Email & notifications
Sikshya sends transactional emails at every important moment — welcome, enrollment, purchase, completion, certificate issued. This page is the practical guide for editing them, making them deliverable, and unlocking branded / automated email with Pro.
The Email hub
Open Sikshya → Email. Two tabs:
- Delivery — site-wide sender settings.
- Templates — every transactional email, listed individually.
Delivery settings
The Delivery tab covers the basics that decide whether your emails land in inboxes or spam:
- Main LMS contact email — the academy's contact address (used in receipts, "reply to" headers).
- Where to send admin notices — admin notifications go here. Default: site admin email.
- From address — the visible "From" address. Use a
noreply@yourdomain.comon a domain you control. - From name — usually your academy / company name.
- Reply address — where replies go (default: same as From).
- Allow Sikshya to send transactional email — master kill-switch. Leave on.
- Email the certificate to the learner — toggle to also attach / link the certificate in the Course completed email.
wp_mail() is unreliable on most hosts. Connect a real ESP (SendGrid, Postmark, Mailgun, Amazon SES) using a transport plugin like WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP, or Post SMTP. Then configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for the From domain.Templates
The Templates tab lists every email type in your store, with columns:
- Name — what the template does.
- Audience — admin, instructor, or learner.
- Trigger — what fires it (event name).
- Status — Active or Inactive.
Search the list by name. Tick rows to Enable selected, Disable selected, or bulk-delete custom templates.
Free transactional emails
These ship with the free plugin and are seeded on activation:
| Template | Audience | Triggered by |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome email | Learner | New user registration |
| Course enrollment | Learner | Enrolled in a course |
| New enrollment notice | Admin | Enrolled in a course |
| Instructor's new enrollment | Instructor | Enrolled in a course |
| Payment receipt | Learner | Order fulfilled |
| Order fulfilled notice | Admin | Order fulfilled |
| Course completed | Learner | Course completion |
| Certificate issued | Learner | Certificate issued |
| Progress reminder | Learner | Inactivity reminder (Pro extends) |
Pro-only templates
When a Pro add-on is active, more templates appear here. Examples:
| Template | Available with |
|---|---|
| Drip lesson unlocked PRO | Drip notifications add-on |
| Drip course unlocked PRO | Drip notifications add-on |
| Daily drip digest PRO | Drip notifications add-on |
| New question (instructor) PRO | Community discussions / Q&A |
Edit a template
Click any template name to open the editor:
Top of the page
- ← Back to templates — list view.
- Preview — opens a sample render in a new tab.
- Save template — persists changes.
- Status toggle — Active / Inactive.
Fields
- Template name — internal label (won't change behavior).
- Description — short note for your team.
- Trigger event — system templates show this as read-only; custom templates let you pick from the trigger list.
- Send to (merge tags) — who receives this. Use tags like
{{learner_email}},{{instructor_email}},{{admin_email}}. - Subject line — supports merge tags (e.g. "Welcome to
{{site_name}}!"). - Email body (HTML) — the full message. The right rail lists every variable you can use; click one to copy.
Available merge tags
The most-used:
| Tag | Renders |
|---|---|
{{site_name}} | Your site / academy name |
{{site_url}} | Site root URL |
{{learner_name}} | Learner's display name |
{{learner_first_name}} | First name (parsed) |
{{learner_email}} | Learner's email |
{{course_title}} | Course title |
{{course_url}} | Permalink to the course |
{{lesson_title}} | Lesson title (where applicable) |
{{quiz_title}} | Quiz title |
{{order_id}} | Sikshya order id |
{{order_total}} | Total in display currency |
{{order_url}} | Order detail URL |
{{certificate_url}} | Issued certificate URL |
{{instructor_name}} | Instructor display name |
{{login_url}} | Login URL |
{{account_url}} | Learner account URL |
{{date}} / {{time}} | Now (site timezone) |
Whitespace inside braces is OK — {{ course_title }} works the same as {{course_title}}.
Locked templates
Some rows show a lock icon and "Add-on required" text. These templates only render when the corresponding Pro add-on is on.
When you use the Content drip add-on, the Drip notifications add-on emails learners when their next lesson unlocks. Three templates: lesson unlocked, course unlocked, daily digest. Combine them with drip rules for a paced cohort experience.
Unlock drip notifications →Test a template
The fastest test: enroll yourself in a course in a private window and watch the Welcome + Enrollment + Receipt emails land. Or:
- Click the Preview button on the template editor — opens a rendered preview without sending.
- Send yourself a manual test enrollment from People → Enrollments → manual enroll.
If a template doesn't fire:
- Check the template Status is Active.
- Check delivery is on (Email → Delivery → Allow Sikshya to send transactional email).
- Check your SMTP / ESP plugin shows the message in its log.
Pro email features
Sikshya Pro layers four email-related add-ons on top of the free transactional pipeline:
Plug Sikshya into a real transactional ESP with a guided UI (no third-party plugin needed) and wrap every message in a branded multi-template kit (header, footer, accent color, logo).
Unlock branded delivery →Per-template HTML overrides, extra layout slots, conditional content blocks (different copy for different course categories).
Unlock advanced customization →Trigger sequences (Day 0 → Day 3 → Day 7 → Day 14) on enrollment, completion, abandoned cart. Each step is a template; the engine handles timing and branching.
Unlock CRM sequences →Sync enrollments and completions to a Mailchimp or MailerLite list / segment automatically. Run drip campaigns and broadcasts in your marketing tool, fed by Sikshya activity.
Unlock marketing sync →Logs
If you've enabled email logging (in Tools), every email send is recorded with timestamp, recipient, template, and status. Open Tools → Activity log PRO for the full audit trail.
What's next
- Pro add-ons — every Pro feature listed.
- Troubleshooting — fix bounced or missing email.
- Hooks & filters — extend email behavior in code.