Support for word, excel, and powerpoint file types now in BigBlueButton 0.63 dev packages

149 views
Skip to first unread message

Fred Dixon

unread,
Nov 14, 2009, 10:06:20 PM11/14/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Everyone,

Thanks to the work from DJP, we now have support for .doc[x], .xls[x],
ppt[x] (and basically any file type that openoffice can covert to PDF)
in the latest build of BigBlueButton. We've updated the BigBlueButton
packages so they now automatically install openoffice.org along with
the needed init.d to run open office headless.


If you want to check it out, take a clean Ubuntu 9.04 for machine and
do the following

wget http://archive.bigbluebutton.org/bigbluebutton.asc
sudo apt-key add bigbluebutton.asc
echo "deb http://archive.bigbluebutton.org/dev bigbluebutton main" |
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bigbluebutton.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bigbluebutton


If you are using an existing (non-production!) BigBlueButton VM or
installation of BigBlueButton via packages, you can edit /etc/apt/
sources.list.d/bigbluebutton.list to use the http://archive.bigbluebutton.org/dev
archive and type

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

will upgrade the necessary 0.62 packages to the current (development)
of 0.63. It will also install openoffice in all its 300 MB glory.
Keep in mind your upgrading off trunk, so trunk may become unstable
during development of 0.63 (and it likely will), causing packages to
break.


If you want to try installing BigBlueButton on Amazon EC2 to try it
out (which is how we usually test builds), we recommend using the 9.04
instance ami-ccf615a5 created by Eric Hammond (see http://alestic.com/).
Before you can access BigBlueButton, you'll need to tell it the
external hostname for the EC2 instance. You can do this with the
command

bbb-conf -setip <hostname>

We've installed this latest build EC2 so you can try it out

http://ec2-174-129-61-13.compute-1.amazonaws.com/

We'll keep the above instance running for a few days, so feel free to
test it out.


Finally, you'll also note that openoffice will not translate every PPT
slide presentation perfectly; sometimes you'll get a better conversion
by having saving to PDF in office. Still, BigBlueButton now supports
any file that openoffice supports.

Thanks again DJP!

Regards,... Fred


Notes:
- This is a developer build, so keep your seatbelts fastened
- The upload file dialog box for presentation filters by files that
end in .pdf, so on windows you need to enter * for file name and press
enter, and the dialog will show you all the available files for
upload.
- there is no error handling, if the conversion fails, it will just
hang. Check /var/log/syslog for error message
- there's no progress indicator when openoffice is converting your
document to pdf
- The msttcorefonts package is installed
- if you find have feedback, please add your comments to the
initial feature request

References:
Initial feature request: http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/issues/detail?id=211
init.d for openoffice headless: http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/AdditionalFileTypeSupport

DJP

unread,
Nov 15, 2009, 4:33:35 AM11/15/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Fred,

Thanks to you for this dev package and explanation.

In fact, i'm still currently working on, so i'll add few update in
next few days to prepare the code for next step (http://
code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/issues/detail?id=218) and a error
handling. Conversion progress might be a good thing too. I'll work on
that too.
I keep you guys updated.

Oh and just one comment about "The upload file dialog box for
presentation filters by files that end in .pdf, so on windows you need
to enter * for file name and press enter, and the dialog will show you
all the available files for upload" <in fact, on Windows (so as on
Linux) you can dropdown the listbox with filetype (ie. PDF) to select
one other from "WORD", "EXCEL", "POWERPOINT".
Perhaps we can add the listbox default filter on "all supported file
type" selected by default, instead of using listbox filter to choose
the one we want... !? I'll modify that in trunk asap.

Finally, i couldn't agree more with "you'll also note that openoffice
will not translate every PPT slide presentation perfectly; sometimes
you'll get a better conversion by having saving to PDF in office".
This is mostly true with PPT slide, with Excel/Word, it seems better.

Regards,
DJP
On 15 nov, 04:06, Fred Dixon <ffdi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Thanks to the work from DJP, we now have support for .doc[x], .xls[x],
> ppt[x] (and basically any file type that openoffice can covert to PDF)
> in the latest build of BigBlueButton.  We've updated the BigBlueButton
> packages so they now automatically install openoffice.org along with
> the needed init.d to run open office headless.
>
> If you want to check it out, take a clean Ubuntu 9.04 for machine and
> do the following
>
>   wgethttp://archive.bigbluebutton.org/bigbluebutton.asc
>   sudo apt-key add bigbluebutton.asc
>   echo "debhttp://archive.bigbluebutton.org/devbigbluebutton main" |
> sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bigbluebutton.list
>   sudo apt-get update
>   sudo apt-get install bigbluebutton
>
> If you are using an existing (non-production!) BigBlueButton VM or
> installation of BigBlueButton via packages, you can edit /etc/apt/
> sources.list.d/bigbluebutton.list to use thehttp://archive.bigbluebutton.org/dev
> archive and type
>
>   sudo apt-get update
>   sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
>
> will upgrade the necessary 0.62 packages to the current (development)
> of 0.63.  It will also install openoffice in all its 300 MB glory.
> Keep in mind your upgrading off trunk, so trunk may become unstable
> during development of 0.63 (and it likely will), causing packages to
> break.
>
> If you want to try installing BigBlueButton on Amazon EC2 to try it
> out (which is how we usually test builds), we recommend using the 9.04
> instance ami-ccf615a5 created by Eric Hammond (seehttp://alestic.com/).

DJP

unread,
Nov 15, 2009, 4:49:30 AM11/15/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Oups, i meant in my message : http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/issues/detail?id=197
instead of http://
code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/issues/detail?id=218 (basicly same
idea...) !

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 1, 2009, 10:54:48 AM12/1/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Everyone,

We've terminated the instance http://ec2-174-129-61-13.compute-1.amazonaws.com/
... we'll be providing a test server running builds of BigBlueButton
0.63 shortly.

You can setup your own BigBlueButton 0.63 dev build with the following
commands on Ubuntu 9.04

wget http://archive.bigbluebutton.org/bigbluebutton.asc
sudo apt-key add bigbluebutton.asc
echo "deb http://archive.bigbluebutton.org/dev bigbluebutton main"
|
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bigbluebutton.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bigbluebutton

However, much of the 0.63 features are still in active development, so
the above will probably be unstable until we start to settle
everything down for a release. Stay tuned!

Regards,... Fred

clwaters

unread,
Dec 2, 2009, 6:17:14 PM12/2/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Do you think the 0.62 vim would upgrade properly or are these
instructions for a from scratch build?

On Dec 1, 7:54 am, Fred Dixon <ffdi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> We've terminated the instancehttp://ec2-174-129-61-13.compute-1.amazonaws.com/
> ... we'll be providing a test server running builds of BigBlueButton
> 0.63 shortly.
>
> You can setup your own BigBlueButton 0.63 dev build with the following
> commands on Ubuntu 9.04
>
>   wgethttp://archive.bigbluebutton.org/bigbluebutton.asc
>   sudo apt-key add bigbluebutton.asc
>   echo "debhttp://archive.bigbluebutton.org/devbigbluebutton main"

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 2, 2009, 9:17:05 PM12/2/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Clwaters,

When we release 0.63, we will ensure the packages will update a 0.62
build. It takes a lot of testing, but in the end you should be able
to take your 0.62 setup and type

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

and have a fully working 0.63 release. That being said, we are
currently in the middle of our 0.63 development and the packages in
archive.bigbluebutton.com/dev are building off of trunk, so there is
no guarantee they will properly upgrade or work. So, for the moment,
if you want to try using 0.63, with all the caveats that it may break,
we recommend start with a clean machine (Ubuntu 9.04) and install
using the instructions in the previous post.

After we finish our testing of 0.63, if we've done our job right, you
should have no problems upgrading an existing 0.62 with two commands.

Regards,... Fred

On Dec 2, 6:17 pm, clwaters <clwat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do you think the 0.62 vim would upgrade properly or are these
> instructions for a from scratch build?
>
> On Dec 1, 7:54 am, Fred Dixon <ffdi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Hi Everyone,
>
> > We've terminated the instancehttp://ec2-174-129-61-13.compute-1.amazonaws.com/
> > ... we'll be providing a test server running builds of BigBlueButton
> > 0.63 shortly.
>
> > You can setup your own BigBlueButton 0.63 dev build with the following
> > commands on Ubuntu 9.04
>
> >   wgethttp://archive.bigbluebutton.org/bigbluebutton.asc
> >   sudo apt-key add bigbluebutton.asc

sawangpong

unread,
Dec 3, 2009, 4:32:22 AM12/3/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Dear Fred
Sorry Fred I got error.
>>
HTTP Status 404 -
type Status report
message
description The requested resource () is not available.
Apache Tomcat/6.0.18
<<
after i run bbb-config <ipaddress>
regards
Sawangpong

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 3, 2009, 8:18:02 AM12/3/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Sawapon,

Can you give a bit more information on your setup (don't want to
assume anything!). Did you use packages or manual install? Did you
upgrade an existing 0.62 installation, or did you start with a fresh
install for 0.63 from packages?

We're not surprised as we're still deep into development for this
iteration and haven't entered the testing phase yet for this release.

In any event, let us know more information and we'll see if we can
help now.

Regards,... Fred

sawangpong

unread,
Dec 10, 2009, 12:26:44 PM12/10/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Dear Fred
I got BBB version 0.62 not 0.63. i start install with a fresh
wget http://archive.bigbluebutton.org/bigbluebutton.asc
sudo apt-key add bigbluebutton.asc
echo "deb http://archive.bigbluebutton.org/dev bigbluebutton main"
|
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bigbluebutton.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bigbluebutton

now on BBB version 0.62 all function is working.

How to upgrade to 0.63

Regards
Sawangpong

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 10, 2009, 1:34:01 PM12/10/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Sawangpong,

Following what you did, you should be running 0.63 code that's built
off of trunk (the key was to use http://archive.bigbluebutton.org/dev
as the archive URL). To check that you have installed 0.63 packages,
running command dpkg -l | grep bbb. Here's my output

root:~# dpkg -l | grep bbb
ii bbb-apps
0.63.0ubuntu39 BigBlueButton applications for Red5
ii bbb-apps-sip
0.63.0ubuntu19 BigBlueButton SIP module for Red5
ii bbb-apps-video
0.63.0ubuntu2 BigBlueButton video module for Red5
ii bbb-client
0.63.0ubuntu10 BigBlueButton Flash client
ii bbb-common
0.63.0ubuntu10 BigBlueButton common files
ii bbb-config
0.62.0ubuntu14 BigBlueButton group package
ii bbb-voice-conference
0.63.0ubuntu11 BigBlueButton voice conference files
ii bbb-web
0.63.0ubuntu16 BigBlueButton web interface
ii bigbluebutton
0.62.0ubuntu6 Open Source Web Conferencing System
(bbb)

If you were running 0.62, then all the packages would have 0.62.XX
labels.

Regards,... Fred

P.S. Ignore the banner at the top of the index page that still reads
0.62 ... we haven't updated it yet.


On Dec 10, 12:26 pm, sawangpong <sawangpo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Fred
> I got BBB version 0.62  not  0.63. i  start install with a fresh
>    wgethttp://archive.bigbluebutton.org/bigbluebutton.asc
>    sudo apt-key add bigbluebutton.asc
>   echo "debhttp://archive.bigbluebutton.org/devbigbluebutton main"

sawangpong muadphet

unread,
Dec 10, 2009, 2:17:59 PM12/10/09
to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com
Dear Fred
It corrects now i have 0.63 already. Thank again. I run on
Virtualbox with Ubuntu server. but On my production I have redhat.
Hope I can use rpm soon.
Do the BBB 0.63 can upload multi filetype? My presentation still can
upload only pdf , Do i need some patch ? In order to user
PPT,DOC,ODT etc..

Regards
Sawangpong

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 10, 2009, 2:43:26 PM12/10/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Sawanpong,

It should support other file types, through the File/Open dialog box
might be filtering for only *.pdf files. If you type * in the
FileName field and press enter, it should show you all file types for
you to upload. It should support word, excel, and powerpoint files --
whatever openoffice 3.0.1 supports.

Let us know if the above works.

Regards,... Fred

DJP

unread,
Dec 10, 2009, 3:01:04 PM12/10/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi,

Anyway, this should be fixed on trunk for the "real" 0.63 release.
Dunno if this package includes this...

Cya,
DJP

sawangpong muadphet

unread,
Dec 10, 2009, 9:32:08 PM12/10/09
to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BigBlueButton-dev" group.
> To post to this group, send email to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to bigbluebutton-...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-dev?hl=en.
>
>
>

sawangpong muadphet

unread,
Dec 10, 2009, 9:39:52 PM12/10/09
to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com
Dear Fred
It still PDF filter after type * in Filename and press enter follow
your instruction.
I use firefox 3.5.5

regards
Sawangpong

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 10, 2009, 10:46:52 PM12/10/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Sawanpong,

Try it once more ... even though the filter remains "PDF", after you
type * and press Enter, you should see all files in the current folder
available for selection.

Cheers,... Fred

On Dec 10, 9:39 pm, sawangpong muadphet <sawangpo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Fred

Subikar Burman

unread,
Dec 11, 2009, 2:45:26 AM12/11/09
to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com
Hi guys,

  I am running bbb version 0.4. There I am facing lots of issue. My sysadmin saying bbb is having memory leakage which is screwing my server. Is I need to upgrade this too 0.63 . Is that will solve my issue please advise.

Thanks,
Subikar
--
Thanks,
Subikar
http://www.itcslive.com
Mobile:9836892283
Office : 033-25290568
Address : 108 MM Ghosh Rd Kolkata - 700074 (Dum Dum)
Meet me @ http://humtumlove.blogspot.com
Jai Baba Loknath

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 11, 2009, 7:21:51 AM12/11/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Subikar,

In 0.62 the VoIP was causing some resource problems, and we've spent
the last month refactoring it and fixing bugs. BigBlueButton 0.63
will be better, and we're getting close to finishing development and
entering the testing phase, but it's not ready yet for production,
especially as we've not tested it extensively yet.

For the moment, could you create a cron job that restarts red5 and
tomcat6 every night at 2:00 AM. We know that's not a solution; its a
stopgap. We want BigBlueButton to run for month's without restart,
but this will help alleviate some of the near-term problems with
resource until we're there.

Also, would it be possible for you to tar.gz the following directories
and e-mail us a link?

/usr/share/red5/logs
/var/lib/tomcat6/logs

Finally, we are willing to remotely log into your server and examine
the setup more closely to see what's causing the problems. If this is
an option, we're willing to help out directly. Please e-mail us
directly to coordinate.

Regards,... Fred
> > bigbluebutton-...@googlegroups.com<bigbluebutton-dev%2Bunsubscr i...@googlegroups.com>
> > .
> > > > For more options, visit this group athttp://
> > groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-dev?hl=en.
>
> > --
>
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "BigBlueButton-dev" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> > bigbluebutton-...@googlegroups.com<bigbluebutton-dev%2Bunsubscr i...@googlegroups.com>
> > .
> > For more options, visit this group at
> >http://groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-dev?hl=en.
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Subikarhttp://www.itcslive.com

Subikar Burman

unread,
Dec 11, 2009, 7:44:27 AM12/11/09
to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com
Hi Fred,

  Nice to chat with you. As per your request here is the log files zip of those folder.


http://www.soberfolk.org/log-red5.zip
http://www.soberfolk.org/logs-tomcat6.zip

Just let me know if you still need to acccess my server and what are the info require to access the server so I can send it to you.

To unsubscribe from this group, send email to bigbluebutton-...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-dev?hl=en.





--
Thanks,
Subikar
http://www.itcslive.com
Mobile:9836892283
Office : 033-25290568
Address : 108 MM Ghosh Rd Kolkata - 700074 (Dum Dum)

Fred Dixon

unread,
Dec 11, 2009, 9:29:40 AM12/11/09
to BigBlueButton-dev
Hi Subikar,

Thanks Subikar. We've looked through the logs and we can see lots of
exceptions and errors with regards to the SIP. These appear as

log-red5\sip.log(156100): 2009-12-09 16:45:25,732 [NioProcessor-2]
ERROR org.red5.server.webapp.sip.RTMPUser - RTMPUser stopStream
exception java.lang.NullPointerException
log-red5\sip.log(156110): 2009-12-09 16:45:25,733 [NioProcessor-1]
ERROR org.red5.server.webapp.sip.RTMPUser - RTMPUser stopStream
exception java.lang.NullPointerException
log-red5\sip.log(156128): 2009-12-09 16:45:25,736 [NioProcessor-2]
ERROR org.red5.server.webapp.sip.RTMPUser - RTMPUser stopStream
exception java.lang.NullPointerException
log-red5\sip.log(156144): 2009-12-09 16:45:25,742 [NioProcessor-1]
ERROR org.red5.server.webapp.sip.RTMPUser - RTMPUser stopStream
exception java.lang.NullPointerException

and

log-red5\sip.log(74776): 2009-11-22 14:12:29,515 [NioProcessor-12]
DEBUG o.r.s.webapp.sip.RTPStreamSender - RTPStreamSender - Exception
- -> java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
log-red5\sip.log(74777): 2009-11-22 14:12:29,515 [NioProcessor-15]
DEBUG o.r.s.webapp.sip.RTPStreamSender - RTPStreamSender - Exception
- -> java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
log-red5\sip.log(74778): 2009-11-22 14:12:29,557 [NioProcessor-15]
DEBUG o.r.s.webapp.sip.RTPStreamSender - RTPStreamSender - Exception
- -> java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
log-red5\sip.log(74779): 2009-11-22 14:12:29,557 [NioProcessor-12]
DEBUG o.r.s.webapp.sip.RTPStreamSender - RTPStreamSender - Exception
- -> java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
log-red5\sip.log(74780): 2009-11-22 14:12:29,599 [NioProcessor-15]
DEBUG o.r.s.webapp.sip.RTPStreamSender - RTPStreamSender - Exception
- -> java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException

We've been going through the SIP code and systematically hunting down
and fixing these bugs. Needless to say, 0.63 should be much less
resource intensive for VoIP. Another problem is the amount of logging
that the SIP code creates. In 0.63 we've added a parameter to /usr/
share/red5/webapps/sip/WEB-INF/bigbluebutton-sip.properties to reduce
the logging

# If you want mjsip stack (red5/log/*access*.log) to minimize the
amount of logs it
# generates, set this to a lower value (e.g. 3).
sipStackDebugLevel=3

For the moment, the best course of action is to add a cron job that
restarts red5 once a day. In parallel, we'll let you know as soon as
0.63 is ready for testing.

Regards,... Fred


On Dec 11, 7:44 am, Subikar Burman <subikar....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Fred,
>
>   Nice to chat with you. As per your request here is the log files zip of
> those folder.
>
> http://www.soberfolk.org/log-red5.ziphttp://www.soberfolk.org/logs-tomcat6.zip
> > > bigbluebutton-...@googlegroups.com<bigbluebutton-dev%2Bunsubscr i...@googlegroups.com><bigbluebutton-dev%2Bunsubscr
>
> i...@googlegroups.com>> > .
> > > > > For more options, visit this group athttp://
> > > groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-dev?hl=en.
>
> > > --
>
> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups
> > > "BigBlueButton-dev" group.
> > > To post to this group, send email to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com.
> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> > > bigbluebutton-...@googlegroups.com<bigbluebutton-dev%2Bunsubscr i...@googlegroups.com><bigbluebutton-dev%2Bunsubscr
>
> i...@googlegroups.com>
>
> > > .
> > > For more options, visit this group at
> > >http://groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-dev?hl=en.
>
> > --
> > Thanks,
> > Subikarhttp://www.itcslive.com
> > Mobile:9836892283
> > Office : 033-25290568
> > Address : 108 MM Ghosh Rd Kolkata - 700074 (Dum Dum)
> > Meet me @http://humtumlove.blogspot.com
> > Jai Baba Loknath
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "BigBlueButton-dev" group.
> To post to this group, send email to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> bigbluebutton-...@googlegroups.com<bigbluebutton-dev%2Bunsubscr i...@googlegroups.com>
> .
> For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-dev?hl=en.

Subikar Burman

unread,
Dec 11, 2009, 4:30:32 PM12/11/09
to bigblueb...@googlegroups.com
Thank you fred for the info
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to bigbluebutton-...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-dev?hl=en.





--
Thanks,
Subikar
http://www.itcslive.com
Mobile:9836892283
Office : 033-25290568
Address : 108 MM Ghosh Rd Kolkata - 700074 (Dum Dum)
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages