Welcome
This page presents demonstrations the Video Archive using Learndash elements within the Community Hub.
Development Methodology
We invite you to engage with us using a simplified development methodology:
Discovery
- Meeting: discuss vision, needs, concerns, and high level scope
- Development action: proof of concepts, clickable prototypes, etc
Iteration
- Meeting (***we are here): review prototype, answer questions, discuss implementation scope
- Development action: implement agreed-to scope of work, complete features, fill in data, etc
Delivery
- Meeting: final review, QA, and any iterations needed
- Development action: make features live, documentation, set up monitoring, etc
Discovery Exploration
Starting with the vision of a video archive that might be organized using Learndash, but needs ability to filter and organize based around the concept of “folders”, we explored two major options.
We also considered how to restrict content to paying members.
1. Custom Post Type with additional Taxonomies
We explored using Custom Post Types with custom taxonomy for “instructor”. This would represent a video as a post and enable all the WordPress-native organization around Catagories, Tags, and now Instructors.
How to Restrict Paid Content
There are two ways to restrict this content. First, we could use a standard membership plugin to restrict membership to the entire community site. Second, we could use WooCommerce’s Restrict Content plugin to restrict access to all the Video archive page and any Video tagged with “MCC2021” or whatever desired category.
2. LearnDash with additional custom taxonomy
LearnDash offers many desirable features for the video archive such as:
- Integration with Social Groups
- A variety of ways to restrict content
- Deep integrations with BuddyBoss and Elementor (key plugins of the WordPress site)
- Intuitive organization and viewing experience
- Future-proofed for Mobile App
However, it did not provide out-of-the-box support for two features:
- Multiple instructors for Topics, which is important to ensure organization of videos by participants. We added a custom tag field for “instructor”, which enables filtering topics by instructor/speaker. These tags may subsequently be linked to the social profile of the speaker within the community site.
- Filter/Organize Videos. LearnDash focuses more at the course level, then the individual topic. In order to power the filter/organization features, we reply on WordPress-native archive features for custom posts with custom taxonomies. You can see the ability to filter and display videos by:
- Instructor/speaker
- Tag like “psychology” or “theology”
- Category like “panel” or “talk” or “presentation”
How to restrict/sell content
Learndash offers multiple ways to restirct and sell content. We may have a one-time purchase or a subscription, we can open up lessons as samples, and we can schedule release of content.
Conclusion
- LearnDash offers many more features than the CPT strategy.
- LearnDash offers out-of-the-box paid content (using paypal or stripe)
- Organization requires custom development and configuration including:
- Video Archive Dashboard page (see below)
- Customization of the LearnDash templates to display taxonomies, see “Instructors” under video content of a lesson
Questions for Iteration Phase
- Can you confirm that Learndash is the direction we want to go?
- How do you want to sell the archive? One-time buy using stripe or paypal?
- What do you think about linking the Video Archive directly with a social group?
- What about making social profiles for the speakers (the speaker doesn’t have to sign up for the community site unless they want)?
- What are you thoughts about the organization below? Do you have any vision or desire about the design of the Video Archive dashboard page?
- What are your marketing needs? Shall we set up Groundhog for Paul/Nancy or another means of marketing integration?
Action items for Iteration Phase
- Complete Video Archive dashboard based on insights from this meeting
- Complete course restriction/sale process
- Reconcile MakingContact.com schedule with LearnDash data
Things we need from LSGA before Review Phase
- Finalized schedule
- Links to recorded videos
- Featured images for each talk (could be screenshot of live talk or I can grab a video still)
- Paypal or Stripe data for payment processing (can coordinate with Victoria)
- Community/Archive landing page direction
Next Meetings?
We may need 1-2 check-ins before final delivery of the Archive page to iterate on:
- Archive/Community landing page
- Payment processing
- Archive dashboard experience
We suggest penciling in two meetings:
- Iteration check-in next week, Aug 16-20
- Final Review, ~ Aug 22-24, after video recordings are provided
The Video Archive Learndash Course
Here is a link to the course, you may check it out. It currently offers the Day 1 lesson as a sample.
Payment Setup
The out of the box payment system requires you to have a Community account and if you try to pay for it now, you will go to the Paypal sandbox, which will not charge you and is set up for testing.
We may want to consider ways to unify payment and account creation. It may be very straightforward to open the community site, with the course for free, then restrict the course after 2 weeks.
Video Organization through WordPress Taxonomies
Here are several widgets, which we can use to set up the Video Archive dashboard or to promote the course throughout the community site.
The Instructor/Speaker video lists can be display on the Speaker’s social profile if desired.
