LD Plugin Template

A GitHub template repository for building WordPress plugins that extend LearnDash LMS. It ships a working, minimal plugin — a LearnDash-aware dynamic block, an example custom post type, a REST endpoint, local dev via wp-env, and a tag-driven release workflow — so you start from a buildable, installable plugin instead of a blank folder.

This template's conventions are extracted from ld-lesson-journal.

Using this template

1. Click Use this template → Create a new repository on GitHub (or clone this repo and point it at your own remote).

2. Run the one-time setup script to rename the placeholders:

   bin/setup.sh "My Plugin Name" my-plugin-slug myp

   It replaces every placeholder, renames the placeholder files, and deletes itself. The three arguments are optional — omit them to be prompted.

   Arg	Placeholder	Becomes	Used for
   Name	LD Plugin Template	your title	plugin header, labels
   Slug	ld-plugin-template	your slug	folder, text domain, main file
   Prefix	ldpt / LDPT	your prefix	functions, constants, classes, block namespace, CSS/JS handles

3. Build and start hacking (see Development).

What gets renamed

bin/setup.sh performs a case-sensitive find/replace across the repo:

• LD Plugin Template → your plugin name
• ld-plugin-template → your slug (src/ld-plugin-template.php, text domain, .wp-env.json mapping, release workflow)
• LDPT → your uppercase prefix (LDPT_VERSION, class names like LDPT_REST)
• ldpt → your lowercase prefix (ldpt_init, block name ldpt/example, ldpt-frontend handles, CSS classes)

and renames src/ld-plugin-template.php and src/includes/class-ldpt-*.php accordingly.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.5+
• PHP 8.1+
• LearnDash LMS 4.0+

The plugin checks for LearnDash at runtime (defined( 'LEARNDASH_VERSION' )) and shows an admin notice instead of fatally erroring when it is missing.

What's included

• LearnDash dependency check — features only register when LearnDash is active.
• Shared block category — registers a LearnDash LMS Blocks inserter category (idempotent).
• Example dynamic block (ldpt/example) — a server-rendered block with a course picker fed by the REST route, plus editable RichText fields.
• Example CPT + taxonomy + meta (ldpt_item) — hidden from the front end, nested under the LearnDash admin menu, exposed to REST, with a side meta box.
• Example REST routes (ldpt/v1/courses, ldpt/v1/lessons) — capability-checked endpoints for editor-side course/lesson pickers.
• Activation / deactivation / uninstall hooks with clear extension points for custom tables.
• wp-env config for local WordPress.
• Release workflow — pushing a v* tag builds, version-stamps, zips, and publishes a GitHub Release.

Project structure

src/
  ld-plugin-template.php          # Plugin bootstrap: constants, hooks, dependency check
  uninstall.php                   # Clean removal
  includes/
    class-ldpt-post-type.php      # Example CPT + taxonomy + meta box
    class-ldpt-rest.php           # Example REST routes (courses / lessons)
  blocks/
    example/                      # Example dynamic block (block.json, index.js, render.php)
  assets/
    css/ldpt-frontend.css         # Shared frontend styles (handle: ldpt-frontend)
    css/ldpt-admin.css            # Admin styles
    js/ldpt-frontend.js           # Shared frontend script (handle: ldpt-frontend)
bin/
  setup.sh                        # One-time rename script (self-deleting)
.github/workflows/release.yml     # Tag-driven build & release
webpack.config.js                 # One entry per block under src/blocks/*
.wp-env.json                      # Local WordPress environment

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 LTS — wp-env (via @wordpress/scripts@30 / @wordpress/env@11) is not compatible with very new Node majors (e.g. 24/26), where wp-env start can silently fail to bring up the WordPress container. The release workflow pins Node 20.
• Docker (running, for wp-env)

Setup

npm install

LearnDash is not publicly downloadable, so wp-env expects it locally. Place a copy of the sfwd-lms plugin at wp-content/plugins/sfwd-lms (this path is git-ignored), then start the environment.

Commands

npm run build        # Build block JS/CSS into src/build/
npm run start        # Watch mode for development
npm run lint:js      # Lint block JavaScript
npm run env:start    # Start local WordPress via wp-env
npm run env:stop     # Stop wp-env

Adding a block

1. Create src/blocks/<name>/ with block.json, index.js, and render.php (copy blocks/example/ as a starting point).
2. Add an entry to webpack.config.js: '<name>/index': path.resolve( __dirname, 'src/blocks/<name>/index.js' ).
3. Register it in the bootstrap's ldpt_register_blocks(): register_block_type( LDPT_PATH . 'blocks/<name>' ).

Releasing

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0

The workflow stamps the version into the plugin header and LDPT_VERSION, builds the blocks, zips src/ into an installable plugin folder, and attaches the zip to an auto-generated GitHub Release. Tags containing a hyphen (e.g. v0.2.0-beta.1) are marked as prereleases.

License

MIT — see LICENSE. MIT is GPL-compatible, so plugins built from this template remain fine to distribute on WordPress.org.