bigbluebutton / bigbluebutton

Complete open source web conferencing system.

BigBlueButton

BigBlueButton is an open-source virtual classroom designed to help teachers teach and learners learn.

BigBlueButton supports real-time sharing of audio, video, slides (with whiteboard annotations), chat, and the screen. Instructors can engage remote students with polling, emojis, multi-user whiteboards, shared notes, and breakout rooms. During the session, BigBlueButton generates analytics that are visible to moderators in the Learning Analytics Dashboard.

Presenters can record and playback content for later sharing with others.

We designed BigBlueButton for online learning, it can be used for many other applications as well. The educational use cases for BigBlueButton are

• Online tutoring (one-to-one)
• Flipped classrooms (recording content ahead of your session)
• Group collaboration (many-to-many)
• Online classes (one-to-many)

The latest version is BigBlueButton 2.7. You can install BigBlueButton 2.7 on Ubuntu 20.04 using bbb-install.sh within 30 minutes (or your money back 😉).

For full technical documentation of BigBlueButton -- including architecture, features, API, and GreenLight (the default front-end) -- see https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/.

BigBlueButton and the BigBlueButton Logo are trademarks of BigBlueButton Inc.

bigbluebutton's Issues

Simplify steps to view video

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 20

There are too many steps to view a presenter's video.

The steps should be just double-click on video icon next to presenter's name.

Remove the steps to start/stop the video.  If the user doesn't want to see
the video, they can close the video window.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-26 20:56:59

Add warning if slide is too big

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 10

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Import a presentation that has a large image

The problem is it might create a very large SWF file for the client.  

The upload process should warn the presenter if the image is going to be
too large; this way, they could adjust the resolution of the image before
upload.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-08-28 19:03:57

Presenter does not see first slide

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 2

1. Upload slides as presenter
2. Presentation window is blank until presenter clicks on a slide

Presentation window should show first slide.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-07-07 13:58:40

Add reports to the BigBlueButton server

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 23

We have a user that is requesting usage reports for the MeetMe application
on the voice conference server.

They would like to have reports that show for each conference ID, 
  - start time of call, length of call, # of participants

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-30 15:23:19

Viewer's zoom can get out of sync with presenter

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 46

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Viewer zooms in on slides
2. Presenter zooms in on slides
3. Presenter goes to next slide

The presenter's window shows their zoom, but the viewer's window shows the 
cumulative effect of both zooms, leaving the presenter and viewer out of 
sync with the current view.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Expected that when the presenter zooms, the viewer's zoom resets to the 
presenter's zoom level.

Please use labels and text to provide additional information.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-12-16 16:02:33

Client incorrectly asks user to 'upgrade' when running under Flash 10.0.12

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 34

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Install latest Flash Version (10.0.12)
2. Open BigBlueButton client
3.

BigBlueButton client informs the user (incorrectly) to upgrade to the 
latest version.

User gets a message

"You are using FlashPlayer v.10,0,12. Please upgrade to the newest version. 
You will be redirected when you click OK"

If user clicks 'OK' they are re-directed to the Flash download page.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-16 11:31:52

Audio was randomly muting for a brief period (1 min)

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 44

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.
2.
3.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?


What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
0.35q

Please provide any additional information below.

During a conversation using the BBB client, the listeners in the voice 
participants window was randomly going to mute. I could still un-mute a 
listener to correct the problem but sometimes it would go back to being 
muted after a couple seconds. This all happened within the span of a couple 
minutes, after which the client was working properly.

Reported by bert.kwon on 2008-12-15 21:49:28

BigBlueButton doesn't tunnel through port 80

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 16

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Open BigBlueButton client behind firewall

The client says 'connection' but eventually fails to connect.

The client should ping the server first before showing the user the login
dailog.  This way, the user will know right away if the client is able to
successfully connect.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-26 20:37:39

Slides disappear when original presenter logs out

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 36

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Person A logs in as presenter and presents slides
2. Person B logs in as presenter and presents slides
3. Person A logs out

What is the expected output? 
The slides from Person B are still visible.

What do you see instead?
The slides disappear.


Please use labels and text to provide additional information.
Version 0.34e

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-20 14:21:27

Can not upload a pdf file

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 40

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Go to http://present.carleton.ca/client/ 
2. Login as Bruce/85115/modpass


What is the expected output? 
Just see "No presenter". I can not upload a PDF file.

What do you see instead?
I can upload a PDF file

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?


Please provide any additional information below.

Reported by 334001 on 2008-11-18 00:52:17

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- _Attachment: [bbb.jpg](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/bigbluebutton/issue-40/comment-0/bbb.jpg)_

Ability to reset zoom level

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 47

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Before the presenter changes the zoom level, he or she can resize the 
presentation window and the slides will automatically zoom (as in fit to 
window)
2. The presenter changes the zoom level
3. The slides no longer fit to window, and there is no way to reset the 
slides to fit to window.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
There would be a button that would be a Fit to window zoom.

Please use labels and text to provide additional information.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-12-16 16:05:06

Video stop/start still active after presenter stops their video

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 37

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Presenter starts broadcasting  video
2. Viewer views video
3. Presenter stops broadcasting video

The Viewer can still toggle the play/stop button, but there is no video to 
see.

Expected that the play mode for the play/stop button would be unavailable 
as there is no video being broadcasted.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-30 15:51:40

Add help text

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 8

Add links to help text from within the BigBlueButton application.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-07-18 20:16:27

Automatically reconnect if connection drops

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 42

When a user's internet connection momentarily drops, they are immediately 
disconnected from BigBlueButton.

The request is to automatically reconnect client to minimize break in the 
presentation.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-11-21 16:23:44

Some clients will see the old presentation

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 24

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Client A joins a presentation as presenter.  Sees slides with black
background (for example)
2. Later on, client joins as viewer, and when another presenter uploads
slides, they see their old slides.

Quitting the client and logging back in again didn't change it -- they
still saw the old slides.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-30 20:13:18

See how many are viewing web-cam

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 38

A very good feature for presenters would be to show the number of users who 
are actually viewing the web cam.  

Currently, the presenter is broadcasting, but has not feedback on whether 
one (or more) users are viewing his or her web cam.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-30 17:15:27

Support clickable URLs in chat

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 6

Detect when a URL is entered in the chat window and enable users to launch
the URL with a single click.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-07-16 15:52:34

Need to update Red5 svn repository location for ivy dependencies

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 15

Problem: Red5 has changed their svn directory structure, so you need to make a quick
update to 
your "sumilon" bigbluebutton-server/ivysettings.xml file

Simple fix to tell others: 
1. Open ivysettings.xml
2. Update Red5 googlecode svn (artifact pattern) locations
From this:
  http://red5.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/repository
To this:
  http://red5.googlecode.com/svn/repository

Then retry "ant build" or "ant server" and it should build fine.

Reported by mcgee.marty on 2008-09-17 18:24:59

Thumbnail window in 0.35q is off screen in smaller displays

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 48

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Open BigBlueButton in 800x600 display.  
2. Click the show thumbnails button
3.

The thumbnails window is off screen.

Re-design:
Investigate integrating the thumbnails window back into the presentation 
window as an overlay, so the thumbnails become visible when the presenter 
moves the point to the bottom of the presentation window.  There would be 
scroll left and right buttons, like Flickr's slide show display.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-12-16 16:17:39

When joining a presentation the viewer does not not see current slide

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 3

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.  Create a presentation, share a slide, go to slide #2
2.  Join as a viewer.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Viewer sees slide 2.  Expected to see slide #2.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-07-11 19:55:39

Simplfy the steps to broadcast video

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 18

Reduce the steps for broadcasting a video to the following:

1.  Click "Broadcast Video" button

Note: If the user does not have any video camera, this button should not be
shown.

After clicking, the video chat module appears.  

If there is = 1 one valid video source, automatically select, else if there
is > 1 video source, then 

2a.  Display the settings dialog to let the user choose.

2b.  Users chooses and clicks 'OK'

Flash prompts to let the user connect to the video.

3.  User clicks OK in flash prompt.

At this point, the video should automatically broadcast.  There shouldn't
be any stop button.  

To stop broadcasting the video, the user needs only close the dialog.


What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.
2.
3.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?


What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?


Please provide any additional information below.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-26 20:49:49

Show how many users are viewing a webcam

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 22

When a user is broadcasting their web-cam, show how many users are
subscribing to it.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-30 14:59:16

Additional branding of the client

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 26

Customers are looking for ways to add their branding to the BigBlueButton 
client.

A redesign of the toolbar could add more branding opportunities.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-02 11:49:39

Better messaging when unable to login

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 39

To assist resolution of login problems, it would be helpful if the login 
screen provided more information on why the user was unable to login. 

Such as
   - Unable to contact the server (Red5 not accepting connections)
   - Invalid user-name or password
   - Invalid conference ID

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-11-03 16:06:05

Logout/Login doesn't reload modules

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 33

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Login with 0.34e
2. Logout
3. Log back in

Only the Viewer's window is visible.  

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-10 18:06:55

Notify presenter of a new chat message in Presentation window

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 21

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.  Maximize Presentation Window

If a chat comes in, the presenter will not see it.  

Should add a small notification icon to the Presentation window indicating
that a new chat message has been posted.

Once the user restores the Presentation window to normal size (i.e. exit
full-screen mode or clicks the resize button in the upper right), the
notification can disappear.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-26 21:01:52

Make the initial layout of windows more compact

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 49

A report from Steve Muegge:

"Start the top windows (Web Participants, Presentation, Group Chat) 
directly below the BigBlueButton menu bar (region with with the camera 
icon, Logout button, etc.).  The default today has "whitespace" between the 
menu bar and top windows.  This is fine on big high resolution monitors, 
but on other systems (such as the one I'm using right now), my first action 
on after logging in is often to move all the windows higher to better 
utilize screen real estate."

Resolution:
Change make the initial layout of modules more snug with the top of the 
screen (see attached image).

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?


What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?


Please provide any additional information below.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-12-16 16:21:19

---

- _Attachment: snug.png
_

Incorrect labeling of slides

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 31

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Upload a presentation (say it has 20 slides)
2. Click on the first thumbnail

The indicator shows "1 of 20" on the current thumbnail.

3. Click on the scroll bar to page down.

The indicator shows "1 of 20" on one of the visible thumbnail, where it
should show the correct slide number, such as "5 or 20".

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-08 15:00:53

Open source web conferencing software is not easy enough to use for widespread adoption

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 1

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1.  Download any open source web conference software.
2.  Try to install, setup, and deploy.
3.  Invite users
4.  Watch users (but don't give them any training)

What is the expected output? 
  Users are able to use the software without training.  
  Developers are able to easily add their own extensions.  

What do you see instead?
  Managers can stop using WebEx, Placeware, or other commercial offerings.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-07-03 13:42:58

Thumbnails not updating

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 32

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Login to a conference
2. Upload dpb.pdf (see attached) as a presentation
3. Click on thumbnail

You should see a small table (both in thumbnail and in presentation)

3. Upload Sample-PDF-Page-675

Expected to see the text "This is a Wiki How's sample page." as the 
thumbnail.  Instead, the thumbnail still shows the table.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-10 15:28:52

---

- _Attachment: [Sample-PDF-Page-675.pdf](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/bigbluebutton/issue-32/comment-0/Sample-PDF-Page-675.pdf)_ - _Attachment: [dbp.pdf](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/bigbluebutton/issue-32/comment-0/dbp.pdf)_

Viewing a video window overlaps broadcast video window

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 19

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.  Broadcast video
2.  Double-click on another user's icon to view video.

What is the expected output? 
  The new "Viewing..." window would be visible next to the existing "Video
Presentation" window.

What happens?
  The new "Videwing..." window exactly overlaps the "Video Presentation
window", making it difficult for the user to retrieve the old window.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-26 20:54:04

Add back the 'raise hand' feature

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 14

Remote participants need a way to 'raise their hand' in a session.

This was in an earlier iteration of BigBlueButton -- need to see this
feature back to facilitate remote collaboration.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-15 21:47:19

Moderator should be able to eject viewers from the conference

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 28

A presenter can eject a caller, but not a viewer.  

The presenter should be able to eject both a listener and a viewer.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-07 19:42:28

Client should automatically select 1st slide for presenter

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 17

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Login as presenter
2. Upload slides

You expect to see the first slide, but the presentation shows the
thumbnails but no slide.

Currently, presenter needs to click the first slide.  The client should
show the 1st slide automatically.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-26 20:38:13

Flash Player 10 not recognized

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 35

I'm using Flash Player 10 but when I try to open the demo, it seems like it
doesn't recognize my player:

You are using FlashPlayer v.10,0,12. Please upgrade to the newest version.
You will be redirected when you click OK

Reported by remo.laubacher on 2008-10-19 07:29:24

When presenter leaves, their presentation should disappear

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 27

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.  Upload a presentation
2.  Logout

The presentation should disappear for other users, but instead it stays
until everyone exits.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-07 19:41:26

Default placement of windows too large for 1024x640

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 12

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.  Open client on a smaller machine
2.
3.

Chat and video window are off screen.  

Need to set the default layout so it works well for 1024x640.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-04 14:46:29

Modular architecture doesn't reload modules after logout/login

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 29

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Login using build 0.34
2. Logout
3. Log back in again

Expect to see all the modules reappear.  Instead, only the viewers module
appears.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-07 19:43:25

Remove the mouth icon

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 9

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.  Eject a presenter from the voice conference

An icon of a big mouth appears.  We should remove that :-).

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-08-15 13:29:59

Web cam still broadcasting after user clicks logout

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 4

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.  Login and start sharing web cam
2.  Click Logout button

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Webcam is still broadcasting.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-07-16 15:48:46

Client not detecting disconnect from server

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 7

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.  Login
2.  Restart the server
3.  User remains logged in.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Expected the client to go back to the login screen.   The UI didn't change,
leading the user to believe he or she was still logged in.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-07-18 19:53:43

Listeners window not getting updates

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 11

What steps will reproduce the problem?

The problem is intermittent, so there are no steps yet.

This seems to happen after a few people start to join.  

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-09-04 14:28:28

Support Private Chat

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 5

Enable a user to send a message to one target user, not all users.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-07-16 15:50:00

Listeners module will sometimes disconnect

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 43

What steps will reproduce the problem?
It's not obvious yet under what circumstances the window will disconnect

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
See attached screen shot

Please use labels and text to provide additional information.

Here's a capture from the debug log

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-12-11 20:34:55

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- _Attachment: [2008-23-11-listeners.jpg](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/bigbluebutton/issue-43/comment-0/2008-23-11-listeners.jpg)_

Problems with latest version of Acrobat when converting slides

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 41

Some users are reporting the latest version of Adobe Acrobat is creating 
slides that pdftk and pdf2swf are not converting in BigBlueButton.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-11-21 16:22:19

Document the sample module

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 50

In http://groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-
dev/browse_thread/thread/3d007d0708c28900#, Bernard asked about compiling 
the sample module.

Update the sample module and documentation so it compiles with the latest 
version of BigBlueButton.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-12-16 16:23:19

Simplify steps to change presenter

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 30

The current steps to change presenter -- drag-and-drop the presenter's name
over the (Presenter) button -- is unintuitive to a new user

An easier approach would be to change the (Presenter) button to a drop-down
menu that shows all users.  This drop-down would be active only for
presenters, making it very easy to select a different presenter.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-08 14:37:42

Viewer

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 45

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.
2.
3.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?


Please use labels and text to provide additional information.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-12-16 16:00:22

Windows can get hidden or off screen

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 25

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Start BigBlueButton on a laptop
2. Switch the display from the laptop to a LCD projector
3.

Sometimes the listeners window is not visible.  Also, the windows can
overlap on the small screen.

Need a button to re-arrange windows in an optimal layout, making sure all
windows are visible.

Reported by ffdixon on 2008-10-01 14:44:44

Windows disappearing in version 0.34a

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 13

This problem was introduced after 0.32m, the last version I had tested before 0.34a.

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Start Flash Player
2. Open URL: http://present.carleton.ca/bbb034a/BigBlueButton.swf?
red5Host=present.carleton.ca&presentationHost=present.carleton.ca
3. Go to full screen mode (the whole point of using Flash Player is that I can get
more screen real 
estate: not just when I am showing a presentation)
4. Log in (michael, 85001, theprof)
5. Log out

I could also reproduce the error using the browser:
1. Start browser
2. Open URL: http://present.carleton.ca/bbb034a/BigBlueButton.swf?
red5Host=present.carleton.ca&presentationHost=present.carleton.ca
3. Log in (michael, 85001, theprof)
4. Log out

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Should see all the usual windows. Instead, all windows except the viewers window disappear.

Sometime (but not always) I get the following error message:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
    at 
org.bigbluebutton.modules.presentation.view::PresentationWindowMediator/restore()[C:\bigblue
button\bigbluebutton-
core\src\org\bigbluebutton\modules\presentation\view\PresentationWindowMediator.as:215]
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at 
mx.core::UIComponent/dispatchEvent()[E:\dev\3.1.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\c
ore\UIComponent.as:9156]
    at 
org.bigbluebutton.modules.presentation.view::PresentationWindow/fullScreenHandler()[C:\bigblu
ebutton\bigbluebutton-
core\src\org\bigbluebutton\modules\presentation\view\PresentationWindow.mxml:187]

Notes:
Why would I want to do that? Whenever there is an error in the system and I want to
reconnect to 
the server. For instance (see separate bug), when I click the full screen button on
the 
presentation, the window takes over the screen. I can only minimize it to an icon,
but I cannot 
change resize the window, eg, in order to drag the presenter name from the viewers
window.

Quick fix:
1. Close application
2. Reopen URL

Drawback:
This is not a very professional solution.

Reported by michael.r.weiss on 2008-09-10 21:17:28