Problems setting up Safe Exam Browser on Numbas LTI Provider

[Alexander Holvoet]

Dear Numbas User Group

I have two problems with setting up the lockdown app Safe Exam Browser for an assessment in the next academic year.

1) I have added an LTI link in Blackboard Ultra to our privately hosted Numbas LTI provider, with "require lockdownapp" ticked on for that resource. When I open Blackboard Ultra in Safe Exam Browser and click that same link (in Student Preview Mode, so as a student), I immediately get the warning underneath:

which is quite weird as you can see the Safe Exam Browser logo on the bottom left.

2) Regardless of this initial error, I cannot get Numbas to start with my uploaded SEBsettingsfile and get the error: "The resource must be launched through Safe Exam Browser with the correct settings". I suspect because of the configuration key not being correct. I have however opened the settingsfile in SEBconfigtool on Windows (without changing any setting!) and copied the configuration key. I have checked several times the key, so I am pretty sure it is correct. Apart from that, I have to enter my own quit password, so I am sure SEB is using my SEBsettingsfile.

Looking at both of these errors together, is it possible Numbas is simply not recognizing SEB is being used (apart from configuration key)? And how can I solve this problem, as we want to use this lockdown app on large scale quite soon?

Kind regards,

Alexander

PS: tested both Blackboard Original and Blackboard Ultra, Chrome and Firefox for the initial click, all done on Windows 11, SEB version 3.5.0 (x64) for Windows

[Alexander Holvoet]

I have found a discussion post on Safe Exam Browser related to Moodle: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=408736 maybe something similar is happening with Numbas in Blackboard Ultra here?

In the meantime I will try to generate and check the config key myself, using this article: https://medium.com/@iyersyam/generating-a-config-key-hash-with-the-safe-exam-browser-and-node-js-29b34b1d9d05

Op dinsdag 25 juli 2023 om 17:57:08 UTC+2 schreef Alexander Holvoet:

[Alexander Holvoet]

I am running into issues with generating the config keys myself, as it does not correspond to the config key that SEBconfigtool is reporting. I would love to discuss this issue with someone from Numbas; i don't see whether I am doing something wrong, or there is an issue with my SEB setup, or something is going wrong with Numbas+SEB.

Op woensdag 26 juli 2023 om 17:11:22 UTC+2 schreef Alexander Holvoet:

[Christian Lawson-Perfect]

For everyone else's benefit: Alexander booked an office hours slot today, and we tried a few things. He loaded an SEB link on my test Moodle instance OK, so I don't think it's a problem with his installation of SEB. My best idea was that the KU Leuven server is stripping the headers that SEB uses somehow. I've given him some code to display debug information when he launches SEB, which the person who runs the server will apply. Hopefully we'll find out what's gone wrong!

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[Alexander Holvoet]

I have resolved this issue by ticking on " Allow Query Parameter " in the exam pane of the SEB configuration tool. When opening SEB, Numbas LTI provider needs to pass several parameters onwards like "session_key" for example, which can only happen if SEB is also receptive to them. This has resolved the second issue.

The first issue of Numbas not already detecting I am using SEB is not crucial to setting up BYOD-exams in my university, as it also goes against the normal workflow of opening the Virtual Learning Environment first in your classic browser like Chrome or Firefox, instead of SEB immediately.

Op donderdag 27 juli 2023 om 14:32:50 UTC+2 schreef christia...@gmail.com: