Metadata-Version: 2.4
Name: bbbctl
Version: 0.5.1
Summary: BigBlueButton API command-line client
Author-email: Marcel Hellkamp <marc@gsites.de>
Requires-Python: >=3.10
Description-Content-Type: text/markdown
License-Expression: MIT
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
License-File: LICENSE
Project-URL: Bug Tracker, https://github.com/defnull/bbbctl/issues
Project-URL: Homepage, https://github.com/defnull/bbbctl

# BigBlueButton REST API command-line client

This is a small but useful command-line client for controlling meetings and recordings on
a [BigBlueButton](https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/) server or cluster directly via the
[REST API](https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/dev/api.html). It allows administrators to bypass
front-end applications (e.g. [greenlight](https://github.com/bigbluebutton/greenlight) or
[moodle](https://moodle.com/certified-integrations/bigbluebutton/)) and
directly access the backing BBB servers for administrative tasks, monitoring or testing.

## Install

You can install bbbctl the usual way with `pip install bbbctl` into a virtual environment.
Sine bbbctl has no dependencies, you can also **manually** install it by downloading the
python script and placing it into a bin folder:

```sh
curl -L --create-dirs -o ~/.local/bin/bbbctl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/defnull/bbbctl/master/src/bbbctl.py 
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/bbbctl
```

**Tip:** If you have [uv/uvx](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) installed, you can use this tool
directly via `uvx bbbctl ...`.

## Usage

If run directly on a BBB server with sufficient permissions, server URL and secret will
be fetched from local BBB config files automatically.

```sh
# Only required for external BBB servers:
export BBBCTL_SERVER="bbb.example.com"   # or --server as a parameter
export BBBCTL_SECRET="..."               # or --secret as a parameter

# Check if your secret works:
bbbctl meeting list
```

## Command overview

You can get detailed help and a list of all parameters with `bbbctl -h` or `bbbctl <command> -h`.

- `meeting` Create, list, join, inspect or end meetings
  - `list` List all meetings
  - `info <meetingID>` Show info about a meeting
  - `create <meetingID> <title>` Create a new meeting
  - `join <meetingID> <displayName>` Generate join links
  - `end <meetingID>` Forcefully end a meeting
  - `chat <meetingID> <message>` Send a chat message to a running meeting (BBB 3.0)
  - `nuke` Forcefully end ALL meetings (be careful)
- `record` Work with recordings
  - `list` List all recordings
  - `info <recordID>` Show info about a recording
  - `publish <recordID>` Publish an unpublished recording
  - `unpublish <recordID>` Unpublish (hide) recording
  - `delete <recordID>` Delete a recording (be careful)
- `sign <action> <param*>` Print a signed API URL

## Output format

The default output format is a human readable plain text format. You can switch to a more 
compact version with `--format=compact`. Other formats that are better suited for scripted
usage are also supported: `json`, `jsonline` or `xml`

## Use `BBBApiClient` from Python

You can use the `BBBApiClient` class from Python, too. This thin wrapper around the
BBB REST API can send signed API requests and return parsed XML `ElementTree`
instances. Some convenience methods exist to get just the part of the XML you need.

```python
from bbbctl import BBBApiClient

client = BBBApiClient(api="bbb.example.com", secret="***")

for meeting in client.getMeetings():
    print(meeting.findtext("./meetingID"), meeting.findtext("./meetingName"))
```

# License

Copyright (c) 2020-2026, Marcel Hellkamp.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.

