With SSO (Single-Sign-On), your students don't need a separate user account to access your online school, instead can use the existing login system of your built-in WordPress site.
A WordPress plugin connects a WordPress site with your LearnWorlds School for seamless browsing between them. This plugin will allow the LearnWorlds school to use the WordPress authentication system, meaning that all WordPress users would have access to the School.
In this article, we will learn more about the WordPress plugin and connect and activate the plugin in LearnWorlds.
Why should you use the WordPress plugin?
- If you already have built your business on WordPress, this plugin will help you provide amazing learning experiences. On your site, you can add a menu item with a link to your school. When members of your page click on this item, they directly connect to your learning material without the need to register at the school you have created with LearnWorlds.
- Imagine you've crafted a blog post to educate people on your subject. Now, elevate the learning experience by providing direct video training. Add a link with a shortcode to a course or learning activity, allowing readers to seamlessly explore more educational content without the need to create a new account.
- If you've designed a card-style course series on your website, members can sign in seamlessly, creating a white-label experience. Students won't realize they're connected with LearnWorlds; they'll feel like they're learning from your brand. (to learn how to create fully white-labeled schools, click here).
When a user wants to log in, sign up, or reset their password, they will be redirected to your WordPress site.
1. When a user finds your school and wants to Sign in, they are immediately redirected to the login/sign-up page of your WordPress site, and they have to sign in from there.
2. When a user wants to Sign up for your school, they are immediately redirected to your WordPress site's login/sign-up page and have to register from there.
3. When a user wants to Reset their password in your school, they are immediately redirected to your WordPress site.
Users are directed immediately to your school through an SSO link in your WordPress site without having to log in again. Once logged in to your WordPress site, they are already connected to the school and any of your school pages.
Benefits of this plugin
1. The LearnWorlds SSO plugin improves the browsing experience of your students by taking away the need to create new accounts or re-enter an email and password in both your WordPress and LearnWorlds school.
2. Every time a registered LearnWorlds user changes their email in their WordPress profile, the plugin updates that email to the LearnWorlds database as well, keeping the two neatly synced.
3. The plugin also supports WooCommerce and allows your website to use the default account management pages that are installed by the WooCommerce plugin.
How to connect your WordPress site with LearnWorlds
The connection between the WordPress and LearnWorlds sites is done manually with the use of your custom URLs (eg. courses, checkout pages, etc.) that work as links. Note that, if you change your domain name, you have to re-enter those links. So it is advisable that before creating the necessary connections with your WordPress site, you set up your custom domain in your school.
SSO links
You can use SSO links from your WordPress site to any of your school pages, which you can place practically anywhere using the shortcode provided. An example of a shortcode might be
[learnworlds-sso-link url="http://myschool.learnworlds.com" text="Login to school" logged-in-text="Go to school"]
You can create menu items on your site (with LearnWorlds endpoints menu items provided by the plugin). Suppose you want to add your new course as a menu item on your site. Here is how to do that:
In WordPress, go to the dashboard and select Appearance → Menus.
In the Add menu items section, choose Learnworlds endpoints and tick the SSO link box.
In the Menu structure section, insert the name you want to give to your item and the public URL of your course, which you can find in the Access tab on your Learnworlds author page.
The menu item will then appear in the place you have selected, and your members will have immediate access to your new course.
SSO school link
You can add a school link with the SSO widget provided by the plugin.
How to Activate the Plugin in LearnWorlds
You may follow the plugin instructions to install it on your WordPress site. You will need to request your API credentials according to our article: How to request your API keys.
When you are set with your WP SSO plugin:
1. Navigate to Website → Website settings → Authentication → Custom SSO.
2. Add a new Custom SSO.
3. Activate Custom SSO and add a name for this Custom solution.
4. Paste the SSO URL displayed in your WP SSO plugin settings to the corresponding field. Press the Test URL to check that the URL is working.
5. Click on Create to save your settings. Your users may now Single Sign-On by using your favorite IDP.
If you plan to completely disable LearnWorlds login and use Custom SSO as an authentication method, it is mandatory to change the Site Navigation settings in the Payment Flow section for Logged-out users, as they will need to sign up/log in before proceeding to the payment page.
Also, you need to ensure that in all Payment Sections of your school's pages, 1-click Sales funnels, or the Payment Page of your school, the Sign in/up form option is set to hide since the user will not be able to sign in/up via the Learnworlds system.
- If you set up an SSO solution and disable the LearnWorlds login, all the users will be redirected to the SSO provider to authenticate, LearnWorlds passwords will no longer be valid. The users need to exist or sign up with the SSO authentication provider. The change of the authentication provider will only change the authentication mechanism, all the user data as well as their roles (admin, instructor, etc.) will be intact.
- The SSO mechanism uses the user’s email address to identify the user (unique key); therefore, to change the user's email address, you need to manually update the new email both in your school and on your IDP.
Furthermore, you may use the bulk import (and enroll) functionality in case you need to import users that already exist in your SSO provider.
If you're using WordPress as an authentication method, it's mandatory to change the Site Navigation settings in the Payment Flow section for Logged-out users, as they will need to sign up/log in before proceeding to the payment page (see above).
- If you revert to LearnWorlds authentication, users created via the SSO authentication will need to create a new password. Passwords can be changed:
- By the user via the forgot password mechanism
- By the admin reset and/or update password mechanisms
- The LearnWorlds password update/reset functionality as well as sign-up are only available for the Default LearnWorlds Authentication mechanism. Any other SSO authentication mechanisms will need to handle these functionalities.
- The built-in Affiliate Management program can not be used for users who use SSO providers to sign in
- If you want to use more than three custom SSO, SAML, or OpenID solutions in total, please contact us at support@learnworlds.com. In case you are on the Learning Center plan you can also add 3 more by purchasing our scale package.