Step 1: Upload the plugin

1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard
2. Navigate to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
3. Click Choose File and select the downloaded ZIP file
4. Click Install Now, then Activate Plugin

Step 2: Activate your license

After activation, navigate to the License Management page. Its location depends on whether other Ksajie plugins are installed:

• If the Ksajie hub is present: Ksajie → TLE License
• If no Ksajie hub is present: TLE License in the main WordPress admin sidebar

Enter your license key and click Activate License. The plugin will block all functionality until the license is active.

Step 3: Verify template deployment

After license activation, browse to any lesson page on the frontend. The comment form should display the TinyMCE editor with a toolbar instead of a plain textarea. If the editor does not appear, check that lesson comments are enabled in Tutor LMS settings and that the template files have been created in your active theme at {theme}/tutor/single/lesson/.

Toolbar

The editor toolbar includes one row of formatting controls: Bold, Italic, Underline, Bullet List, Numbered List, Link, Unlink. The Visual/Text tab switcher is hidden for a cleaner appearance. The editor height is fixed at 200px.

How submission works

When the Submit button is clicked, the plugin intercepts the form submission, syncs the TinyMCE content to the underlying textarea, validates that the comment is not empty (unless an image is attached), then posts the data to Tutor LMS’s AJAX endpoint. On success the page reloads to prevent comment duplication. On error an alert is shown and the submit button is re-enabled.

HTML preservation

WordPress’s default comment system strips most HTML tags. The plugin hooks into WordPress’s comment filters to selectively allow safe formatting tags — bold, italic, underline, lists, and links — to pass through on lesson and assignment comments. All other HTML is still stripped as normal.

Reply box behavior

Each comment has a Reply link. Clicking it shows the reply form below that comment. Clicking it again, or clicking Reply on a different comment, hides the current form. Only one reply box is open at a time.

Image attachments

A paperclip button below each comment and reply form allows attaching a single image. Accepted formats are JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP with a maximum size of 2MB per file — enforced in the browser before upload and again on the server. After selecting a file, the name and size are shown next to the button with a Remove link.

Uploaded images are stored in the WordPress Media Library as standard attachments and embedded in the comment as an image. If the Restrict Image Uploads to Instructors Only setting is enabled, students see no attach button and server-side uploads from non-instructors are blocked.

Voting rules

Vote counts update immediately via AJAX without a page reload. The database uses a unique constraint on the combination of comment ID and user ID to prevent duplicate votes at the database level.

When notifications are sent

• When a new top-level comment is posted on a lesson
• When a reply is posted on a lesson comment (reply notifications are sent after the page response completes to avoid interfering with Tutor LMS’s AJAX handling)

Who receives notifications

• All students enrolled in the course at the time the comment is posted
• The course author (primary instructor)
• Any additional instructors assigned to the course via Tutor LMS
• The comment author is excluded — they do not receive a notification about their own comment
• All recipient addresses are de-duplicated before sending

Email content

Each notification is an HTML email with inline styles for broad email client compatibility. It includes a colored header banner (“New Comment Posted” or “New Reply Posted”), the commenter’s display name, course name, lesson name, a blockquote showing up to 150 characters of the comment text, and a “View Lesson & Reply” button linking directly to the lesson. The subject line format is: [Course Name] New comment on "Lesson Name".

How templates are deployed

On every page load, the plugin checks whether its template files exist in the active theme and whether they match the current plugin version. If they are missing or outdated, they are copied automatically. The three files deployed are:

Automatic updates

The plugin stores the deployed template version in the WordPress options table. On each page load, if the current plugin version is newer than the stored version, the template files are automatically re-deployed to keep them current with new features.

Template cleanup

When the license is deactivated, or when the plugin is deactivated or uninstalled, the plugin automatically deletes the deployed template files from the theme and removes any empty parent directories it created. Your theme is left exactly as it was before the plugin was installed.

The Filter

Hook into the filter using the name tle_comment_notification_email_template. It accepts two parameters:

$data Reference

The second parameter passed to your filter callback is an associative array containing all the information you need to build your custom template.

Where to Add Your Code

Add your filter code to one of the following locations:

• Your active theme’s functions.php file
• A child theme’s functions.php file (recommended — survives theme updates)
• A custom site-specific plugin

Basic Example — Replacing the Entire Template

The following example replaces the entire default email with a minimal custom template:

add_filter(
    'tle_comment_notification_email_template',
    function( $html, $data ) {

        $comment_type = $data['is_reply'] ? 'reply' : 'comment';

        ob_start();
        ?>
        <!DOCTYPE html>
        <html>
        <body style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #333;">

            <h2>New <?php echo esc_html( $comment_type ); ?> posted</h2>

            <p>
                <strong><?php echo esc_html( $data['author_name'] ); ?></strong>
                posted a new <?php echo esc_html( $comment_type ); ?>
                on the lesson <strong><?php echo esc_html( $data['lesson_name'] ); ?></strong>
                in the course <strong><?php echo esc_html( $data['course_name'] ); ?></strong>.
            </p>

            <blockquote>
                <?php echo esc_html( $data['comment_excerpt'] ); ?>
            </blockquote>

            <p>
                <a href="<?php echo esc_url( $data['lesson_url'] ); ?>">
                    View Lesson
                </a>
            </p>

        </body>
        </html>
        <?php
        return ob_get_clean();

    },
    10,
    2 // Important: must be 2 to receive $data as second argument
);

Modifying the Default Template

If you only need to make small adjustments rather than replacing the template entirely, you can manipulate the $html string the plugin passes in. The following example changes the header background colour:

add_filter(
    'tle_comment_notification_email_template',
    function( $html, $data ) {

        // Replace the default blue header colour with your brand colour
        $html = str_replace(
            'background-color: #3e64de',
            'background-color: #e84393',
            $html
        );

        return $html;

    },
    10,
    2
);

Distinguishing Comments from Replies

Use the is_reply key in $data to change your template content depending on whether the notification was triggered by a new comment or a reply:

add_filter(
    'tle_comment_notification_email_template',
    function( $html, $data ) {

        if ( $data['is_reply'] ) {
            $heading = 'Someone replied to a comment on ' . esc_html( $data['lesson_name'] );
        } else {
            $heading = 'New comment on ' . esc_html( $data['lesson_name'] );
        }

        // Build your template using $heading ...

        return $html; // return your custom HTML

    },
    10,
    2
);

Important Rules

• Always return a string. Your callback must always return a string. Returning null, false, or nothing will result in a blank email being sent.
• Always escape output. Use esc_html() for all text values and esc_url() for lesson_url when building your template.
• Set the correct argument count. The fourth argument to add_filter() must be 2 so WordPress passes both $html and $data to your callback.
• Use inline CSS. Email clients have limited CSS support. All styles must be written inline using the style attribute on each HTML element. External stylesheets and <style> blocks in the <head> are ignored by most email clients.
• Use table-based layouts. For consistent rendering across email clients including Outlook, use HTML tables for layout rather than CSS flexbox or grid.