Feature Wish: Set a fixed PIN for VoIP Bridge in Greenlight

[Steffen Moser]

Hi all,

we've been quite successfully using BBB for at least four years to teach our extra-occupational distant learners in masters' courses. We typically use BBB linked to Moodle and have been very content with its features and robustness.

A few days ago, we added Greenlight to your installation in order to additionally offer a quick and simple web conferencing solution for colleagues and our external project partners who are typically not enrolled in any of our Moodle courses. While it is possible to define a fixed VoIP bridge PIN in the settings of the BBB activity in Moodle, it doesn't seem to be possible in Greenlight, yet. This means that I cannot know the PIN for the VoIP bridge before the meeting has been started. I especially cannot know it when sending the invitation e-mail (typically one or two days in advance of the session - unless I already pre-open the session long enough ago).

My question is: Would it be possible to extend Greenlight in a way that it allows the definition of a fixed VoIP bridge PIN when creating a new conference session? Of course, one would need to define a number space (like the prefix 7 in Moodle) which does not interfere with the randomly generated PINs.

Sending the PIN together with the invitation would be a great improvement as we often have some people who are not equipped with an acceptable internet connection where they take part in the conferences from. In this case a simple solution to fall back to the telephone is of help.

Thank you very much for any help in advance!

Kind regards,
Steffen

[Fred Dixon]

Hi Steffen,

> we've been quite successfully using BBB for at least four years to teach our extra-occupational distant learners in masters' courses. We typically use BBB linked to Moodle and have been very content with its features and robustness. 

Nice!  Love to hear that.  We've got a very deep integration with Moodle and definitely want to make it easy for you to use.

> My question is: Would it be possible to extend Greenlight in a way that it allows the definition of a fixed VoIP bridge PIN when creating a new conference session? Of course, one would need to define a number space (like the prefix 7 in Moodle) which does not interfere with the randomly generated PINs. 

We tried to keep the GreenLight UI to a minimum.  Instead of prompting the user to enter a voice bridge number, which for many they wouldn't know what that means, what could be done is to create the voice bridge number based on the SHA1 of the meetingID.  This way, as long as the meetingID remains the same, the meeting should get the same voicebridge number.  GreenLight could be extended to show the dial-in number and voice bridge during the join process.  This way, you would know in advance the extension.

Are you a Ruby on Rails developer?  Want to take a shot at adding this to GreenLight?  See

  http://docs.bigbluebutton.org/support/faq.html#contributing-to-bigbluebutton

Regards,... Fred

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[Steffen Moser]

Hi Fred,

thanks a lot for your quick reply and the great work with Big Blue Button and GreenLight!

On Monday, November 20, 2017 at 1:01:00 AM UTC+1, Fred Dixon wrote:

> My question is: Would it be possible to extend Greenlight in a way that it allows the definition of a fixed VoIP bridge PIN when creating a new conference session? Of course, one would need to define a number space (like the prefix 7 in Moodle) which does not interfere with the randomly generated PINs. 

We tried to keep the GreenLight UI to a minimum.

Which is, by the way, a very good idea. I can experience it regularly that setting up video conferences cannot be a simple enough task.
 

Instead of prompting the user to enter a voice bridge number, which for many they wouldn't know what that means, what could be done is to create the voice bridge number based on the SHA1 of the meetingID.

I understand that absolutely.
 

This way, as long as the meetingID remains the same, the meeting should get the same voicebridge number.  GreenLight could be extended to show the dial-in number and voice bridge during the join process.  This way, you would know in advance the extension.

That sounds very reasonable.
 

Are you a Ruby on Rails developer? 

Unfortunately, I am not. Java, C and C++ would be fine, but I've never dealt with Ruby or RoR, yet. But I've just asked whether one of my colleagues or students would be able to have a look into this. I'll report any progress here.

Your idea is great. A fixed PIN which would be shown to the user would be all we need. Typing it is absolutely not necessary. I just thought about that as I had the Moodle plugin solution in my mind.

Kind Regards,
Steffen

[Ruben Kuro]

Am Dienstag, 21. November 2017 00:02:54 UTC+1 schrieb Steffen Moser:

Hi Fred,

thanks a lot for your quick reply and the great work with Big Blue Button and GreenLight!

On Monday, November 20, 2017 at 1:01:00 AM UTC+1, Fred Dixon wrote:

> My question is: Would it be possible to extend Greenlight in a way that it allows the definition of a fixed VoIP bridge PIN when creating a new conference session? Of course, one would need to define a number space (like the prefix 7 in Moodle) which does not interfere with the randomly generated PINs. 

We tried to keep the GreenLight UI to a minimum.

Which is, by the way, a very good idea. I can experience it regularly that setting up video conferences cannot be a simple enough task.
 

Instead of prompting the user to enter a voice bridge number, which for many they wouldn't know what that means, what could be done is to create the voice bridge number based on the SHA1 of the meetingID.

I understand that absolutely.
 

This way, as long as the meetingID remains the same, the meeting should get the same voicebridge number.  GreenLight could be extended to show the dial-in number and voice bridge during the join process.  This way, you would know in advance the extension.

That sounds very reasonable.
 

Are you a Ruby on Rails developer? 

Unfortunately, I am not. Java, C and C++ would be fine, but I've never dealt with Ruby or RoR, yet. But I've just asked whether one of my colleagues or students would be able to have a look into this. I'll report any progress here.

 

 I am currently working on that matter, but I'm unable to set up a greenlight test environment with my changes. Do you have any advice regarding this matter?

Your idea is great. A fixed PIN which would be shown to the user would be all we need. Typing it is absolutely not necessary. I just thought about that as I had the Moodle plugin solution in my mind.

Kind Regards,
Steffen

Best regards,

Ruben

 

[Fred Dixon]

Hi Ruben,

> I am currently working on that matter, but I'm unable to set up a greenlight test environment with my changes. Do you have any advice regarding this matter? 

Are you following the steps here

  

  http://docs.bigbluebutton.org/install/greenlight-v2.html#customizing-greenlight

Let's us know how far you got and we'll try and help out.

Regards,... Fred

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