BigBlueButton Admin- & User-Frontend

[BigBlueButton Homepage] [BigBlueButton PHP API]

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. About bbbadmin
   • Built with PHP
2. Description
3. Synopsis
   • Options
   • PHP files
   • Configuration files
   • Configuration
   • Prerequisites
   • Releases
   • Create debian packages
   • Installation Scripts
   • Installation Admin Frontend
   • Admin access security with .htpasswd
   • Allow popup windows for bbbadmin
   • Installation User Frontend
   • User access security with .htpasswd
   • Workaround for hostings without apache_setenv()
   • Workaround curl timeout url not reached
   • Language support
   • Styling with bootstrap.css
4. User URL for joining meeting
5. Change page style
6. Screenshots
   • index.php
   • bbb_join.php
   • bbb_info.php
   • bbb_record.php
   • bbb_send.php
   • bbb_invite.php
   • bbb_user.php
7. Todo

NAME

      bbbadmin - BigBlueButton Admin- & User-Frontend

DESCRIPTION

      bbbadmin is a minimalistic BBB PHP API Frontend

SYNOPSIS

• Create webpage for administrators to manage BigBlueButton servers via the BBB PHP API
• Create webpage for users only to join BigBlueButton server
• Manage all running meetings on the server
• Manage all recordings on the server
• Provide central user join page for meetings
• Send invitation email to users
• Use JSON as configuration file
• Create your own debian packages
• Create your own language files
• Detect client browser language or set default to "en"
• Final release, now it's on you to make issues or participate on discussion

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OPTIONS

• List running meeting
• List recordings
• Create meetings
• Join meeting
• Stop meeting
• Show meeting information
• Show recordings
• Delete recordings

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PHP FILES

Filename	Description
bbb_admin.json	Configuration file for application
index.php	Index page for application
bbb_config.php	Load configuration
bbb_load.php	Loading needed addons and additional scripts
bbb_create.php	Create meeting on server
bbb_join.php	Join meeting on server
bbb_info.php	Display meeting informations
bbb_record.php	Show recordings on server
bbb_delrec.php	Delete recordings on server
bbb_send.php	Send invitation mail to user
bbb_stop.php	Stop meeting on server
bbb_user.php	Join user to meeting

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CONFIGURATION FILES

• Configuration file bbb_admin.json

• Email template file bbb_admin.tmpl

• Folder protection file .htaccess

• Access password file [.htpasswd]

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CONFIGURATION

• Edit file bbb_admin.json

{
    "debug": "1",
    "refresh": "30",
    "language": "en",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "invite": "https://room.domain.com",
    "copyright": "© 2021 unattended.ch",
    "server": {
        "1": "room1.domain.com",
        "2": "room2.domain.com"
    },
    "logout": {
        "1": "https://room1.domain.com",
        "2": "https://room2.domain.com"
    },
    "logos":  {
        "1": "https://room1.domain.com/favicon.ico",
        "2": "https://room2.domain.com/favicon.ico"
    },
    "access": {
        "1": "ModeratorPasswordDefault" ,
        "2": "AttendeePasswordDefault" 
    },
    "rooms":  { 
        "1": { "name": "Bastelraum © 2021 unattended.ch", "id": "Bastelraum" ,  "acc": "Password", "msg": "Monday 20:00 - 22:00" },
        "2": { "name": "Startraum © 2021 unattended.ch", "id": "Startraum" ,  "acc": "Password", "msg": "" }
    }
}

Parameter	Description
debug	0=Off 1=On
refresh	Screen refresh in secords for main and recording page
language	en=English, de=German, fr=French other languages are wanted
email	Admin email for sending invitation links
invite	URL to users join page for invitations
copyright	Copyright

 "server":

Parameter	Description
unique id	Unique number for server
name	Name of server (only descriptive)

 "logout":

Parameter	Description
unique id	Unique number for logout URL
name	Logout URL for meeting (default invitation url &exit=1)

 "logos":

Parameter	Description
unique id	Unique number for Logo
name	Logo URL for meetings

 "access":

Parameter	Description
1	Moderator password default
2	Attendee password default if no room password was specified

 "rooms":

Parameter	Description
unique id	Unique number for room
name	Room name fully descriptive for BigBlueButton
id	Room ID for BigBlueButton
acc	Room password for BigBlueButton

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LANGUAGE SUPPORT

• Change ["language": "en",] in bbb_admin.json to your language shortcode

  en=English de=German fr=French

• See res/locale/ for .PO translation files and translation scripts

• See locale/ for translated .PHP files

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STYLING

• Use bootstrap.css for styling of bbb_user.php

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RELEASES

• See releases for more informations

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DEBIAN PACKAGES

• Create your own bbbadmin.deb and bbb_users.deb for delivery

• Use bbb_build.sh for package creation

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INSTALLATION SCRIPTS

• Admin Frontend installation script bbbadmin_install.sh

• User Frontend installation script bbbuser_install.sh

• Or you can use our debian packages in releases

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PREREQUISITES

1. Install PHP modules php-curl php-mbstring php-xml

     sudo apt install php-curl php-mbstring php-xml php-intl -y

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INSTALLATION ADMIN FRONTEND

1. Clone bbbadmin to your home folder

     git clone https://github.com/unattended-ch/bbbadmin ~/bbbadmin

2. Clone the BBB PHP API to your home folder

     git clone https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton-api-php ~/bigbluebutton-api-php

3. Copy BBB contents of folder src/ to /opt/yourpage

     sudo rsync -avr ~/bigbluebutton-api-php/src/* /opt/yourpage/

4. Copy bbbadmin *.php, .css and icons/.ico files to /opt/yourpage

     sudo rsync --exclude="res/*" -avr ~/bbbadmin/* /opt/yourpage/

5. Create a symbolic link to the apache root folder

     sudo ln -s /opt/yourpage /var/www/html/

6. Set owner of yourpage to www-data

     sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /opt/yourpage

7. For configuration you can use bbb_admin.json

   • You must specify BBB_* Apache environment variables for every server in apache configuration

       SetEnv BBB_SECRET1 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
       SetEnv BBB_SERVER1_BASE_URL https://server1.domain.com/bigbluebutton/
       SetEnv BBB_SECRET2 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
       SetEnv BBB_SERVER2_BASE_URL https://server2.domain.com/bigbluebutton/
     

8. Enable access security over .htpasswd file as a basic protection 8.1 Add th following to the default apache configuration

     <Directory "/var/www/html/yourpage">
       AllowOverride All
       Options SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
       Order allow,deny
       Allow from all
     </Directory>
   

   8.2 Copy .htacces file to your webpage

     sudo cp -v ~/bbbadmin/res/.htaccess /opt/youpage/

   8.3 Edit the path of password file in .htaccess, always use document root of apache

     sudo mcedit /opt/yourpage/.htaccess
     
     AuthUserFile "/var/www/html/yourpage/.htpasswd"

   8.4 Add user to .htpasswd

     sudo htpasswd -c /opt/youpage/.htpasswd [username]

   8.5 Restart apache server

     sudo systemctl restart apache2

9. Firefox allow bbbadmin for popup windows to join meeting in new window

   • Enable popup windows for bbbadmin (see popupblocker)

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INSTALLATION USER FRONTEND

1. Clone bbbadmin to your home folder

     git clone https://github.com/unattended-ch/bbbadmin ~/bbbadmin

2. Clone the BBB PHP API to your home folder

     git clone https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton-api-php ~/bigbluebutton-api-php

3. Copy BBB contents of folder src/ to /opt/youruserpage

     sudo rsync -avr ~/bigbluebutton-api-php/src/* /opt/youruserpage/

4. Copy bbbadmin *.php, .css and icons/.ico files to /opt/youruserpage

     sudo rsync --exclude="res/*" -avr ~/bbbadmin/* /opt/youruserpage/
     sudo mv -v /opt/youruserpage/bbb_user.php /opt/youruserpage/index.php

5. Remove not needed files

     sudo rm -f /opt/youruserpage/index.php
     sudo rm -f /opt/youruserpage/bbb_create.php
     sudo rm -f /opt/youruserpage/bbb_delrec.php
     sudo rm -f /opt/youruserpage/bbb_info.php
     sudo rm -f /opt/youruserpage/bbb_join.php
     sudo rm -f /opt/youruserpage/bbb_record.php
     sudo rm -f /opt/youruserpage/bbb_stop.php

6. Create a symbolic link to the apache root folder

     sudo ln -s /opt/yourpage /var/www/html/

7. Set owner of your user page to www-data

     sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /opt/youruserpage

8. For configuration you must edit bbb_admin.json
   • Remove all sub sections except "server": from bbb_admin.json
   • And you MUST specify BBB_* Apache environment variables for every server

     SetEnv BBB_SECRET1 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     SetEnv BBB_SERVER1_BASE_URL https://server1.domain.com/bigbluebutton/
     SetEnv BBB_SECRET2 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     SetEnv BBB_SERVER2_BASE_URL https://server2.domain.com/bigbluebutton/
   

9. Servers with no apache_setenv() and apache_getenv() support edit bbb_admin.json

- Edit section "bbb":

10. User can now join the meeting with the following parameters (sid and mID is needed the rest is optional) :

      https://server.domain.com/bbbuser/?sid=X&mID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX[&usr=Username][&join=1]
    

      https://server.domain.com?sid=X&mID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX[&usr=Username][&join=1]
    

• If the meeting is running the mask for username will be displayed
• If not, nothing will be diplayed

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CURL TIMEOUT

 If you get a lot curl errrors, change the following lines in [BigBlueButton.php]

         $data = curl_exec($ch);

 Replace with

         $retry = 3;
         $attempts = 0;
         do {
             try
                 {
                     $data = curl_exec($ch);
                 }
             catch (Exception $e)
                 {
                     $attempts++;
                     continue;
                 }
             }
         while(($data === false) && ($attempts < $retry));

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SCREENSHOTS

• index.php goto TOC

• index.php

  Join meeting Show meeting Send invitation Stop meeting

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• bbb_create.php goto TOC

• bbb_join.php goto TOC

• bbb_info.php goto TOC

• bbb_stop.php goto TOC

• bbb_record.php

  View recorded meeting Delete recording

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• bbb_invite.php goto TOC

• bbb_send.php goto TOC

• bbb_send.php goto TOC

• bbb_user.php goto TOC

TODO

1. Enjoy
2. Display 1st page of presentation as background on users join page (would be nice...and i am willing)
3. Create download location for .MP4 meeting recording files in BBB (a lot of scripts...but i need help)
4. Create cron srcipt to start meeting in timely fashion for a specific time period (we need this really ?)

• You can take part of discussion
• Or you can send us issue reports

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