bbb-video-download

A BigBlueButton recording postscript to provide video download capability.

The assembled video includes:

• shared audio and webcams video
• presented slides with
  • whiteboard actions (text and drawings)
  • cursor movements
  • zooming
• screen sharing
• captions

Install

Dependencies Since version 1.2 the script was dockerized, i.e. it needs docker and docker-compose installed on the host.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker docker-compose

Installation

# (as root or with sudo)
cd /opt

## fetch source from github
git clone https://github.com/tilmanmoser/bbb-video-download.git
cd bbb-video-download

## build app with docker-compose
docker-compose build app

## create the workdir (as referenced in docker-compose.yml) and make bigbluebutton the owner
mkdir tmp
chown bigbluebutton:bigbluebutton tmp

## add bigbluebutton user to docker group
usermod -aG docker bigbluebutton

If you want to run the script for every new recording automatically, install the post_publish hook like this:

# (as root or with sudo)
cd /opt/bbb-video-download
export BBB_VIDEO_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" >/dev/null 2>&1 && pwd )"
export BBB_UID="$(cat /etc/passwd | grep bigbluebutton | cut -d: -f3)"
export BBB_GID="$(cat /etc/passwd | grep bigbluebutton | cut -d: -f4)"
envsubst < ./snippets/post_publish_bbb_video_download.rb.template > /usr/local/bigbluebutton/core/scripts/post_publish/a0_post_publish_bbb_video_download.rb

Update

If you're updating from an older version to 1.2, please uninstall and reinstall.

cd /opt/bbb-video-download
git pull origin master
docker-compose build app

Uninstall

up to version 1.0.x:

rm /usr/local/bigbluebutton/core/scripts/post_publish/post_publish_bbb_video_download.rb
rm -r /opt/bbb-video-download

up to version 1.1.x

rm /usr/local/bigbluebutton/core/scripts/post_publish/a0_post_publish_bbb_video_download.rb
rm -r /opt/bbb-video-download

from version 1.2.x on

rm /usr/local/bigbluebutton/core/scripts/post_publish/a0_post_publish_bbb_video_download.rb
rm -r /opt/bbb-video-download
sudo docker rmi --force $(docker images -q 'bbb-video-download_app' | uniq)
sudo docker rmi --force $(docker images -q 'node' | uniq)

Create downloadable videos for existing recordings

Use bbb-record --rebuild <presentation_id> to reprocess a single presentation or bbb-record --rebuildall to reprocess all existing presentations. For this the post_publish script must be installed (see installation).

Alternatively you can run bbb-video-download manually:

cd /opt/bbb-video-download
sudo -u bigbluebutton docker-compose run --rm --user 998:998 app node index.js -h
>usage: index.js [-h] [-v] -i INPUT -o OUTPUT
>
>A BigBlueButton recording postscript to provide video download capability.
>
>optional arguments:
>  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
>  -v, --version         show program's version number and exit
>  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
>                        path to BigBlueButton published presentation
>  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
>                        path to outfile

Example for a published presentation with internal meeting id 9a9b6536a10b10017f7e849d30a026809852d01f-1597816023148:

cd /opt/bbb-video-download
sudo -u bigbluebutton docker-compose run --rm --user 998:998 app node index.js -i /var/bigbluebutton/published/presentation/9a9b6536a10b10017f7e849d30a026809852d01f-1597816023148 -o /var/bigbluebutton/published/presentation/9a9b6536a10b10017f7e849d30a026809852d01f-1597816023148/video.mp4

Please note, that all directories you want to access as input or output must be mounted as volumes in docker-compose.yml. Out of the box only /var/bigbluebutton/published/presentation is mounted.

Info for server administrators

MPEG4 is not a free format. You may need to obtain a license to use this script on your server.

Version history:

• 1.0.0 initial release
• 1.0.1 - 1.0.6 minor bug fixes
• 1.1.0 major rewrite:
• • script is able to render videos with many(!) whiteboard drawings
• • improved overall quality of images & drawings in presentations
• • cursor rendered as in bbb playback
• • removed chapter marks
• 1.1.1 - 1.1.4 minor bug fixes
• 1.2.0 dockerization of the script due to memory management

Acknowledgement

Special thanks go to @ichdasich, @deiflou and @christmart for providing enhancements and outstanding support in testing the application.