Lw Lms REST Frontend

LW LMS: REST frontend consumer

For frontend developers consuming LW LMS data: course catalog, course detail, lesson player, progress dashboard, and protected downloads. The core lw-lms plugin ships a headless REST API; it does not ship public templates, shortcodes, or blocks.

BETA NOTICE. The plugin README says the plugin is under active development and not recommended for production use. Snapshot the JSON shapes in tests and review CHANGELOG.md before upgrading. This skill is verified against local lw-lms v1.6.0.

Version deltas that matter

• v1.6.0: no route or JSON-schema change. A server-side lw_lms_has_course_access callback can now alter the final logged-in paid-course access decision after built-in access checks, which affects access.has_access, lesson accessibility, attachments, lesson detail, progress writes, and protected downloads.
• v1.5.1: maintenance release, no functional REST changes.
• v1.5.0: paid-course denied access payload can include memberships when WooCommerce Memberships is active and the course has _lw_lms_membership_plan_ids.
• v1.4.0: course content in /courses/{id} is public marketing/about content. It is no longer gated behind access.has_access. Lesson content is still gated by /lessons/{id}.
• v1.4.0: open-course lessons remain accessible to guests even if marked as preview.
• v1.3.0: first logged-in access to a free course lazily writes a source='free' access row server-side; the REST consumer does not need to do anything special.
• v1.2.15: denied paid-course access payload can include subscription_variations.

Misconception this skill corrects

"I should use course.content as the access gate."

Wrong for v1.4.0+. CourseTransformer::transform_full() always includes the course content; this is the public course description. Use course.access.has_access and each lesson's accessible flag for gating.

// WRONG: course content is public and is not proof of access.
if (course.content) {
    renderLessonPlayer();
}

// RIGHT: access comes from access.has_access and per-lesson accessible.
if (course.access.has_access) {
    return <CourseContent html={course.content} progress={course.progress} />;
}

return <PurchaseGate access={course.access} />;

Lesson body content still comes from GET /lms/v1/lessons/{id} and returns 403 forbidden when AccessChecker::has_lesson_access() denies the request.

In v1.6.0, a companion plugin may provide the final logged-in paid-course decision through lw_lms_has_course_access. Frontend code should continue to trust the server response; it must not reproduce membership or entitlement rules in JavaScript. Backend callbacks must be deterministic: the full-course transformer checks course access twice, so a changing result can make access.has_access disagree with lesson/attachment gating in one response.

REST API surface

Namespace: lms/v1, mounted at /wp-json/lms/v1/....

Detailed response contract

Read references/rest-response-contract.md when implementing request parameters, full JSON shapes, nullable fields, lesson errors, progress validation, or binary downloads. The route/auth/access decisions and client safety rules remain in this main skill.

Authentication

For browser fetch, include both nonce and credentials:

await fetch('/wp-json/lms/v1/progress', {
  method: 'POST',
  credentials: 'same-origin',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'X-WP-Nonce': wpApiSettings.nonce
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ course_id: 42, lesson_id: 100, status: 'completed' })
});

Critical rules

• Course content is public in v1.4.0+; never use it as the access gate.
• A server-side v1.6.0 paid-access filter may change access without creating an enrollment row; the REST response remains the authority for the client.
• Lesson detail and download endpoints are the protected surfaces.
• Iterate both sections and lessons_without_section.
• Render locked lessons disabled, not hidden.
• access.memberships is available only when WooCommerce Memberships functions exist and linked plans are configured.
• List endpoint access info is intentionally small; build purchase gates from the single-course response.
• course_progress uses completed_lessons, not completed_count.
• completed_at is null for non-completed rows.
• content_raw is editor-only source content; do not render it in public UI.
• download_url is already a full REST URL; do not reconstruct it by concatenating /wp-json.
• The download endpoint returns binary data; do not call response.json() on it.

Common mistakes

// WRONG: only iterating sections.
course.sections.map(section => <Section section={section} />);

// RIGHT: include orphan lessons too.
<>
  {course.sections.map(section => <Section key={section.id} section={section} />)}
  {course.lessons_without_section.length > 0 && (
    <LessonGroup lessons={course.lessons_without_section} />
  )}
</>

// WRONG: old pre-1.4 assumption.
const canAccess = Boolean(course.content);

// RIGHT.
const canAccess = course.access.has_access;

// WRONG: progress key from stale docs.
<ProgressBar value={data.course_progress.completed_count} />

// RIGHT.
<ProgressBar value={data.course_progress.completed_lessons} />

// WRONG: POST body missing course_id.
fetch('/wp-json/lms/v1/progress', {
  method: 'POST',
  body: JSON.stringify({ lesson_id: 100, status: 'completed' })
});

// RIGHT.
fetch('/wp-json/lms/v1/progress', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'X-WP-Nonce': wpApiSettings.nonce },
  credentials: 'same-origin',
  body: JSON.stringify({ course_id: 42, lesson_id: 100, status: 'completed' })
});

Cross-references

• Use lw-lms-backend-extend for hooks, access/progress repositories, and companion-plugin backend integration.
• Use lw-lms-abilities for admin/agent lw-lms/* Abilities API calls; those are not the learner-facing REST endpoints.
• Use lw-lms-wp-cli-operations for operational WP-CLI course, lesson, enrollment, revoke, and force-complete commands.
• Use lw-lms-learndash-migration for the one-time LearnDash migration command.

What this skill does NOT cover

• A separate frontend plugin. This skill documents the core lw-lms REST contract only.
• Payment processing. Link to WooCommerce products/subscriptions/membership join URLs and let WooCommerce handle checkout.
• Custom REST route registration. Use normal WordPress register_rest_route() patterns in a companion plugin.
• Server-rendered theme templates. You can consume REST server-side, but direct CPT/meta queries are usually simpler in PHP templates.

References

• REST namespace and route registration: includes/Api/RestApi.php.
• Course list/detail routes: includes/Api/Controllers/CoursesController.php.
• Lesson route and 403 behavior: includes/Api/Controllers/LessonsController.php.
• Progress routes and cross-validation: includes/Api/Controllers/ProgressController.php.
• Download route and binary response: includes/Api/Controllers/DownloadController.php.
• Course response shape and public content: includes/Api/Transformers/CourseTransformer.php.
• Lesson response shape: includes/Api/Transformers/LessonTransformer.php.
• Progress row shape: includes/Api/Transformers/ProgressTransformer.php.
• Paid access payload including memberships: includes/Access/AccessChecker.php, includes/Access/MembershipChecker.php.
• Official documentation: https://github.com/lwplugins/lw-lms
• Verified source paths:
  • wp-content/plugins/lw-lms/includes/Access/SubscriptionVariationChecker.php
  • wp-content/plugins/lw-lms/includes/Access/WooCommerceChecker.php
  • wp-content/plugins/lw-lms/includes/Meta/VideoParser.php
  • wp-content/plugins/lw-lms/includes/Progress/ProgressCalculator.php
  • wp-content/plugins/lw-lms/CHANGELOG.md