Certificate Downloader for WordPress

A high-performance WordPress plugin for managing and issuing digital certificates to students. Features a complete admin management system, CSV bulk import, customizable certificate templates, and a frontend lookup portal.

📚 Documentation

• Database Schema - Complete database structure and field descriptions
• API Documentation - REST API, hooks, filters, and developer reference
• Project Status - Feature completion status and roadmap

🔗 Repository

GitHub: https://github.com/sanjuacodez/certificate-downloader

This repository contains the complete plugin folder ready to be cloned into your WordPress wp-content/plugins/ directory.

🌟 Features

For Administrators

• Student Management: Add, edit, and manage student records with photo uploads
• Bulk Import: CSV import with progress tracking, validation, and remote image download support
• Certificate Templates: Visual editor with live preview for designing certificates
• Course Management: Create and manage multiple courses with unique certificate designs
• Email Notifications: Automatic email notifications when certificates are issued
• Dashboard: Overview statistics of issued and pending certificates
• Bulk Actions: Issue, delete, or update multiple students at once
• Accessibility: ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support
• Error Handling: Comprehensive validation with detailed error messages

For Students

• Certificate Lookup: Simple two-factor lookup form using admission number and email
• Live Preview: View certificate before downloading (optimized compact size)
• PDF Download: Download certificate as PDF with download counter
• Mobile Responsive: Works seamlessly on all devices
• Secure Validation: Case-insensitive email matching for better UX

Certificate Customization

• Flexible Design: Customize colors, fonts, sizes, and positions
• Multiple Sections: Header, body, signatures, seals, footer, QR codes
• Image Support: Upload logos, signatures, seal images, background images
• Student Photos: Display student photos on certificates (with validation)
• DomPDF Core Fonts: Helvetica, Times-Roman, Courier (guaranteed compatibility)
• Unicode Support: Full UTF-8 support for special characters in names

Quality & Accessibility

• WCAG Compliant: Proper labels, ARIA attributes, keyboard navigation
• Empty States: Helpful guidance when no data exists
• Validation: Image size (2MB max), file types, duplicate detection
• Error Messages: Detailed, actionable error messages for all operations
• User Experience: Intuitive interface with helpful hints and CTAs

📋 Requirements

• WordPress 5.0 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher
• MySQL 5.6 or higher

🚀 Installation

From GitHub

1. Navigate to your WordPress plugins directory:

   cd /path/to/your/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/

2. Clone the repository directly into the plugins directory:

   git clone https://github.com/sanjuacodez/certificate-downloader.git

3. Install Composer dependencies:

   cd certificate-downloader
   composer install --no-dev

4. Activate the plugin through the WordPress admin panel:

   • Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins
   • Find "Certificate Downloader"
   • Click Activate

5. The plugin will automatically create required database tables on activation.

Manual Installation

1. Download or clone from: https://github.com/sanjuacodez/certificate-downloader
2. Upload the entire certificate-downloader folder to /wp-content/plugins/
3. Run composer install --no-dev inside the plugin directory
4. Ensure vendor/ directory exists with DomPDF dependencies
5. Activate through WordPress admin Plugins page

📖 Usage

Admin Setup

1. Navigate to Certificates > Courses

   • Create a new course
   • Click "Edit" to customize the certificate template

2. Design Your Certificate

   • Use the visual editor to customize all elements
   • Upload logos, signatures, and seal images
   • Adjust colors, fonts, and sizes
   • Preview changes in real-time

3. Add Students

   • Single: Go to Certificates > Students and click "Add New"
   • Bulk: Import CSV file with student data
   • CSV format: admission_number, full_name, email, phone, course_id, photo_url

4. Configure Settings

   • Go to Certificates > Settings
   • General Branding:
     • Upload default logo using WordPress media library
     • Set organization name (available as {organization_name} placeholder)
   • Email Notifications:
     • Enable/disable automatic email notifications
     • Toggle PDF attachment to emails
     • Customize email subject and body with template tags

Frontend Usage

1. Add the lookup shortcode to any page or post:

   [certificate_lookup]

2. Students enter their:

   • Admission Number
   • Full Name

3. Upon validation, they can:

   • Preview their certificate
   • Download as PDF
   • Print directly

📁 Database Schema

Full documentation: DATABASE_SCHEMA.md

cert_students Table

- id: Primary Key
- admission_number: Unique identifier (VARCHAR 50)
- full_name: Student name (VARCHAR 255)
- email: Email address (VARCHAR 100)
- phone: Phone number (VARCHAR 20)
- course_id: Foreign key to courses
- issue_status: 'pending' or 'issued'
- photo_url: URL to student photo (VARCHAR 255)
- download_count: Number of downloads (INT)
- created_at: Record creation date
- updated_at: Last update date

cert_courses Table

- id: Primary Key
- course_name: Course title (VARCHAR 255)
- template_config: JSON configuration (LONGTEXT)

Settings (WordPress Options)

- sjs_cert_logo_url: Default logo URL
- sjs_cert_organization_name: Organization name for certificates
- sjs_cert_enable_email: Enable email notifications (boolean)
- sjs_cert_attach_pdf: Attach PDF to emails (boolean)
- sjs_cert_email_subject: Email subject template
- sjs_cert_email_body: Email body template

🎨 Customization

Certificate Template Configuration

The certificate template is stored as JSON in the template_config field. You can customize:

• Header: Logo, title, subtitle, colors
• Body: Certificate text, fonts, alignment
• Student Details: Name, course, date formatting
• Signatures: Multiple signature support with images
• Seal/Badge: Position and size
• Footer: Text, logo, styling
• Background: Background image or color
• QR Code: Enable/disable and positioning
• Student Photo: Size and position

Fonts

Currently supports DomPDF core fonts:

• Helvetica (default)
• Times-Roman
• Courier

Template Tags

Available placeholders for certificate templates and emails:

• {name} - Student's full name
• {course} - Course name
• {admission_number} - Student's admission number
• {download_url} - Certificate download URL (emails only)
• {organization_name} - Organization name from settings

Adding Custom Styles

Modify assets/css/admin.css for admin styling or assets/css/frontend.css for frontend styles.

🔐 Security Features

• ABSPATH checks in all PHP files
• Nonce verification for all forms
• CSRF protection on imports
• Data sanitization and late escaping
• SQL injection prevention
• SVG sanitization for uploads

📸 CSV Import Format

admission_number,full_name,email,phone,course_id,photo_url
ADM001,John Doe,john@example.com,1234567890,1,https://example.com/photo.jpg
ADM002,Jane Smith,jane@example.com,0987654321,1,

Notes:

• photo_url is optional
• Supports remote URLs (JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, WebP)
• Images are downloaded and stored locally
• Empty photo_url will show default placeholder

🐛 Troubleshooting

Images Not Uploading from CSV

• Check WordPress upload directory permissions
• Ensure remote URLs are accessible
• Check debug.log for specific errors

PDF Not Generating

• Verify DomPDF is installed in vendor/ directory
• Check PHP memory limit (recommended: 256MB)
• Ensure GD or Imagick extension is enabled

Certificate Not Found

• Verify admission number matches exactly (case-sensitive)
• Check that certificate status is "issued"
• Ensure course is properly configured

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository: https://github.com/sanjuacodez/certificate-downloader
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

👨‍💻 Development

Project Structure

certificate-downloader/
├── assets/
│   ├── css/          # Stylesheets
│   ├── js/           # JavaScript files
│   └── images/       # Plugin images
├── includes/
│   ├── Admin/        # Admin UI classes
│   ├── Controller/   # Controllers
│   ├── Core/         # Core plugin classes
│   ├── Model/        # Database models
│   └── Service/      # Services (Email, PDF)
├── templates/
│   ├── admin/        # Admin templates
│   └── frontend/     # Frontend templates
├── vendor/           # Composer dependencies
└── certificate-downloader.php  # Main plugin file

Running Locally

1. Set up local WordPress environment (XAMPP, Local, or similar)
2. Clone repository to plugins directory:

   cd wp-content/plugins/
   git clone https://github.com/sanjuacodez/certificate-downloader.git
   cd certificate-downloader

3. Install dependencies:

   composer install

4. Activate plugin in WordPress admin
5. Enable WordPress debug mode for development in wp-config.php:

   define('WP_DEBUG', true);
   define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
   define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);

🗺️ Roadmap

See PROJECT_STATUS.md for detailed feature completion status and upcoming features.

Planned Features

• PDF Factory Pattern (support for FPDF, TCPDF)
• Email template tags ({name}, {course}, {download_url})
• PDF attachment to emails
• Download counter tracking
• Certificate templates library
• Advanced analytics dashboard
• Bulk PDF generation with ZIP download

📞 Support

For issues, questions, or suggestions:

• Open an issue: https://github.com/sanjuacodez/certificate-downloader/issues
• Check existing issues for solutions
• Review documentation files (README.md, DATABASE_SCHEMA.md, API.md, PROJECT_STATUS.md)

🙏 Credits

• Built with DomPDF
• Uses WordPress core APIs and best practices
• Follows MVC architecture pattern

📊 Stats

• Version: 1.0.0
• Tested up to: WordPress 6.4
• PHP Version: 7.4+
• Database Version: 1.0

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Made with ❤️ for educational institutions worldwide