BlackboardBundle

This bundle downloads recordings saved on Blackboard Collaborate from Blackboard Learn and imports them into PuMuKIT.

Configuration

Add the following to your PuMuKIT configuration:

pumukit_blackboard:
    learn_host: https://{blackboard_learn_domain}
    learn_key: {blackboard_api_learn_key}
    learn_secret: {blackboard_api_learn_secret}
    collaborate_host: https://{blackboard_collaborate_domain}
    collaborate_key: {blackboard_building_block_collaborate_key}
    collaborate_secret: {blackboard_building_block_collaborate_secret}

How it works

The import process is split into three independent commands. Each command only does one job, stores its state in MongoDB and can be safely re-run at any time.

┌─────────────────────────────┐
│  sync-courses               │  Fetches course catalogue from Learn
│  Status: pending_recordings │  and upserts it in MongoDB.
└────────────┬────────────────┘
             │
             ▼
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│  sync-recordings --limit N  │  For each pending course, fetches
│  Status: pending_import     │  recordings from Collaborate and
│          done               │  saves them in PuMuKIT.
│          error              │
└────────────┬────────────────┘
             │
             ▼
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│  import:recordings          │  Downloads and ingests each
│  imported: true             │  recording into PuMuKIT.
└─────────────────────────────┘

Course statuses (BlackboardCourse document)

Value	Constant	Meaning
0	STATUS_PENDING_RECORDINGS	Course is queued to have its recordings fetched
1	STATUS_PENDING_IMPORT	Recordings found and saved, waiting to be imported
2	STATUS_DONE	No recordings found (or all processed)
3	STATUS_ERROR	An error occurred; check errorMessage field

Commands

Step 1 — Sync courses

php bin/console pumukit:blackboard:sync-courses

Fetches the full course catalogue from Blackboard Learn (sorted by modified descending) and persists it in MongoDB. Safe to re-run: new courses are inserted as pending_recordings; existing ones update their metadata without losing their current status, except done courses which are re-queued to check for new recordings.

---

Step 2 — Sync recordings

php bin/console pumukit:blackboard:sync-recordings [--limit=N]

Processes courses in pending_recordings status. For each course it queries Blackboard Collaborate, saves the found recordings in PuMuKIT and transitions the course to pending_import (recordings found) or done (no recordings). If a request fails the course is marked as error and the next one is processed.

Option	Default	Description
--limit	50	Maximum number of courses to process per run

---

Step 3 — Import recordings

php bin/console pumukit:blackboard:import:recordings [--fallback-full-download]

Downloads and ingests into PuMuKIT all recordings with imported=false. Requires the recording to have at least one owner with a matching PuMuKIT user account.

Option	Description
--fallback-full-download	If streaming download fails, retry loading the full file into memory

---

Recommended cron schedule

# Step 1 — Refresh course catalogue once a day (off-peak hours)
0 2 * * * php /var/www/pumukit/bin/console pumukit:blackboard:sync-courses >> /var/log/pumukit/blackboard-courses.log 2>&1

# Step 2 — Process recordings in batches every hour
0 * * * * php /var/www/pumukit/bin/console pumukit:blackboard:sync-recordings --limit=100 >> /var/log/pumukit/blackboard-recordings.log 2>&1

# Step 3 — Import into PuMuKIT every 30 minutes
*/30 * * * * php /var/www/pumukit/bin/console pumukit:blackboard:import:recordings >> /var/log/pumukit/blackboard-import.log 2>&1

Note: Adjust --limit in Step 2 based on the Blackboard Collaborate API rate limits of your institution. Start conservatively (50–100) and increase if no blocking occurs.