Seneca BigBlueButton web gateway config xml help

Config.XML Help

A basic explanation for the config.xml file found in auth/WebContent/WEB-INF/classes can be seen in blank-config.xml, found in the same folder.

Purpose of config.xml

The purpose of config.xml is to provide greater portability to the BigBlueButton gateway, making it more accessible to other organizations who may wish to incorporate a BigBlueButton server. It takes into account primarily the differences in LDAP structure between one organization and the next, but also acts as a central reference for data such as the available course codes for creating lectures under the Seneca BBB system, and can be expanded to other data as needed.

Components of config.xml

Within the <config> node, there are many other nodes with their own subnodes, in a basic XML structure. Nodes in bold contain data, nodes in italics are containers for child nodes. Unless noted, each node will only occur once in config.xml.

• system: System values that do not fit neatly into the other categories
  • timeout: Integer. After that many minutes of inactivity, a user will be logged out.

• ldap: Information about the organization's LDAP server
  • url: String. The ldap:// URL of the server itself.
  • o: String. The organization identifier.

• ldapfields: This section is of the most concern for LDAP portability, with the specific LDAP fields to look for during authentication.
  • user_id: String. The field in your organization's LDAP which denotes the user ID.
  • user_fullname: String. The field in your organization's LDAP which denotes the user's full name.
  • user_role: String. The field in your organization's LDAP which denotes the user's organizational role.
  • user_title: String. The field in your organization's LDAP which denotes the user's title.

• access_levels: This section deals with providing access privileges to users based on their position within the organization. It also incorporates a blacklist for banned users and a whitelist for administrators.
  • level: This structure allows additional access levels to be created and assigned as needed. Config.xml may have multiple <level> nodes.
    • value: Integer. The lower this number, the fewer privileges the users at this level have. Each <level> node must have a distinct <value>.
    • position: Describes a combination of one role with one or more titles. For example, the Employee role could include Support Staff, Maintenance Staff, and Security as titles. <Position> nodes within <level> nodes allow the system administrator to give various kinds of Employee different access levels if needed, and also share access levels between multiple roles. A <level> node can have multiple <position> nodes.
      • role_name: String. The role described by this <position> node.
      • title: String. A title supported at this access level for the role described in this <position> node. A value of "All" in a <title> node identifies this access level as the default for this role. A <position> node can have multiple <title> nodes.
  • whitelist: A list of users who have administrator rights on the server.
    • username: String. One user's user ID to grant administrator rights to. A <whitelist> node can contain multiple <username> nodes, although it is recommended to limit the number of whitelisted users.
  • blacklist: A list of users who are banned from the server. These users can still attend meetings which allow guests if they have been given the Guest URL.
    • username: String. One user's user ID to ban from the server. A <blacklist> node can contain multiple <username> nodes.
  • access level hierarchy: Blacklist > Whitelist > Role&Title > Role > Default

• • courseList: A list of course codes to make available to users creating Lectures.
    • course: String. A course code. A <courseList> node can contain multiple <course> nodes.