Easier LearnDash Group Management
Our LearnDash Groups 2.6 release is big. It adds features that make it easier for Group Leaders to add and communicate with group members. That’s right, we added email functions! And there’s new front end group creation, more Theme My Login support, changes to filters… Let’s take a closer look.
Add & Invite Users
Because inviting individual users, uploading users by CSV and enrollment keys weren’t enough for Group Leaders to add users to groups, we listened to your requests and added a new interface to add users in bulk. Rather than having to add one user at a time, now Group Leaders can add multiple users from a single page. For large groups, this addition could save a lot of time.
Email Group Members
For a lot of sites this will be a big improvement. Uncanny LearnDash Groups 2.6 adds a new feature that allows Group Leaders to email their students right from the Group Management page. To use it, there’s a new optional attribute for the [uo_groups] shortcode of “group_email_button”. You need to turn this one on (so Group Leaders can’t suddenly send emails without you knowing about it), so make sure your shortcode looks like this to use the new button: [uo_groups group_email_button=”show”] (plus any other attributes you want to use). Please note that emails sent with this new functionality are sent on behalf of Group Leaders (so the reply-to address will be theirs) and that emails go to all members of the group.
Front End Group Creation
We’ve been reluctant to add this one, but by popular request it is now possible for users to create their own groups in the front end of LearnDash sites. Adding [uo_groups_create_group] as a shortcode to any page adds our Group Creation wizard to the front end, and the group creation form can be used by any user with the Group Leader or Administrator role. Be very cautious about using this shortcode and make sure the page is properly protected, whether it’s by membership plugin or other control, because in most cases you likely won’t want anyone to be able to create groups and add group leaders. It’s a very powerful feature, and we know it will be of use to many sites, but be very careful about access to it.
And There’s More…
Theme My Login 7.x support has been added for registration forms. The shift to version 7 of this plugin has been difficult and we’ve largely stopped using it ourselves, but enough Groups users have it to make this update necessary.
Drop-down lists in the course and quiz reports have been modified so that if there’s a single entry, that entry will be selected by default. That will save Group Leaders time and improve their user experience. The drop-down lists are now formatted to appear inline, rather than stacked, to save valuable page real estate. If you’ve applied custom CSS styling to these, you’ll want to check to ensure they still look good after you update.
Developers will appreciate some behind-the-scenes changes for easier modification of the plugin and support for custom roles in our permissioning model. Bulk discounts have improved tax support when tax is included in the product price, and a number of other fixes are included to improve general reliability and usability of the plugin.
All set to start using Uncanny LearnDash Groups 2.6? Make sure your license is up to date and then run the update on your site!
If I could add a gif of someone dancing 🕺 to these comments that would express my joy about this update. This is brilliant guys – well done.
Thanks. A very long-time awaited update. This will save a lot of time for leaders of large groups