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Thought Industries Integration

Sync Thought Industries courses into Gradual as external content. Imported courses can appear in search, follow your selected access and publishing settings, and stay updated automatically.

The Thought Industries integration helps you bring learning content from Thought Industries into Gradual so members can discover it alongside the rest of your community content.

With this integration, you can:

  • Sync Thought Industries courses into Gradual as external content

  • Choose which course types to import

  • Control who can access synced content

  • Decide whether synced content is published immediately or saved as pending

  • Keep synced content updated automatically

Before you begin

Before setting up the integration, make sure you have:

  • Your Thought Industries instance URL

  • A valid Thought Industries API token

  • Dashboard admin access in Gradual

Set up the Thought Industries integration

To connect Thought Industries to Gradual:

  1. In the admin dashboard, go to Integrations

  2. Find Thought Industries

  3. Click Set Up

  4. In the configuration window, enter your Instance URL

  5. Enter your API Token

  6. Click Connect

Gradual verifies the connection before showing the rest of the setup options.

If the connection cannot be completed, you will see this message: Unable to connect to Thought Industries. Please check your instance URL and API token.

Configure course sync settings

After the connection is successful, choose how Thought Industries courses should sync into Gradual.

Default cover image

Upload a default cover image for synced content.

If a course in Thought Industries includes its own image, Gradual uses that image. If it does not, Gradual uses the default cover image you upload here.


Access settings

Choose who can view synced content in Gradual:

  • Public — visitors can view the content without logging in

  • All Members — only logged-in members can view the content

  • Selected Spaces Only — only members in selected spaces can view the content

Default status

Choose the default status for newly synced content:

  • Published

  • Pending

Use Pending if you want to review synced content before it appears in your community.


Course types to sync

Choose which Thought Industries course types Gradual should import:

  • All Course Types

  • Selected Types Only

If you choose Selected Types Only, you can select the course types you want to include.

Visibility in the content list

Choose how synced content appears in your content list:

  • Follow the default setting

  • Always show in the content list

  • Always hide from the content list

Information imported from Thought Industries

When Gradual syncs a Thought Industries course, it imports:

  • Title

  • Description

  • URL slug

Gradual uses this information to create an external content item in your community.

What happens during the first sync

When setup is complete, Gradual runs the initial sync and imports all published Thought Industries content that matches your selected course types.

For each synced course, Gradual creates an external content item with:

  • Title from Thought Industries

  • External Link built from your Thought Industries instance URL and the course URL slug

  • Summary from the Thought Industries description

  • Cover Image from the Thought Industries course image, or your default cover image if no course image is available

  • Access based on your selected sync settings

  • Published Time based on the sync time

The item is added to Gradual using the default status you selected during setup.

Automatic updates

After the initial sync, Gradual syncs with Thought Industries every 24 hours.

The integration card also shows the most recent sync time.

If a course is removed or unpublished in Thought Industries, the matching external content in Gradual is archived and removed from member-facing areas and the dashboard.

Manage synced content in Gradual

After a course has been synced, you can continue updating parts of the content item in Gradual.

You can edit:

  • Summary

  • Visibility in Content List

  • Cover Image

  • Access

  • Status

  • Tags

  • Published Time

You cannot edit:

  • Title

  • External Link

This keeps core course information aligned with Thought Industries while still giving you control over how the content appears in Gradual.

View synced items in the External Content list

Synced Thought Industries items appear in the External Content list.

In the Source column, these items are labeled Thought Industries, making them easy to identify.

Disconnect the integration

If you disconnect Thought Industries, Gradual asks what should happen to your synced content.

You can choose one of the following options:

  • Archive synced articles — archives the synced items and removes them from the dashboard and member-facing areas

  • Keep synced articles — keeps the synced items in place

If you reconnect Thought Industries later, Gradual can match previously synced items and continue updating them.

Best practices

To keep your integration organized:

  • Upload a default cover image before your first sync

  • Review your access settings before publishing synced content

  • Use Pending if you want to review items before they go live

  • Use Selected Types Only if you only want part of your Thought Industries catalog to appear in Gradual

Example

A customer education team uses Thought Industries to host certification courses and uses Gradual as their community platform.


With this integration, they can bring those courses into Gradual as external content, make them discoverable in search, apply the right access settings for members, and review synced items before publishing them.

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