TalentLMS lets you integrate your portal with your WordPress installation through a WP plugin. In the following guide, we’ll go through all the features and functionalities of the TalentLMS WP plugin and learn how to sell TalentLMS courses through another WP plugin, WooCommerce.
To help you, we’ve created a 5-step process:
Step 1: Install your TalentLMS plugin
Step 2: Get to know your TalentLMS plugin
Step 3: Set up your TalentLMS plugin
Step 4: Integrate your TalentLMS plugin with WooCommerce
Step 5: Sell your TalentLMS courses through WooCommerce
Step 1: Install your TalentLMS plugin
1. Sign in to your WordPress account as administrator, and, from the left-hand navigation panel go to Plugins > Add New. In the search field, type talentlms to find the TalentLMS WP plugin in the WP plugins repository.
2. Click Install now to install the plugin.
Note: Alternatively, you can download the TalentLMS WP plugin .zip file from the plugin page, and then upload it to Wordpress. |
3. Once the plugin is installed, click Activate to activate your plugin on your site. You can also do that later from the Plugins page.
Step 2: Get to know your TalentLMS plugin
When your plugin is activated, a TalentLMS entry is added on the left-hand navigation panel. Click it to open the TalentLMS plugin dashboard.
On the dashboard, you can see five options:
- Setup: Submit your TalentLMS domain and API key to connect your portal with your WP site.
- Integrations: Sell your TalentLMS Courses as WooCommerce products.
- Shortcodes: TalentLMS shortcodes to use with your WP site.
- Widgets: Insert a TalentLMS widget in any registered widget area (e.g., sidebar).
- Help: Get instructions and learn best practices.
The TalentLMS plugin currently provides you with only one shortcode: [talentlms-courses]. Use it to pull your course catalog and showcase it on your WP site.
Note: When the TalentLMS plugin is installed, a set of new WP pages are created automatically. Those pages contain the respective shortcodes. Currently, the TalentLMS plugin creates one new page (i.e., Courses). For the plugin to work properly, be careful not to change the slug (i.e., the URL friendly version of the page title) of a page. |
Step 3: Set up your TalentLMS plugin
1. On your TalentLMS plugin dashboard, click Setup.
2. In the respective field, type your TalentLMS domain (e.g., mycompany.talentlms.com).
Note: Do not include an “http://” or “https://” prefix. |
3. In the respective field, paste your TalentLMS API key.
Note: To generate and copy your API key, sign in to your TalentLMS account as Administrator, go to Home > Account & Settings and check Enable API (see this article). |
4. Click Submit to finish the set-up.
Note: For your TalentLMS plugin to work properly, you need to change your WP permalink structure. From the left-hand navigation panel, go to Settings > Permalinks. On the Common Settings list, check Post name and click Save Changes. |
Step 4: Integrate your TalentLMS plugin with WooCommerce
The TalentLMS plugin integrates with WooCommerce, the popular free eCommerce WP plugin. You can use the WP-enabled TalentLMS-WooCommerce integration to sell your courses through your WooCommerce store.
1. From the left-hand navigation panel go to Plugins > Add New. In the search field, type woocommerce to find the TalentLMS WP plugin in the WP plugins repository.
2. Click Install now to install the plugin. Then, click Activate to activate it on your site.
3. On your TalentLMS plugin dashboard, click Integrations.
4. Click Refresh course list to update the TalentLMS plugin cache.
Note: For performance reasons, when pulled into WordPress, the data from your TalentLMS domain are cached by the TalentLMS plugin. Sometimes, your course catalog may need updating to match your current catalog. |
5. From the updated catalog, choose the courses you want to integrate as WooCommerce products.
Note: Courses that are hidden or inactive on your TalentLMS domain are not displayed on this list. TalentLMS Course categories are all pulled into WP by default. |
6. Click Integrate to create WooCommerce products from your selected courses.
Step 5: Sell your TalentLMS Courses through WooCommerce
First, you have to make sure that your WooCommerce store does not allow guest checkouts. That way, to buy Courses, store visitors first have to create an account. That account is then synced to your TalentLMS portal.
- From the left-hand navigation panel, go to WooCommerce > Settings.
- Go to the Accounts & Privacy tab.
- On the Guest checkout checklist, uncheck Allow customers to place orders without an account.
To view your courses as WooCommerce products, click Products on the left-hand navigation panel.
When a user wants to purchase a course, all they have to do is add it in their cart and, on the cart page, click Proceed to checkout.
At this point, the user is asked to sign in as a returning customer, otherwise, submit their billing details to create an account before placing their order.
Note: Returning customers have to be both WordPress (assigned with a Customer role) and TalentLMS users so make sure they are all synced in both systems. New customers, registered through your WooCommerce store, are automatically added to TalentLMS as new Users. |
Once the user places their order, your WordPress administrator has to process it. When the order is marked as completed, only then the user is assigned to their purchased course in your TalentLMS portal.
Your WP-powered WooCommerce store is now ready for you to put your TalentLMS courses on display.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: In some of my plugin pages I get the following message that causes the plugin to malfunction: “Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at.” What can I do?
Answer: That usually happens when there are spaces, new lines, or other stuff before an opening “<?php” tag or after a closing “?>” tag in “wp-config.php.” For more on tackling this particular issue, see this article.
Q: When I add new courses to my TalentLMS domain, make changes to my Course settings (e.g., hide/show from catalog, activate/deactivate) or create custom fields for my Users, these changes do not show on my catalog.
A: The TalentLMS WP plugin communicates with your TalentLMS domain through the TalentLMS API. When pulled by your WordPress site, your data are cached for performance reasons. For your latest changes to show in your WordPress site, make sure to refresh your course list (see Step 4.4).
Q: Can the shortcode [talentlms-courses] be restricted to only display a specific category or a specific set of courses?
A: No, it can’t. By default, the shortcode produces a catalog containing all your TalentLMS courses and categories, even empty ones. Only hidden or inactive courses are excluded.
Q: I want my users to take courses and access their content from WordPress. Is that possible?
A: That’s not possible. Your users have to sign in to TalentLMS and take their courses within your portal.
Q: Do my customers need to create an account with WooCommerce and TalentLMS, or is it possible to enable guest checkout?
A: No. Your users have to register both as WooCommerce customers and as TalentLMS users. For your integration to work properly, the guest checkout option must be disabled.
Q: After installing and activating my plugin, I keep getting the following error message:
“TalentLMS_ApiError Object: API is not enabled for <domain>.talentlms.com”.
A: This error message is displayed when you haven’t yet enabled your TalentLMS API (see Step 3.3 or this article).