Overview

The Brightpath Academy website is an online school for practical skills: photography, spreadsheets, home cooking and drawing. Visitors browse the course catalog, watch a free preview lesson, create a student account and pay for a course by card through Stripe. A paid order opens the course right away. Students watch the video lessons, mark them complete, take short quizzes and receive a certificate with a check code when they finish.

The staff area runs the school: courses, lessons and quizzes, students and their enrollments, orders and receipts, the refund desk, instructors, website messages, the website pages and pictures, staff accounts with their rights, and an activity log of every change. Instructors can have their own login that shows only the courses they teach.

How the pieces fit together

Students work on the public website, staff work in the staff area, and both read and change the same records. Card payments and refunds go through Stripe.

Who does what

1. Getting Started

1.1 Two ways to sign in

Students and staff have separate accounts. The Sign in button in the website header opens a page with two cards:

1. Students sign in with their email and password, or open Create account. See 15.2.
2. Staff and instructors click Go to staff sign in.
3. The Staff sign in page takes the user name and password a manager gave you. Every public page also has a Staff sign in link in the footer, and the address is /AdminLogin.

1.2 Signing in as staff

1. Type your User name and Password and click Sign in.
2. The first time, you are asked to choose your own password: at least 8 characters, different from the first password, typed twice. Then the staff area opens on the Dashboard.

• A wrong user name or password shows The user name or password is not right. The page does not say which of the two was wrong.
• After 6 wrong tries within 5 minutes the sign-in pauses: Too many tries. Wait a few minutes and try again.
• You stay signed in for 8 hours after your last action. Sign out in the header ends the session at once.
• Forgot your password? Ask a manager to use Reset password in Users and rights.

1.3 The staff screen

1.4 Windows, confirmations and messages

• Records open in a window over the list. Close it with Close, the cross in the corner or Esc. If you changed something and did not save, you are asked before the window closes.
• Actions that cannot easily be undone ask first, for example a full refund:

• A short message at the bottom of the screen confirms what happened, for example $49.00 refunded (re_…). Access to the course has ended.
• When you do not have the right for an action, the button is not shown. If you try anyway the server refuses with a message such as You do not have the Edit right on Refunds., and the refused attempt is written to the Activity log.

1.5 Rights in short

Every menu area has three rights. A manager sets them for each person in Users and rights.

Instructor accounts are linked to their instructor profile and see only their own courses, quizzes, students and enrollments.

Maya Okafor, signed in as an instructor, sees her two photography courses and a short menu.

Opening an area without the right shows No access:

1.6 On a phone

Both the website and the staff area work on a phone. In the staff area the menu opens from the ☰ button at the top left and lists become cards.

The Dashboard, the menu and the refund desk on a phone.

2. Dashboard

The Dashboard opens after you sign in. It shows how the school is doing today. You see a tile only for the areas you have rights to. Instructor accounts see Your courses instead, with numbers for the courses they teach.

2.1 The tiles

2.2 Latest orders, refund queue and your rights

• Latest orders lists the newest orders with their status: paid pending part refunded refunded cancelled.
• Refund queue shows the waiting requests, each marked eligible or outside policy, with Open the refund desk.
• Your rights says in words what you may do.
• Enrollments by course compares how many students each course has.

3. Courses and lessons

Everything the school teaches. Each course has a topic, a level, a price, an instructor, a cover picture and its lessons in order.

3.1 Finding a course

Type in the search box, or use the chips All, Published and Drafts. The list shows each course's topic, level, price, number of lessons, number of students and status. Click a row to open the course.

3.2 Adding or changing a course

1. Click New course, or click a course in the list.
2. Fill in Title, Topic, Level (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced), Price (USD) and Instructor.
3. Short summary shows on the course cards. Description and What you will learn (one line each) show on the course page.
4. Choose the Cover picture from the Media library. Tick Show on the home page to list the course under Start with a favourite on Home.
5. Click Save.

3.3 Lessons

1. In the course window click Add a lesson, or Edit beside a lesson.
2. Give it a Lesson title and Length (minutes). Tick Free preview for everyone for the lesson that visitors may watch before paying.
3. Choose the Video and, if you like, a Video poster picture. Videos are uploaded in the Media library.
4. Write a One-line summary and the Notes for students that show under the video.
5. Click Save lesson. Use the arrows in the course window to change the order.

3.4 Publishing, unpublishing and deleting

• Publish puts a course in the catalog. Unpublish takes it out of the catalog and closes its course page, so nobody new can buy it; students already enrolled keep their lessons. A course needs at least one lesson before it can be published.
• Delete removes a course and its quizzes. A course that students have joined cannot be deleted: Students have joined this course, so it cannot be deleted. Unpublish it instead.
• Publishing and deleting need the Extra right Publish and delete on Courses and lessons.

4. Quizzes

Short checks inside a course. Each quiz comes after a chosen lesson and has a pass mark. A student must pass every quiz in a course to receive the certificate.

4.1 Writing a quiz

1. Click New quiz, or a quiz in the list.
2. Choose the Course and Comes after (the lesson the quiz follows).
3. Type the Quiz title and the Pass mark (%).
4. For each question: type the Question, the answers, and click the round button beside the right one. Add an answer adds a choice, × removes one. Why it is right is shown to the student after they answer.
5. Add a question adds the next one; the arrows change the order and Remove deletes a question. Click Save.

4.2 How students take a quiz

• The quiz is marked on the server when the student clicks Submit answers. The result shows the score, the pass mark and which questions to look at again.
• Students can try again as often as they like. The best score is kept.
• Instructor accounts see and edit only the quizzes of their own courses.

5. Students

Everyone who has created a student account on the website, with their phone number, how many courses they have and whether the account is active.

5.1 Finding a student

Search by name, email or phone, or use the chips All, Active and Switched off. Click a row to open the student.

5.2 A student's details

• Name, Email and Phone can be corrected and saved with Save. The email is the student's sign-in name, so two accounts cannot share one email. The phone needs 7 to 15 digits; spaces, brackets, dots, dashes and a plus sign are allowed.
• Below are the student's courses with their progress, their orders and any certificates.
• Students can change their own name and phone in My account on the website, but not their email.

5.3 Resetting a student's password

Students have no self-service password reset. When a student cannot sign in:

1. Check who is asking, for example by calling the phone number on the account.
2. Open the student and click Reset password. A new password is shown once, in the window.
3. Give it to the student. They are signed out everywhere and sign in with the new password.

5.4 Switching an account off

Switch off stops the student from signing in and signs them out at once; Switch on lets them in again. Their orders, progress and certificates are kept. Resetting and switching off need the Extra right Reset password and switch off on Students.

6. Enrollments

An enrollment is a student's access to one course. It is made when an order is paid, or by staff with Grant access.

6.1 Statuses and progress

Filter by course with the drop-down, by status with the chips, or search by student or course.

6.2 Opening an enrollment

The window shows the order behind the enrollment, the progress, and every lesson and quiz with Done or the best quiz score and number of tries.

6.3 Granting access without a payment

1. Click Grant access.
2. Choose the Student and the Course and click Grant access.

Use it for a scholarship or a make-good. No order is made, so there is nothing to refund. If the student already had a locked enrollment for the course, it is opened again with the old progress.

6.4 Ending and restoring access

End access locks an active enrollment; Restore access opens a locked one again. Neither moves money: to give money back, use the refund desk. Granting, ending and restoring need the Extra right Grant or end access on Enrollments.

7. Orders

Every purchase made on the website, with the amount, what was refunded and the status.

7.1 Order statuses

The chips All, Paid, Refunded (part or full), Unpaid and Cancelled filter the list.

7.2 A paid order

The window lists the payment and each refund with its date, where it came from and the Stripe refund id, then the Net received. dashboard marks a refund that someone made directly in the Stripe dashboard (see 8.7). The Payment id is the payment's id in Stripe, useful when you look it up there.

7.3 An unpaid order

Students sometimes leave the payment page. The student can finish paying from My account (Complete payment), or from the checkout page. To clear an order that will not be paid, click Cancel unpaid order. Before cancelling, the site asks Stripe whether the order was paid after all; if it was, the order is kept and marked paid: That order was already paid, so it was kept. Cancelling needs the Extra right Cancel unpaid orders on Orders.

8. Refunds

Students ask for refunds from My account on the website. Every request comes to the refund desk, and a person always decides it.

8.1 The refund conditions

A manager sets three conditions in Settings. As shipped:

When all three are met the request is marked Eligible. If one is not met the student can still send it; it is marked Outside policy and you decide case by case. One open request per order; a student cannot ask for more than what was paid minus earlier refunds.

Eligible or not, every request waits for a person. The checks help you decide; they do not decide for you.

8.2 The refund desk

The Refunds badge in the menu counts the waiting requests. The list opens on Waiting; Decided and All show the rest. The note at the top repeats the current conditions. Click a request to open it.

The window shows the order, what was refunded so far and what is Left to refund, the student's reason, and the three Conditions when the request was made, each MET or NOT MET with the numbers.

8.3 Approving a full refund

1. Choose Full refund. The amount is everything left on the order.
2. Add a Note to the student if you like, and click Save decision.
3. Confirm with Refund in full.

The site sends the refund to Stripe and saves Stripe's refund id. Then the student's access to the course ends (progress kept but locked) and any certificate for the course is revoked, so the Certificate check on the website says Revoked. If Stripe refuses, nothing changes on the site and the message says why, for example Stripe did not make the refund: …; the request goes back to Waiting.

8.4 Giving a partial (goodwill) refund

1. Choose Partial refund (goodwill) and type the Amount to refund (USD).
2. Add a note and click Save decision, then confirm with Refund.

• The amount must be less than what is left. The window shows the most you can give; for everything that is left, choose Full refund instead.
• The student keeps access and the order shows Part refunded.

8.5 Declining a request

Choose Decline, write the Reason for declining (the student sees it) and click Save decision. A reason is required. No money moves and the request moves to Decided.

8.6 What the student sees

The decision shows under the order in the student's My account, with your note. A full refund also locks the course in My courses, with Enrol again.

The receipt lists the payment and each refund, then the Net paid. A student who pays again later gets a new order; the old progress comes back and, if they finish again, a new certificate is issued.

8.7 Refunds made in the Stripe dashboard

If someone refunds a payment directly in the Stripe dashboard, Stripe tells the site through the webhook (charge.refunded). The site adds the refund line to the order with the source dashboard, never more than what is left. When the order is refunded in full this way, access ends, the certificate is revoked and a waiting request for that order is closed as approved. The activity log shows refund synced by Stripe.

8.8 Reopening a declined request and view-only staff

• A declined request can be opened again with Reopen this request, as long as no other request is open for the same order. This needs the Extra right Reopen declined requests on Refunds.
• Staff with only the View right on Refunds see the requests and decisions but no decision buttons:

9. Instructors

The people who teach. Their profiles show on the Instructors page of the website and on each course page.

9.1 Adding or changing a profile

1. Click New instructor, or an instructor in the list.
2. Fill in Name, Role, the topic they Teach, About and the Photo from the Media library.
3. Show on the Instructors page hides or shows the profile without deleting it. Click Save.

Delete is refused while the instructor still has courses (Move the courses to someone else first, or hide the profile instead.) or while a staff account is linked to the profile.

9.2 Giving an instructor a login

A profile is not a login. To let an instructor sign in, a manager creates a staff account in Users and rights, links it to the profile and ticks See only own courses and students.

10. Messages

Messages sent from the Contact page, newest first. The Messages badge counts the unread ones.

10.1 Reading and answering

1. Click a message. Opening it marks it read.
2. Reply by email opens your email program with the address and a Re: subject filled in.
3. Mark as unread puts it back for a colleague. Delete removes it for good and needs the Extra right Delete messages.

Use the chips All, Unread and Read, or search by name, email or text.

11. Pages and Media library

The public pages are built from blocks you can edit without a developer: titles, text, buttons, pictures, cards, steps, questions and more. Pictures and videos live in the Media library.

11.1 Editing a page

1. Choose the page with the tabs: Home, Course catalog, Instructors, FAQ, About, Terms and refunds, Contact, Certificate.
2. Click any text to change it. In longer text a small toolbar offers bold, italic, a link, a list and clear formatting. Type {name} to show the school name from Settings.
3. Move a block by dragging its handle or with the arrows. Hide takes it off the website without deleting it.
4. Click Save page. Changes go live at once; View page opens it on the website.

• Blocks marked From your data (featured courses, topics, the catalog, instructor cards, the refund conditions, the contact form, the certificate check) fill themselves from your records. You can move them, retitle them or hide them, but not remove them.
• Add a block at the bottom of the page:

• Versions keeps the last five saved versions of each page. Restoring one needs the Extra right Restore versions on Pages.
• If you leave a page with unsaved changes you are asked first.

11.2 The Home slideshow

The page top of Home shows pictures of the school that change every 7 seconds. The picture in the block is the first slide; the Slides list holds the others.

1. Click + Add a slide, then the empty picture, and choose a photo from the Media library.
2. Type a short Caption, for example Classroom. It shows in the corner of the picture. The caption of the first slide comes from the picture's note in the Media library.
3. Use the arrows to change the order and the bin to remove a slide. Click Save page.

Visitors can also use the dots and arrows under the picture, or swipe on a phone. The slideshow pauses while the pointer is on its controls and stays still for visitors who ask their device for less motion. Slides are only used on the Home page.

11.3 The Media library

• Upload photos or videos takes up to 20 files at once: photos in JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF up to 8 MB each, and MP4 videos up to the size set in Settings (30 MB as shipped).
• Filter with All, Photos and Videos, or search by name or description. Each card says where the file is used.

11.4 Describing or deleting a file

• Description for screen readers (alt text) says in a few words what the picture shows. Note for staff is for you, and for the first Home slide it is the caption.
• Delete file removes the file for good. A file that is still used on the website cannot be deleted: replace it there first. Deleting needs the Extra right Delete files.

12. Users and rights

Staff accounts and what each person may do. Only managers see this page.

12.1 Adding a staff member

1. Click New user.
2. Type the Name, a User name (3 to 30 letters, digits, dots, dashes or underscores) and the Job title.
3. Tick Manager for full access, or set the rights below. Keep Can sign in ticked.
4. Click Save. A first password is shown once:

Give the user name and first password to the person. At their first sign-in they choose their own password (1.2).

12.2 Setting rights

Tick View, Edit and Extra for each area. Edit needs View, and Extra needs Edit. The Extra column names the one action it unlocks:

12.3 Instructor accounts

Choose the instructor under Linked instructor profile and tick See only own courses and students (Courses, Quizzes, Students, Enrollments). The instructor then sees only the courses where they are the instructor, the quizzes of those courses, and the students and enrollments in them. A typical instructor has View and Edit on Courses and Quizzes, and View on Students and Enrollments.

12.4 Resetting a password and switching an account off

• Reset password makes a new first password, shown once, and signs the person out. They choose their own at the next sign-in.
• Untick Can sign in and save to switch an account off; the person is signed out at once.
• You cannot take your own manager right or sign-in away, and at least one active manager must remain.

13. Activity log

Every change and every refused attempt, newest first: who, what, on which record and the result. Students' own actions, such as signing up, paying and asking for a refund, are listed with (student) after the name; events from Stripe show Stripe.

13.1 Refused attempts

The chip Refused or failed shows wrong passwords, actions refused for missing rights and refunds Stripe did not make.

Search by action, person or item. Staff without the Activity log right see My activity, their own actions only.

14. Settings and My account

14.1 School details

Managers set the School name, Tagline, Contact email, Phone, Address and Opening hours. They show in the website header, footer and Contact page.

14.2 Refund conditions and videos

• Refund window (days): 0 to 365, counted from the payment date.
• Progress limit (%): 0 to 100; eligible while less than this share of the lessons is finished.
• Not eligible once a certificate has been issued.
• Largest video upload (MB): 1 to 100.

The sentence under the conditions shows how they read on the website. Click Save settings. The course pages, the Terms and refunds page and the students' refund window use the new conditions at once.

14.3 Payments

The Payments panel shows the run mode, whether the Stripe secret key and webhook secret are set, and the exact webhook address to give Stripe. The keys themselves are not on this page; they are in appConfig/application.cfg (see 16.3).

14.4 My account

Every staff member can see their user name, job title and rights, and change their password: type the current password, then the new one (at least 8 characters, different from the current one) twice and click Change password. Your other sign-ins are closed when the password changes.

15. The Public Website

What students see, so you can help them on the phone.

15.1 Home and the course catalog

Home opens with the school slideshow, then featured courses, why Brightpath, the topics and how it works. The top menu has Courses, Instructors, About, FAQ, Certificate and Contact.

The catalog filters by topic and level. A course page shows the price, what you will learn, the syllabus with lengths and quizzes, the instructor and the refund conditions, with Enrol for $… and Watch the free preview lesson.

15.2 Creating a student account

On Sign in, the Students card has Create account: name, email, phone, and a password of at least 8 characters typed twice. The phone number is required. Each email can have one account.

15.3 Enrolling and paying

1. On a course page the student clicks Enrol for $…. If they are not signed in, they sign in first and come back.
2. The checkout shows the order number and price. Pay $… by card opens Stripe's secure payment page. The card details are typed there, never on the Brightpath site.
3. After paying, Stripe sends the student back to You are enrolled with Start learning. The order turns Paid as soon as Stripe confirms it.

A student who leaves Stripe's page without paying keeps an Unpaid order, which they can pay later from My account or cancel with Cancel this order.

The order becomes Paid when Stripe's signed message arrives. When the student returns, the site also checks with Stripe, so the course opens even if the message is a little late.

15.4 My courses and lessons

My courses shows each course with its progress and Start course or Continue, and suggests more courses under Keep learning.

A lesson has the video, the lesson notes, Mark complete and a button to the next step. The list at the side shows every lesson and quiz, ticked when done. Every lesson of a paid course is open; visitors who have not paid can open only the free preview lesson.

15.5 Certificates and the Certificate check

When every lesson is marked complete and every quiz passed, the certificate is issued automatically with a code such as BPA-7K3Q-92XD. The student opens it from My courses and can Print certificate.

Anyone, for example an employer, can type the code on the Certificate page. A valid code shows the name, course and date. After a full refund the same code shows Revoked:

15.6 My account and asking for a refund

My account shows the profile (Edit profile changes the name and phone), every order with its status, Receipt, and Request a refund.

1. The student clicks Request a refund. The window shows the three conditions for this order and the most that can be refunded.
2. They write why and click Send request. Outside the conditions they can still send it.
3. The request shows under the order as waiting, with Withdraw request while nobody has decided it.

15.7 Contact and Terms

The Contact page shows the school details from Settings and a form (name, email, topic, message) that arrives in Messages. Terms and refunds explains the terms and shows the current refund conditions.

16. Installation & Setup

For the person who installs and looks after the site.

16.1 Run mode

appConfig/application.cfg has app.app.runmode. 0 is a try-out mode with invented records and test payments; 1 is Production: real staff accounts, real card payments through Stripe and real refunds. Set app.app.runmode | 1 before the school opens.

On the first start in Production the site removes every try-out record once (students, enrollments, orders, refund requests, certificates, messages, the activity log and all staff accounts) and keeps your courses, quizzes, settings, pages and media. It then makes the first manager account. This happens only once; later starts never remove anything.

16.2 The first sign-in

1. Start the site and open /AdminLogin on the computer the site runs on. A First sign-in box shows the user name admin and a first password made for this site. It is shown only on that computer and is also saved in appConfig/initial-admin.txt.
2. Sign in with them. You are asked to choose your own password.

3. Type a new password twice and click Save and sign in. The box and the file disappear.
4. Create a manager account with your own name in Users and rights, so the activity log shows a person, then the accounts for your staff and instructors.

• Lost the first password before using it? Delete appConfig/initial-admin.txt and open the sign-in page again; a new one is made.
• Locked out of every manager account? Remove the manager entries from data/staff.json and open the sign-in page; a new first password is made.

16.3 Stripe

1. In appConfig/application.cfg set app.stripe.secretkey to your Stripe secret key.
2. In the Stripe dashboard add a webhook endpoint at https://<your site>/stripe/webhook that sends checkout.session.completed and charge.refunded. Copy its signing secret into app.stripe.webhooksecret.
3. Restart the site and check Settings → Payments: the secret key and the webhook secret both say set, and the webhook address matches.
4. Make one small real payment and refund it from the refund desk to test the whole path.

16.4 Deploying and backups

• Serve the site over HTTPS. The site account needs write rights on data/, appConfig/, temp/, logs/ and images/ (uploads).
• After deploying, open /data/staff.json and /appConfig/initial-admin.txt in a browser: both must answer 404.
• Back up data/, appConfig/ and the uploaded files in images/ every day. They hold every record.
• When you deploy a new version, never overwrite data/ or appConfig/application.cfg on the server.

17. Reference

17.1 Statuses

17.2 Limits and timings

18. Quick Answers

18.1 Common questions