d-vr / syncmymoodle

Synchronization client for RWTH Moodle

syncMyMoodle

Synchronization client for RWTH Moodle

Downloads the following materials:

• Assignment files, submissions and feedback
• Resource files
• URLs: OpenCast, Youtube and Sciebo videos/files, and all other non HTML files
• Folders
• Quizzes (Disabled by default)
• Pages and Labels: Embedded Opencast and Youtube Videos

Installation

This software requires Python 3.6 or higher.

Using pip (recommended)

The simplest way to install syncMyMoodle is using pip.

You're advised to use a virtual environment to make sure that its dependencies can't do anything evil on your machine.

Please consult the guide from the Python website for more information.

If you just want to get the job done, just use the following commands:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # bash/zsh, for other shells view the docs
pip3 install syncmymoodle

Manual installation

If you are living on the bleeding edge, you can also download the source code directly and build everything by yourself.

syncMyMoodle's dependencies can be installed using pip or your distro's package manager (apt, dnf, pacman, etc.).

To install the requirements using pip execute the following command from the repository root.

# It is best to run this in a virtual environment.
# For more information see the section above.
pip3 install .

Configuration

You can use syncMyMoodle with command line arguments or using a configuration file. Which one is the best? Well, the answer mostly depends on how and how often you are using it.

If you use it often, it may be best to set up a configuration file so that you won't have to keep entering the same settings options over and over again. If you are on Windows, want to automatically conduct backups, or use the tool irregularly, you may want to use the command line arguments for the sake of simplicity.

Command line arguments

Using pip

Use python3 -m syncmymoodle and use the command line arguments.

Manual installation

source .venv/bin/activate  # if you installed using virtual environment
python3 -m syncmymoodle
deactivate  # leave virtual environment

Arguments

The following command line arguments are available:

usage: python3 -m syncmymoodle [-h] [--secretservice] [--user USER]
                               [--password PASSWORD] [--config CONFIG]
                               [--cookiefile COOKIEFILE] [--courses COURSES]
                               [--skipcourses SKIPCOURSES]
                               [--semester SEMESTER] [--basedir BASEDIR]
                               [--nolinks]
                               [--excludefiletypes EXCLUDEFILETYPES] [-v]

Synchronization client for RWTH Moodle. All optional arguments override those
in config.json.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --secretservice       use freedesktop.org's secret service integration for
                        storing and retrieving account credentials
  --user USER           set your RWTH Single Sign-On username
  --password PASSWORD   set your RWTH Single Sign-On password
  --config CONFIG       set your configuration file
  --cookiefile COOKIEFILE
                        set the location of a cookie file
  --courses COURSES     specify the courses that should be synced using comma-
                        separated links. Defaults to all courses, if no
                        additional restrictions e.g. semester are defined.
  --skipcourses SKIPCOURSES
                        exclude specific courses using comma-separated links.
                        Defaults to None.
  --semester SEMESTER   specify semesters to be synced e.g. `22s`, comma-
                        separated. Defaults to all semesters, if no additional
                        restrictions e.g. courses are defined.
  --basedir BASEDIR     specify the directory where all files will be synced
  --nolinks             define whether various links in moodle pages should
                        also be inspected e.g. youtube videos, wikipedia
                        articles
  --excludefiletypes EXCLUDEFILETYPES
                        specify whether specific file types should be
                        excluded, comma-separated e.g. "mp4,mkv"
  -v, --verbose         show information useful for debugging

Configuration file

Copy config.json.example or the following text (minus the comments) to config.json in your current directory or to ~/.config/syncmymoodle/config.json if you wish to configure syncmymoodle user-wide.

Here's an overview of the file with some additional remarks as to what each configuration does:

{
    "selected_courses": [], // Only the specified courses (e.g. ["https://moodle.rwth-aachen.de/course/view.php?id=XXXXX"], separated using commas) will be synced
    "skip_courses": [], // Exclude the specified courses. `selected_courses` overrides this option.
    "only_sync_semester": [], // Only the specified semesters (e.g. ["23ss", "22ws"]) will be synced. `selected_courses` overrides this option.
    "user": "", // RWTH SSO username
    "password": "", // RWTH SSO password
    "basedir": "./", // The base directory where all your files will be synced to
    "cookie_file": "./session", // The location of the session/cookie file, which can be used instead of a password.
    "use_secret_service": false, // Use the Secret Service integration (see README), instead of a password or a cookie file.
    "no_links": false, // Skip links embedded in pages. Warning: This *will* prevent Onlycast videos from being downloaded.
    "used_modules": { // Disable downloading certain modules.
        "assign": true, // Assignments
        "resource": true, // Resources
        "url": {
            "youtube": true, // Include YouTube Links/Embeds
            "opencast": true, // Include Opencast Links/Embeds
            "sciebo": true, // Include Sciebo Links/Embeds
            "quiz": false // Include Quiz Links
        },
        "folder": true, // Include folders
    },
    "exclude_filetypes": [], // Exclude specific filetypes (e.g. ["mp4", "mkv"]) to disable downloading most videos
    "exclude_files": [] // Exclude specific files using UNIX filename pattern matching (e.g. "Lecture{video,zoom}*.{mp4,mkv}")
}

Command line arguments have a higher priority than configuration files. You can override any of the options that you have configured in the file using command line arguments.

FreeDesktop.org Secret Service integration

This section is intended for Linux desktop users, as well as users of certain Unix-like operating systems (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD).

You are advised to install and use the optional FreeDesktop.org Secret Service integration to store your password securely if your system supports it - if you're on a modern Linux desktop-oriented distribution, it most probably does!

If you have a FreeDesktop.org Secret Service integration compatible keyring installed, you can store your RWTH SSO credentials in it and use it with syncMyMoodle, which can be particularly useful if you do not like storing your passwords in plain text files.

To do that, you will have to install syncMyMoodle with an extra keyring argument:

pip3 install syncmymoodle[keyring]  # when installing from PyPi
# or
pip3 install .[keyring]  # when installing manually

You will be asked for your password when using syncMyMoodle for the first time, which you can supply as a parameter or in the configuration file.

If everything went alright, you won't need to enter your password again in the future, as it will be obtained automatically and securely from the Secret Service Integration.