How to spice up your LearnDash comments with wpDiscuz

The article explains how comment sections beneath lesson content can help reduce instructor workload by allowing community members to answer questions and share knowledge. However, default LearnDash comments are basic WordPress comments.

Warning for Shared Course Steps Users

“a comment made in a lesson shared between two courses will show up in both courses.” Consider using Shared Post Parts as an alternative if this behavior isn’t desired.

Default LearnDash Comments

LearnDash uses WordPress’s built-in commenting functionality, resulting in plain comment sections. The article suggests wpDiscuz as one solution to enhance these comments.

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Install wpDiscuz Search for and activate the free wpDiscuz plugin from WordPress.org.

Step 2: Test on WordPress Posts After activation, check a blog post to see wpDiscuz features like upvoting, sorting options, and email subscriptions.

Step 3: Enable for LearnDash Post Types Navigate to wpDiscuz → Forms → Edit Default Form, then check the boxes for sfwd-lessons and sfwd-topic in the Display comment form section.

Step 4: Create Template Override Create a new file at: wp-content/uploads/learndash/templates/ld30/focus/comments.php

Add only this code:

<?php
comments_template();

Step 5: Verify Check LearnDash → Settings → Support to confirm the template override is recognized.

Key Benefit

This override enables LearnDash to leverage the WordPress core comments_template() function, allowing wpDiscuz to work properly with LearnDash content.

Testing Recommendation

The author advises testing on a staging environment first, as various WordPress configurations may produce different results.