FluentCommunity

REQUIREMENTS

To install the plugin ensure that your website running:

• WordPress 5.9 or newer
• PHP 7.1 or newer

Installation

How to install FluentCommunity

Download FluentCommunity from official website and install following standard WordPress installation process

How to install Better Messages with FluentCommunity

1. Install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly or upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/bp-better-messages directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen in WordPress
3. Use the Better Messages -> Settings menu to configure the plugin
4. Set Show in FluentCommunity Portal in Better Messages location settings.
5. If you are using Fluent Messaging - disable it as it makes no sense to use it together with Better Messages
6. Go to WP Admin -> Better Messages -> Settings -> Integrations -> FluentCommunity and configure integration

note

The FluentCommunity tab in Better Messages integration settings only appears when the FluentCommunity plugin is installed and active.

Supported features

When you install the FluentCommunity plugin with Better Messages:

• Automatically place messages page button to header menu and mobile bottom menu

• Automatically adds private message, video and audio call buttons to user profiles

• All avatars in Better Messages interface are automatically displayed from FluentCommunity user profiles

• All links to user profiles in Better Messages interface automatically point to FluentCommunity user profiles

• Automatic switch between dark and light modes based on FluentCommunity settings

• Automatically integrated to FluentCommunity Spaces with ability to create Spaces List directly in plugin interface

  The feature also allows to create Better Messages Group chats automatically based on Space members, with automatic removal and adding users from chat, when they're leaving or joining the Space.

• Automatically integrated to FluentCommunity Courses — auto-managed Course Group Chats, a "Course Chat" button next to "Continue Course", and a "Message Instructor" button on the course creator card

Profile page

Spaces Integration

Better Messages integrates with FluentCommunity Spaces to provide group messaging for Space members.

How it works

• Each Space with messaging enabled automatically gets a group chat thread
• When users join or leave a Space, they are automatically added to or removed from the group chat
• Space admins can enable or disable messaging per Space from the Space settings

Spaces settings

You can configure Spaces messaging from WP Admin -> Better Messages -> Settings -> Integrations -> FluentCommunity:

• Space Messages — enable or disable group messaging for Spaces globally
• File Uploading — allow or disallow file uploads in Space messages
• Email Notifications — send email notifications for new messages in Spaces
• Push Notifications — send push notifications for new messages in Spaces (requires WebSocket license)

Spaces widgets

Spaces can be displayed in multiple widget locations within Better Messages:

• Mini Widgets — small widget fixed to the bottom of the browser window showing the list of Spaces
• Side Panel Tab — a "Spaces" tab in the side conversations panel
• Mobile Tab — a "Spaces" tab at the bottom of the screen in mobile full screen mode

These can be enabled from WP Admin -> Better Messages -> Settings -> Widgets.

Per-Space settings

Each Space has its own messaging toggle. Space admins and moderators can enable or disable group messaging from the Space settings page within FluentCommunity.

Courses Integration

Better Messages also integrates with FluentCommunity Courses — a separate post type from Spaces, with its own enrollment model and creator-as-instructor concept. Course chats are kept distinct from Space chats: they live in the dedicated Courses widget, alongside LearnDash, LearnPress, Tutor LMS and MasterStudy LMS courses.

Course page buttons

When a student opens a published course, two buttons appear on the course detail page:

• Course Chat — sits next to Continue Course at the top right of the course page. Opens the auto-managed group chat that includes the course creator and every active student.
• Message Instructor — appears under the course creator card in the right sidebar. Opens a private one-on-one conversation with the course creator. Hidden when the current user is the creator (you don't need a button to message yourself).

Clicking Course Chat opens the auto-managed Course Group Chat:

Clicking Message Instructor opens a private conversation with the course creator:

Course Group Chat

Each Course gets a dedicated Better Messages thread. The course creator is joined as the instructor, and students are added on enrollment / removed on leave. Membership stays in sync via the FluentCommunity course/enrolled and course/student_left hooks, plus a self-healing diff sync — every event reconciles the full participant list against the FluentCommunity source of truth, so a single missed hook will not leave the chat out of sync.

The conversation header shows the course title and an image (the course logo or cover_photo); when neither is set Better Messages falls back to a graduation-cap icon.

A course info card with title, image and instructor name is also rendered above the conversation, and on the private DM opened by Message Instructor so the creator knows which course the question is about. The card is shared with the LearnDash, LearnPress, Tutor LMS and MasterStudy LMS integrations and can be hidden globally by turning off Better Messages → Settings → Integrations → LMS → Shared Course Settings → Course Info Card.

Courses widget

Once Course Group Chat is enabled, the user's enrolled and authored courses surface in the dedicated Courses widget on the Mini Widgets bar, Side Panel and Mobile bar — separate from the social Spaces widget so academic chats and community spaces don't mix in one list.

The Courses widget is shared with the LearnDash, LearnPress, Tutor LMS and MasterStudy LMS integrations: if your site has both FluentCommunity Courses and an LMS plugin, all courses appear in the same widget.

Courses settings

Configure courses messaging from WP Admin -> Better Messages -> Settings -> Integrations -> FluentCommunity:

• Course Group Chat — master toggle for the FluentCommunity Courses integration. Enables the auto-managed Course Group Chats and the Courses widget entries.
• Course Chat Button — show the Course Chat button next to Continue Course on FluentCommunity course pages. Requires Course Group Chat enabled.
• Message Instructor Button — show the Message Instructor button under the course creator card. Hidden automatically when the current user is the course creator.

Shared course settings

Three toggles under Better Messages → Settings → Integrations → LMS → Shared Course Settings apply to every LMS course conversation across LearnDash, LearnPress, Tutor LMS, MasterStudy LMS and FluentCommunity Courses:

• Course Info Card (on by default) — show the title, image and instructor name banner above each course conversation, including the private DM opened by Message Instructor. Turn off to hide the banner everywhere.
• Email Notifications (on by default) — send the standard "new message" email to participants when activity happens in a course chat. Turn off if your students do not rely on email or you want to reduce traffic.
• Push Notifications (off by default) — send browser and mobile push notifications for new course messages. Requires a WebSocket license.

Changing any of these toggles propagates across all four LMS integrations.

Per-Course settings

Each Course has its own messaging toggle. Course creators can enable or disable group messaging from the Course settings page within FluentCommunity, in the same way Spaces have a per-Space toggle.