Editable Student file associated with basic User ID

Question

this is a real noob question, so bare with me please.

I'm running WordPress, hosted on ipage. I'm also using Learndash as my LMS.

I'm trying to figure out how to allow certain users (editors/teachers) to submit notes on lesson they have completed with another user (subscriber/student).

This lessons will not be carried out through the website, so there isn't any existing data to be used.

The idea is that the teacher will be able to go to the appropriate page, while logged in as themselves, select the student from a list or search via id/email address. Then they will add in lesson contents and comments for a particular date.

It's important that other teachers could access this information when they searched for the same student before starting another lesson.

How can this be done?

Everyone who signs up to the site is already given a username and unique id. Can this be used through another database where additional information could be added?

Honestly, I'm not very familiar with PHP coding so this is probably a very simple question for many of you. I have looked at trying to get data from one database, but haven't been very successful with the coding so far.

My major question on this front is whether I can use the original user id from the WP signup and then add extra information to this identity in another database (if necessary). I already have other plugins which use the user id, reservation systems for example. So I don't want to mess this up.

Any hints, ideas or links to code you could give me would be greatly appreciated. I know exactly what I want to achieve, but just don't have the skills or knowledge to make it a reality just yet.

Cheers

edit:

Thanks for the response.

Although I'm aware that this is a big project for someone of my skill level, generally if I can be pushed in the right direction I pick things up quickly.

to elaborate on the points raised by Rarst.

1 (What data needs to be saved in WP installation and which data structures are appropriate for it)

The user id that users are given when they sign up is already used by other plugins. So my question was whether this can be used by another database as a 'fix' for the student, then the teacher can add in notes and content in another location.

2 (Does the two system need to share authentication and if so how, which of them is canonical and how cross–login will be implemented)

Users must be signed into the website to access certain pages. I don't want the students to see this information, only teachers. So the search/edit function could be on a page that only editors could access or with a private password. Therefore, would that mean the user would need to be logged in to use a second database?

3 (Is the data completely separate between the system, or there needs to be degree of sharing/accessing/moving between the two)

What do I search to find this out? I'm really lacking the technical terms to ask for what I want.

Thanks again

:-)

Answer 1

Absolutely nothing about this is any simple. WordPress was never engineered to smoothly integrate with other systems. Though that is quite commonly done in practice.

You have multiple distinct challenges here that all need to be studied, scoped, and developed:

1. What data needs to be saved in WP installation and which data structures are appropriate for it
2. Does the two system need to share authentication and if so how, which of them is canonical and how cross–login will be implemented
3. Is the data completely separate between the system, or there needs to be degree of sharing/accessing/moving between the two

While I do think this can be cobbled together from some off-the-shelf pieces (maybe halfway), I do not think that is a genuinely good idea for someone new to WP to attempt.

If you are set on doing this I would recommend to start breaking this down in more specific challenges to ask questions about. :)