Education Resources Manager

A WordPress plugin for managing, displaying, and tracking educational resources. Built with an OOP architecture, custom post types, REST API, and a dynamic front-end powered by native fetch() — no page reloads required.

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Table of Contents

• Description
• Requirements
• Installation
• Shortcode
• REST API
• Admin Dashboard
• Screenshots
• Changelog

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Description

Education Resources Manager provides a complete toolkit for publishing and tracking educational content on any WordPress site:

• Custom post type erm_resource with a dedicated meta box for resource URL, type, difficulty level, and duration.
• Two custom taxonomies — hierarchical categories (erm_category) and flat tags (erm_tag) — both exposed in the Block Editor and REST API.
• Custom database tables — wp_erm_resource_meta for resource metadata and wp_erm_tracking for anonymised view/download event logs.
• Dynamic filter UI rendered by the [education_resources] shortcode: live search (debounced 300 ms), resource type, difficulty, and category selects — all driven by the REST API without page reload.
• REST API under the erm/v1 namespace for headless or JavaScript-driven integrations.
• Admin dashboard with real-time stats (published resources, total views, total downloads), a pure-CSS bar chart of publications per month, and a top-5 most-viewed resources table.
• GDPR-conscious tracking — visitor IPs are anonymised before storage (last IPv4 octet / last 80 IPv6 bits zeroed).

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Requirements

Requirement	Minimum version
WordPress	6.0
PHP	7.4 (8.0+ recommended)
MySQL / MariaDB	5.7 / 10.3

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Installation

Manual

1. Download or clone this repository into your wp-content/plugins/ directory:

   cd wp-content/plugins/
   git clone https://github.com/HenryCastroCss/education-resources-manager.git

2. Log in to your WordPress admin and go to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
3. Find Education Resources Manager and click Activate.
4. On activation the plugin automatically creates two database tables:
   • wp_erm_resource_meta
   • wp_erm_tracking
5. Go to Education Manager (top-level admin menu) to verify the dashboard and configure settings.

Via ZIP

1. Download the repository as a .zip file from GitHub.
2. In WordPress admin go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
3. Upload the ZIP and click Install Now, then Activate.

Sample data (optional)

A SQL file with 10 sample resources in Spanish is included:

database/sample-data.sql

Replace {prefix} with your WordPress table prefix (default wp_) and run the file against your database before importing.

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Shortcode

Place the shortcode on any page or post to render a filterable resource grid:

[education_resources]

Available attributes

Attribute	Type	Default	Description
per_page	integer	12 (from settings)	Number of resources to display per page
category	string	(empty)	Pre-filter by category slug
difficulty	string	(empty)	Pre-filter by difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
featured	string	(empty)	Set true to show only featured resources
orderby	string	date	Sort field: date, title, modified, id
order	string	DESC	Sort direction: ASC or DESC

Examples

[education_resources]

[education_resources per_page="6" difficulty="beginner"]

[education_resources category="liderazgo" featured="true"]

[education_resources orderby="title" order="ASC" per_page="9"]

Front-end behaviour

Once rendered, the shortcode outputs:

• A search input (debounced 300 ms) — searches post titles and content.
• A Type select — filters by resource type (course, tutorial, ebook, video).
• A Difficulty select — filters by level.
• A Category select — populated from the erm_category taxonomy.
• A resource grid — cards include thumbnail, title, excerpt, type/difficulty chips, duration, and a Ver recurso button that opens the resource URL and records a view event.
• Pagination controls with smooth scroll back to the grid top.

All filtering communicates with the REST API — no full page reloads.

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REST API

Base URL: {site_url}/wp-json/erm/v1/

The API can be enabled or disabled from the plugin settings page.

Endpoints

GET /erm/v1/resources

Returns a paginated, filterable list of published resources.

Auth: Public

Query parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
page	integer	1	Page number
per_page	integer	12	Results per page (max 100)
search	string	—	Keyword search (post title and content)
resource_type	string	—	Filter by type slug
difficulty_level	string	—	Filter by difficulty
category	string	—	Filter by category slug
featured	boolean	—	true to return featured only
orderby	string	date	date, title, modified, id
order	string	DESC	ASC or DESC

Response headers

Header	Description
X-WP-Total	Total matching resources
X-WP-TotalPages	Total pages

Example

curl "https://example.com/wp-json/erm/v1/resources?difficulty_level=beginner&per_page=6"

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GET /erm/v1/resources/:id

Returns a single published resource by post ID.

Auth: Public

Example

curl "https://example.com/wp-json/erm/v1/resources/42"

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POST /erm/v1/resources/:id/download

Increments the download counter stored in wp_erm_resource_meta.

Auth: Public

Example

curl -X POST "https://example.com/wp-json/erm/v1/resources/42/download" \
     -H "X-WP-Nonce: {nonce}"

Response

{ "recorded": true }

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POST /erm/v1/resources/:id/track

Logs a view event to wp_erm_tracking with anonymised IP and optional user ID.

Auth: Public

Example

fetch(`/wp-json/erm/v1/resources/${id}/track`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'X-WP-Nonce': wpNonce },
});

Response

{ "recorded": true }

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GET /erm/v1/stats

Returns aggregate resource and tracking statistics.

Auth: WordPress user with manage_options capability (Administrator)

Response

{
  "total_meta_records": 10,
  "published": 10,
  "draft": 2
}

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Resource object schema

{
  "id": 42,
  "title": "Introducción a la Comunicación No Violenta",
  "excerpt": "Aprende los fundamentos de la CNV…",
  "permalink": "https://example.com/education-resources/introduccion-cnv/",
  "thumbnail": "https://example.com/wp-content/uploads/cover.jpg",
  "date": "2025-09-01 09:00:00",
  "modified": "2025-09-01 09:00:00",
  "resource_url": "https://example.com/recursos/cnv",
  "resource_type": "course",
  "difficulty_level": "beginner",
  "duration_minutes": 90,
  "download_count": 312,
  "is_featured": true,
  "categories": [{ "id": 1, "name": "Comunicación", "slug": "comunicacion" }],
  "tags": [{ "id": 5, "name": "CNV", "slug": "cnv" }]
}

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Admin Dashboard

Navigate to Education Manager in the WordPress admin sidebar.

Stats cards

• Published Resources — total published erm_resource posts.
• Total Views Tracked — cumulative rows in wp_erm_tracking where action_type = 'view'.
• Total Downloads Tracked — cumulative rows where action_type = 'download'.

Bar chart — pure CSS, no external libraries. Shows the number of resources published each month for the last 6 months.

Top 5 Most Viewed — a table of the five resources with the highest view event count, with direct edit links.

Settings

• Resources per page (shortcode + REST API default).
• Default difficulty level.
• Enable / disable the REST API.
• Enable / disable download tracking.

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Screenshots

Screenshots will be added once the plugin is deployed to a staging environment.

#	Description
1	Admin dashboard — stats cards, bar chart, top-5 table
2	Resource edit screen — "Resource Details" meta box
3	Front-end shortcode — filter bar and resource grid
4	Front-end shortcode — resource card with "Ver recurso" button
5	Admin settings page

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Changelog

1.0.0

• Initial release.
• Custom post type erm_resource with meta box (URL, type, difficulty, duration, featured flag).
• Custom taxonomies erm_category and erm_tag.
• Custom database tables wp_erm_resource_meta and wp_erm_tracking.
• REST API under erm/v1 with collection, single, download, track, and stats endpoints.
• [education_resources] shortcode with live AJAX filtering, pagination, and "Ver recurso" view tracking.
• Admin dashboard with real-time stats, CSS bar chart, and top-5 most-viewed table.
• GDPR-conscious IP anonymisation on all tracking events.
• Sample data SQL with 10 Spanish-language educational resources.