about right, however we recommend you to disable the toolbar for Logged out users because Site already has an inbuilt Login panel.

Screenshot Walkthrough

BuddyPress Profile Fields

You can create your own profile fields for users in BuddyPress. To enable this you must have the Extended Profile component enabled in the BuddyPress.

The custom fields section can be located in the WP Admin -> Users -> Profile Fields

You can create any number of fields in this section, these fields are shown in the BuddyPress Registeration form

These Fields can also be clubbed into groups, each section appears on the registeration page and can be expanded to see the details. Check the registeration page in the demo.

WPLMS provides an option to show custom profile field data along with a Members name.

The Student Field shows the data filled in the field for all the Students.

The Instructor Field shows the data filled in the field for all the Instructor.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Video Tutorial

Manual Setup : WooCommerce Settings

WPLMS is deep integrated with WooCommerce and comes with inbuilt customization for WooCommerce.

Each WooCommerce product can be connected to unlimited Courses. Each WooCommerce product can be a Standard One time Buy Product or A Subscription Product

In this section we'll configure WooCommere. WooCommerce settings are located in your WordPress admin panel under the WooCommerce tab.

General Settings

1. Setup your base location
2. Setup your selling location
3. Optionally disable Store notice and API
4. Setup your currency options
5. If you're going to sell products other than Courses, then you can enable Lighbox and enhanced country boxes script, otherwise you can keep them disabled.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Products

1. Connect the shop page (from imported sample data). If there is no shop page then create a new blank page, give it a title and a sub title (in page settings metabox ) and connect it here.
2. Set Shop Page Display, Show products and Default Product Sorting. Default values are fine.
3. Add to cart : Optionally check the Redirect to the cart page after successful addition and Enable ajax add to cart button on archives
4. Product data : Optionall set weight unit and dimensions unit. Optionally disable the product ratings to avoid confusion among users for course ratings.
5. Product Image sizes : Recommended to remove hard crop from Catalog and single product images.
   Set the Catalog image dimentions as : 242 x 999.
   Set Single product image dimensions as : 460 x 999
6. Set Downloadable product settings according to your needs.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Checkout

1. Enable coupons according to requirements.
2. Disable Guest Checkout. Since WPLMS triggers various functions for integrated subscriptions, guest checkout is not supported in the theme.
3. Optionally enable SSL checkout if using SSL for checkout page
4. CHECKOUT PAGES
5. Connect the cart page (from imported sample data). If there is no cart page then create a new blank page, give it a title and a sub title (in page settings metabox ), add the shortcode [woocommerce_cart] and connect it here.
6. Connect the Checkout page (from imported sample data). If there is no checkout page then create a new blank page, connect the page template "Checkout", give it a title and a sub title (in page settings metabox ), add the shortcode in content [woocommerce_checkout] and connect it here.

Configuring Paypal

1. Make sure you enable paypal standard
2. Enter a Paypal Identitify token
3. Enable form submission method
4. You can also use inbuilt switches in Theme options panel to force complete all the orders.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Accounts

1. Connect the account page (from imported sample data). If there is no account page then create a new blank page, give it a title and a sub title (in page settings metabox ), add the shortcode [woocommerce_my_account] and connect it here.
2. My account endpoints, keep the default values.
3. Registeration options
4. Enable registeration on checkout page.
5. Disabled registration on my account page. This feature is in direct contradiction with BuddyPress, since we use BuddyPress account & profile pages.
6. Enable Display returning customer login reminder on the "Checkout" page
7. Disable Account creation, both options Automatically generate username from customer email and Automatically generate customer password. To avoid issues with BuddyPress accounts.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Manual Setup : Important WordPress Setttings

Apart from above settings there are few important and required settings for functioning of WPLMS

These settings are located in the WordPress Admin -> Settings section.

General Settings

If you want the WPLMS site to be an open site where students can register then you can enable Memberships and set the detault role for registered members as Student

Screenshot Walkthrough

Discussion Settings

This is an important setting and a limitation of the WPLMS theme.

Disable comment moderation.

This is required because all the answers to a Quiz questions are saved as comments for the question. So, moderation blocks the answers to be saved as answers for the Quiz.

Screenshot Walkthrough

Permalinks

The most important setting required for WPLMS and BuddyPress to function

Set Permalinks to Post Name

Screenshot Walkthrough

Setup Video Tutorial

Installing Theme [ One Click setup ]

Watch on Youtube

OR
Installing Theme [ Traditional way ]

Watch on Youtube

OR
a. ALTERNATE WAY TO INSTALL THE THEME

b. SETTING UP AFTER UPLOAD

FAQs

These are some of the common issues faced during setup of the WPLMS theme.

1. SERVER 500 Error, Blank White page , after activating the Theme Or one of its Plugins

This is the most standard error associated with all BuddyPress themes. The error arises because PHP memory allocation is lesser than the recommended settings for BuddyPress.

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '128M');  

php_value memory_limit 128M

memory_limit = 128M

2. I am unable to Upload WPLMS.zip file, the error says : Upload limit exceeded ?

This is because the WPLMS package is 22 MB in size which exceeds the theme file upload limit in most web servers.

php_value post_max_size 32M
php_value upload_max_filesize 32M

post_max_size=32M 
upload_max_filesize=32M

3. When I press “start the course: the system take my to my activity instead to go to the course

1. Check your permalinks, it should be postname
2. Check the Course Start page is connected in Options Panel -> Miscellaneous.
3. Check if the page connected has the template “Start Course”
4. It is taking you to activity because it can not find the page and your 404 page is set as Activity

4. I am unable to import sample data and it is showing failed error messages while trying to import the data.

This happens when WordPress in unable to process the data import files properly. This is not consistent across servers and environments and till now there is no fix, but there is an alternate way to import the sample data. ​The sample data has been divided into relevant chunks like Posts, Pages, courses, units, question bank, quizzes, etc.. using which you can import the sample data. There is however one drawback which is this import does not import the media files. Here's the download link to sample data chunks : https://s3.amazonaws.com/WPLMS/selective+imports.zip

1. Simply unzip the file and you'll see a folder : sample data
2. This folder contains all the xml files which need to be imported to complete the sample data.
3. Simply go to Tools -> Import -> WordPress and upload each file individually.

5. The package could not be installed. PCLZIP_ERR_BAD_FORMAT (-10) : Unable to find End of Central Dir Record signature

Sometimes the downloaded package gets corrupted and you see this error while uploading the package of installing the plugins. However this can be simply avoided by using the FTP method.

1. Download the Package from Themeforest.
2. Unzip the Package.
3. Unzip the WPLMS.zip theme file
4. Inside the unzipped folder locate the plugins folder.
5. Copy all the .zip files in this folder to your desktop.
6. Now login via FTP to your server and locate the the WP Content -> Plugins directory.
   
7. Upload each of these zip files in the directory.
8. Unzip each of these files in the directory.
9. Now, login to WP Admin
10. Go to Plugins and you'll see all the plugins in it.
11. Activate each of these plugins to get started.

6. How can I know what all has been changed in the latest version ?

1. Support : Update log : http://support.vibethemes.com/solution/categories/1000126528/folders/1000210639
2. ThemeForest main page : Scroll down to the bottom to view the Issue log : http://http//themeforest.net/item/wplms-learning-management-system/6780226
3. Your Own site : A changelog.txt has been added form version 1.3.4 which is the full log file from the development repository, you can access it from here : http://vibethemes.com/envato/wplms/wp-content/themes/wplms/changelog.txt or http://yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/wplms/changelog.txt

7. When viewing a single course, all I see is the course info in the left column. I don't see the middle description and nor the sidebar. The data is there in the course; it's not visible.

This is one issue which appears when buddypress settings are not properly done, or you disable few components. Since the Demo data courses are connected with the groups and forums, when you disable BuddyPress groups, forums and you do not edit the prebuilt courses, all you see is the truncated data.

Simply edit the course you're viewing and re-save/update it again.
That will automatically correct the settings and resolve this issue.
When you create a new course there are no connecting groups or forums and hence the newly created courses appear fine.

8. When I install & Activate WPLMS Assignments, I see this notice : Regarding WPLMS Assignments Upload Assignment Functionality : It seems like your PHP installation is missing "mime_content_type" or "finfo_file" functions which are crucial for detecting file types of uploaded attachments. Please update your PHP installation OR be very careful with allowed file types, so intruders won't be able to upload dangerous code to your website!

As the message states, if your server does not support above functions as detected by the assignments plugin, we do not recommend using upload functionality in assignments. If you plan to use the upload functionality in assignments, please contact your web host to enable these functions on site. If you do not want to user assignments upload functionality, you can simply click on dismiss to remove the notice from the WP Dashboard.