Course Author
Course Author
Displays the instructors assigned to the current LifterLMS course: profile picture, display name, LifterLMS role label, biography and an optional link to the author's post archive. The widget extends Elementor Pro's Author Box widget, so it looks and styles like that widget but reads the course's instructors instead of the post author.
The widget is built on Elementor Pro's Author Box widget and is not registered when Elementor Pro is inactive.
Usage
Course template — Place the widget on a course template built with Templates > Theme Builder so every course page introduces its instructor; see How to Build a Course Template. It resolves the course from the current page, so it also works on lesson templates, where it shows the parent course's instructors.
Several instructors — Assign more than one instructor in the course's LifterLMS settings and the widget renders one author box per instructor, in the order LifterLMS returns them, all sharing the same settings.
Link to more from the author — Set Link to Website to make the picture and name open the author's website, or to Posts Archive to open their WordPress author archive. Turn on Archive Button for a separate button that always points to the author archive.
Compact byline — Turn off Biography and Archive Button, set Layout to Left and leave Display Label on to get a single line of picture, name and role that fits next to the Course Meta widget.
How it works
The widget looks up the course from the current page, asks LifterLMS for that course's instructors and prints one Elementor author box per instructor. Instructor data comes from the WordPress user profile.
| Situation | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Course or lesson page | The course is the current course, or the lesson's parent course. Each instructor is rendered inside a le-instructor-box wrapper using Elementor's elementor-author-box markup. |
| No instructor set on the course | LifterLMS returns the course's post author as the default instructor, so the widget still renders one box. |
| Outside a course or lesson (for example a quiz or a plain page) | No course can be resolved, so nothing is rendered. |
| Instructor fields | Picture comes from the user's avatar (Gravatar or a local avatar plugin) at 300 px; name from the instructor's LifterLMS name, falling back to the user's display name; biography from the user profile's Biographical Info; website from the profile's Website field. |
| Link set to Website but the user has no website | The picture and name are rendered without a link. Website links open in a new tab; archive links open in the same tab. |
| Archive Button on but Archive Text empty | The button is not rendered. |
Settings
Content — Author Info
The stock Source control and the custom-author fields (Profile Picture upload, Name) are hidden: the widget always reads the course instructors.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Profile Picture | Show (default) or Hide the instructor's avatar. |
| Picture Size | Elementor Pro's avatar pixel size (default 300). Shown only when Profile Picture is Show. The widget currently requests the avatar at a fixed 300 px regardless of this value; use the Style tab's Image Size to control the displayed size. |
| Display Name | Show (default) or Hide the instructor's name. |
| HTML Tag | Element wrapped around the name: H1–H6, div or span. Default H4. |
| Link | Where the picture and name link to. None (default): no link. Website: the user profile's website, opened in a new tab. Posts Archive: the author's WordPress post archive. |
| Biography | Show (default) or Hide the user profile's biographical info. |
| Archive Button | Show or Hide (default) a button linking to the author's post archive. |
| Archive Text | Label of the archive button. Default All Posts. Accepts dynamic tags. Leave it empty and the button is not rendered even when Archive Button is Show. |
| Layout | Position of the picture relative to the text: Left, Above or Right. |
| Alignment | Text alignment inside the box: Left, Center or Right. |
| Display Label | Lifter Elements addition. Show (default) prints the instructor's LifterLMS role label (for example Author or Instructor, as set in the course's Instructors box) between the name and the biography, in a le-instructor-label span. Hide removes it. |
Style
These are Elementor Pro's Author Box style sections, applied to every instructor box the widget renders. See Elementor's Author Box widget documentation.
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Image | Vertical align (Top / Middle, hidden when Layout is Above), image size, gap to the text, border, border colour and width, border radius and box shadow of the profile picture. Shown only when Profile Picture is Show. |
| Author | Colour, typography and bottom gap for the Name (shown when Display Name is Show) and for the Biography (shown when Biography is Show). The role label has no style controls of its own; target .le-instructor-label with custom CSS. |
| Button | Text and background colour, typography, hover colour, hover background, transition duration and hover animation for the archive button, plus border width, border radius and padding. Shown only when Archive Text is not empty. |
Advanced
The Advanced tab holds Elementor's own layout, motion, responsive and custom-CSS controls — see Elementor's documentation. Lifter Elements adds one section, Conditional Logic, which shows or hides this widget by the visitor's LifterLMS status — see the Conditional Logic reference.
Notes
- Instructor name and role label are managed in the course's Instructors box in the LifterLMS course editor; picture, biography and website come from each instructor's WordPress user profile. See LifterLMS's instructor documentation.
- All instructor boxes share one set of Content and Style settings; they cannot be styled individually.
- Related: Course Meta, Course Content, How to Build a Course Template.