BBB Plugin for Moodle

[Glen]

Sorry I'm no help to the dev team on this but I'm a fan of BBB and I
understand that there maybe a Moodle plugin coming soon. I work with a
group that would be willing to test this out if that would be helpful.

[Luc Richard]

Glen.

A plug-in is available at the following location: http://www.dualcode.com/bigbluebutton/

The functionality of the plug-in has been thoroughly tested with
Moodle 1.9.7+ and BigBlueButton v0.63. Having more people look at it
is certainly appreciated.

We'd additionally be very interested in getting your feedback as to
how simple/easy it is to install, configure and use the plug-in. The
goal is to have people complete the installation/configuration process
without any help or hiccups. If there are ambiguities, please let us
know so we can improve the procedure and/or instructions for future
users.

Thanks in advance.
Luc

[epsd]

I tried the plugin out and I get this error when attempting join a
meeting (from moodle): invalidMeetingIdentifier
The meeting ID or token that you supplied did not match any existing
meetings

Where/when does this plugin create a meeting (when does it doe the API
call to create the meeting)? Or does it not create a meeting (I have
to create it in BBB first)?

I'm using the latest dev of BBB and it is up and running fine. I know
the salt (etc.) are correct because I made my own BBB moodle block.

In addition, if a teacher creates a meeting (through moodle) they are
only given the option of joining the BBB meeting as a regular attendee
instead of as a Mod. just FYI.

[Luc Richard]

Thanks.

Both of these use cases were successful in our lab. The meeting gets
created as part of view.php, so there is no need to create it ahead of
time in BBB. Also, the student should only see a "join" hyperlink, but
the teacher should see two links: one to join as a regular attendee
and the other to join as a moderator.

Is it possible for us to troubleshoot against your BBB server? If so,
please send us the IP and salt to support [at] dualcode [dot] com and
we'll try to replicate by having or Moodle server point to your BBB
server.

Luc

[epsd]

admins and course creator's (in moodle) get both links, and from what
I can see from the code, a regular teacher does not. I tested against
two different moodle installs with the same results... Oddly enough,
the teacher role was able to add the instance of the BBB meeting, just
no ability to join it as a moderator. Both were using default
editingteacher permissions. I have bbb on the LAN only, i'll look into
view.php and see what I can find.

[Luc Richard]

Thanks.

I just discovered that if the roles are assigned at the system level,
then everything works as intended. But if they're assigned at the
course level, then it works as per your description. We will update
the code to make sure it works when roles are assigned at the course
level and post an update.

Luc

[epsd]

Yes, isteacher() will not work unless as outlined as above or if you
set your legacy roles differently...

You could use some like (not tested but will do so in the morning)
$context = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_SYSTEM))
if (has_capability('moodle/legacy:admin', $context)||
has_capability('moodle/legacy:teacher', $context)) {
echo 'mylink.php';
}

to replace:
if (isteacher()) in view.php

[Luc Richard]

The problem has been fixed and a new version has been posted to
http://www.dualcode.com/bigbluebutton/.

We added a new "role" in access.php and then verify capabilities as
per the following: if (has_capability('mod/bigbluebutton:ismoderator',
$context))

Thanks for identifying the problem.
Luc

[epsd]

Thanks, that permissions problem seems to be fixed nicely.

There is an error in the isMeetingRunning function in lib.php. Even if
the meeting is not creataed, it will return as true, and therefore, in
the createMeeting function, it will not actually create the meeting.

I was able to test this by exiting out of the isMeetingRunning
function and echoing the results... And if I remove the
isMeetingRunning IF statement from createMeeting, everything works as
expected (but everytime you visit view.php you try and create the
meeting)...

On Feb 8, 8:47 pm, Luc Richard <luc.dualc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The problem has been fixed and a new version has been posted tohttp://www.dualcode.com/bigbluebutton/.

[epsd]

I now think the problem isn't in the isMeetingRunning function, but
when that function is used in createmeeting function. For whatever
reason: if (isMeetingRunning($myIP,$mySecuritySalt,$myMeetingID))
would not work for me (and could be my version of PHP?). The function
would always stop there and never create the meeting, even if it truly
had not been started. I replaced it with:

$meettest = isMeetingRunning($myIP,$mySecuritySalt,$myMeetingID);
if ($meettest == "true") {
//don't create a meeting because it has already been created
return true;
}

else {
//create new meeting

I also noticed that ismeetingrunning will only return true if the
meeting is not only created but that someone is actually IN the
meeting. If the meeting has been created, but no one is in it, it will
still return false... Is that an expected behavior?

[Luc Richard]

Yes, there is an issue with the isMeetingRunning API on the BBB side.
It's not your PHP version as I get the same result here as well.
Trying to get this sorted out for BBB v0.64.

Your $meettest check however appears to do the exact same thing my
createMeeting() function does. It starts by calling
isMeetingRunning() and if true, simply returns true without trying to
create the meeting. If false, then it creates the meeting.

[epsd]

You are right, your: if (isMeetingRunning($myIP,$mySecuritySalt,
$myMeetingID)) should work, but it doesn't for me... I don't know why
either and that is bugging me ;) That is where I thought perhaps it is
my PHP version (5+ but not the latest).

[epsd]

Also, when a meeting is created through the moodle module, the
moderator and users cannot enter the audio portion of the meeting...

[Luc Richard]

A new module was just uploaded to http://www.dualcode.com/bigbluebutton/
to fix the issue around isMeetingRunning(). Our interpretation of this
API was different than what it was intended for, so we're now simply
calling the create API and we handle the response from BBB
accordingly.

We can't reproduce the problem you are reporting re. audio. It might
be because we've made various changes which coincidentally fixed the
issue?!?

Luc

[epsd]

Just wanted to add that the audio issue I reported earlier is resolved
in this newest version of the BBB plugin you have up. Thanks for your
hard work!!!

On Feb 9, 2:41 pm, Luc Richard <luc.dualc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> A new module was just uploaded tohttp://www.dualcode.com/bigbluebutton/

> to fix the issue around isMeetingRunning(). Our interpretation of this
> API was different than what it was intended for, so we're now simply
> calling the create API and we handle the response from BBB
> accordingly.
>
> We can't reproduce the problem you are reporting re. audio. It might
> be because we've made various changes which coincidentally fixed the
> issue?!?
>
> Luc
>
> On Feb 9, 2:01 pm, epsd <jstabin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

> > Also, when a meeting is created through themoodlemodule, the

> > > > > > > > > > admins and course creator's (inmoodle) get both links, and from what

> > > > > > > > > > I can see from the code, a regular teacher does not. I tested against

> > > > > > > > > > two differentmoodleinstalls with the same results... Oddly enough,

> > > > > > > > > > the teacher role was able to add the instance of the BBB meeting, just
> > > > > > > > > > no ability to join it as a moderator. Both were using default
> > > > > > > > > > editingteacher permissions. I have bbb on the LAN only, i'll look into
> > > > > > > > > > view.php and see what I can find.
>
> > > > > > > > > > On Feb 8, 3:55 pm, Luc Richard <luc.dualc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > > > > > > > Thanks.
>
> > > > > > > > > > > Both of these use cases were successful in our lab. The meeting gets
> > > > > > > > > > > created as part of view.php, so there is no need to create it ahead of
> > > > > > > > > > > time in BBB. Also, the student should only see a "join" hyperlink, but
> > > > > > > > > > > the teacher should see two links: one to join as a regular attendee
> > > > > > > > > > > and the other to join as a moderator.
>
> > > > > > > > > > > Is it possible for us to troubleshoot against your BBB server? If so,
> > > > > > > > > > > please send us the IP and salt to support [at] dualcode [dot] com and

> > > > > > > > > > > we'll try to replicate by having orMoodleserver point to your BBB

> > > > > > > > > > > server.
>
> > > > > > > > > > > Luc
>
> > > > > > > > > > > On Feb 8, 2:17 pm, epsd <jstabin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > I tried the plugin out and I get this error when attempting join a

> > > > > > > > > > > > meeting (frommoodle): invalidMeetingIdentifier

> > > > > > > > > > > > The meeting ID or token that you supplied did not match any existing
> > > > > > > > > > > > meetings
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > Where/when does this plugin create a meeting (when does it doe the API
> > > > > > > > > > > > call to create the meeting)? Or does it not create a meeting (I have
> > > > > > > > > > > > to create it in BBB first)?
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > I'm using the latest dev of BBB and it is up and running fine. I know
> > > > > > > > > > > > the salt (etc.) are correct because I made my own BBBmoodleblock.
>

> > > > > > > > > > > > In addition, if a teacher creates a meeting (throughmoodle) they are

> > > > > > > > > > > > only given the option of joining the BBB meeting as a regular attendee
> > > > > > > > > > > > instead of as a Mod. just FYI.
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > On Feb 8, 12:58 am, Luc Richard <luc.dualc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > > Glen.
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > > A plug-in is available at the following location:http://www.dualcode.com/bigbluebutton/
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > > The functionality of the plug-in has been thoroughly tested with

> > > > > > > > > > > > >Moodle1.9.7+ and BigBlueButton v0.63. Having more people look at it

> > > > > > > > > > > > > is certainly appreciated.
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > > We'd additionally be very interested in getting your feedback as to
> > > > > > > > > > > > > how simple/easy it is to install, configure and use the plug-in. The
> > > > > > > > > > > > > goal is to have people complete the installation/configuration process
> > > > > > > > > > > > > without any help or hiccups. If there are ambiguities, please let us
> > > > > > > > > > > > > know so we can improve the procedure and/or instructions for future
> > > > > > > > > > > > > users.
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks in advance.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > Luc
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > > On Feb 8, 12:45 am, Glen <gga...@ggatin.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > Sorry I'm no help to the dev team on this but I'm a fan of BBB and I

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > understand that there maybe aMoodleplugin coming soon. I work with a