Locksmith Academy

Locksmith Academy — LMS & Membership Platform

Overview

Locksmith Academy is an online education platform for aspiring and practicing locksmiths. The project involved building a full-featured WordPress LMS and membership site — combining LearnDash for course delivery, Paid Memberships Pro for tiered subscription management, a custom-built knowledge base with vehicle-specific filtering, and a community forum — all gated behind membership tiers with Stripe payment integration.

The Challenge

The project required integrating multiple complex systems into a single cohesive platform. Key challenges included:

• Integrating LearnDash as the LMS while working within its native styling constraints for course, lesson, and dashboard pages
• Building a custom knowledge base with keyword search, AJAX functionality, and three dropdown filters for Year, Make, and Model
• Implementing a three-tier monthly subscription system with content access rules controlling the knowledge base, forum, and courses
• Integrating a community forum with restricted access for paid members
• Diagnosing and resolving a critical Stripe webhook 409 Conflict error that was preventing membership purchases from confirming automatically

Scope of Work

The platform was built across 9 pages covering marketing, LMS, membership, and community functionality:

• Marketing Pages — Home, About Us, FAQ, Blog, Updates / Release Notes
• LMS Pages — Course Listing, individual course and lesson pages via LearnDash
• Membership — Membership / Plans page with three subscription tiers
• Knowledge Base — Custom-built resources section with search, filters, and detail pages
• Community — Forum integration with membership-gated access

Development Process

LMS Setup — LearnDash

LearnDash was configured as the core LMS platform covering course structure, lessons, progress tracking, and the learner dashboard. Course and lesson pages follow LearnDash's native structure as these cannot be freely modified with Elementor. Colors and typography were aligned with the client's brand direction using custom CSS, consolidated under a single customization layer for maintainability.

Membership System — Paid Memberships Pro

Three monthly subscription tiers were configured using Paid Memberships Pro:

• Free Membership — Access to all free courses
• $25/month — Knowledge base access with full resource browsing and filters, support forum and community access, and all free courses
• $99/month — Full access to all paid courses, knowledge base, and community forum

Content access rules were applied to restrict the knowledge base and forum to appropriate membership tiers. A purchase prompt popup was implemented to appear when non-members attempt to access restricted content.

Custom Knowledge Base

The knowledge base was built entirely using custom post types and custom development — no plugin dependency. Features include keyword search via a search bar, AJAX-powered live search results, and three dropdown filters for Year, Make, and Model to allow vehicle-specific resource browsing. Related resources are displayed on each resource detail page. Access to the full knowledge base is restricted to paid members.

Forum Integration

A community forum plugin was integrated to support member-to-member interaction — allowing members to post questions, start discussions, and help one another. Forum access is restricted to paid membership tiers. Content, labels, and forum structure were set up and cleaned up for a polished initial state.

Homepage & Page Design

The homepage was structured with a "Become a Locksmith" section positioned prominently above the main content areas. A four-column curriculum table section — "Our Winning Curriculums" — was designed covering Residential Locksmithing, Commercial Locksmithing, Automotive Locksmithing, and Business & Marketing, each with a bullet list of topics and a Read More button. All pages were designed and made fully responsive.

Stripe Webhook Fix

A critical payment issue was identified where membership purchases were showing a "token" status in Stripe instead of "paid" — requiring manual order rechecking before access was granted. Investigation revealed a 409 Conflict error being returned by the PMPro webhook handler at 100% error rate. The root cause was traced to a conflict between multiple Stripe integrations active simultaneously — LearnDash Stripe and PMPro Stripe — causing duplicate webhook processing and conflicting order state. The conflicting integration was resolved, the webhook endpoint was corrected, and Stripe webhook delivery was restored to function automatically on purchase completion.

Key Features

• LearnDash LMS — Full course structure, lessons, progress tracking, and learner dashboard
• Three-Tier Monthly Membership — Free, $25, and $99 plans with distinct content access rules via Paid Memberships Pro
• Custom Knowledge Base — Built with custom post types, AJAX keyword search, and Year/Make/Model dropdown filters
• Restricted Content Gates — Knowledge base and forum access restricted to paid members with purchase prompt popup
• Forum Integration — Community forum with member posting, discussion, and restricted access
• Stripe Webhook Fix — 409 Conflict error diagnosed and resolved, restoring automatic payment confirmation
• Custom CSS Layer — All color and typography customizations consolidated under a single CSS customization block
• Full Responsiveness — All pages and templates tested and refined across devices

Result

A fully functional locksmith education platform with LearnDash course delivery, a three-tier monthly membership system, a custom vehicle-filterable knowledge base, a members-only community forum, and a resolved Stripe payment pipeline — delivering a complete, production-ready LMS and membership site for Locksmith Academy.