07. Best Practices
Guidance for using Tangible Tweaks for LearnDash well, drawn from how the plugin is designed to be operated.
Enable features one at a time
Every feature is independent and off by default. Turn on one feature, verify the affected page or flow, then move to the next. If something on your site changes unexpectedly, you'll know exactly which toggle caused it, and switching that one feature off reverts the change without touching the others.
Check dependencies before you toggle
All features need LearnDash active; the Gravity Forms Lesson/Topic Completion feature additionally needs Gravity Forms. Install and activate a feature's dependencies before enabling it, and hold off on enabling features whose dependency isn't part of your stack.
Test as a learner, not as an admin
Progression, drip, and completion behaviour looks different for administrators, who often bypass course restrictions. Keep a test learner account enrolled in a test course, and verify each feature through that account. A private browser window keeps both sessions available at once.
Plan progression features together
Drip Lessons and Independent Lesson Completion both reshape how learners move through a course: one controls when lessons open, the other in what order they can be taken. Decide the learning model first (scheduled cohort? open library? both?) and enable only what that model needs, rather than switching on everything.
Keep the "All Lessons" course untouched
With Independent Lesson Completion active, the plugin maintains a hidden All Lessons course and filters it from your archive automatically. Treat it as plugin infrastructure: don't rename, edit, or delete it.
Make sure email delivery works before group onboarding
The group user-management flow emails each new user their login details. Before handing the tool to group leaders, confirm your site sends mail reliably, typically via an SMTP or transactional email plugin, and send a test onboarding to an address you control.
Leave the safety utilities on where they apply
Course progress locks and User Course Progress Lazy-Load have no user-facing settings and act only where they're needed (concurrent completions; large user lists in the admin). On busy sites, enabling them early is cheap insurance rather than something to retrofit after a problem appears.