Dropbox for Blackboard

Blackbox is a command-line program that attempts to download all your files from Blackboard. It doesn't, however, sync your files automatically.

Download your installer according to your system version. Double-click to install and choose a location which is convenient for you to access because all your downloads will be stored in that folder. Do NOT install it in your program files; create a NEW FOLDER in your Downloads folder instead.

Mac Users: When prompted to allow access to your keychain, click on "Always Allow".

Windows Users: When prompted to allow the program through your firewall, tick "Private networks" and click on "Allow access".

Here you can add, edit or remove your Blackboard credentials. Please note that your password will not show as you type. Use RETURN or ENTER to confirm your input.

Here you can do a quick run of Blackbox. Just key in y and hit ENTER and Blackbox will run automatically. You will not need to configure the options below.

Here you can choose what to reset in Blackbox.

Key in y and hit ENTER when you are asked "Would you like to reset everything?".

Here you can choose whether you want to throttle your downloads in Blackbox.

Key in y and hit ENTER when you are asked "Would you like to throttle your downloads?".

Here you can determine whether you want to throttle your downloads.

Key in y and hit ENTER when you are asked "Would you like to execute everything?".

1. Download all files by running the executable.

2. Throttle your downloads.

3. Selectively sync your folders and files.

1. Videos are not downloaded by default.

2. Your credentials are stored in a keyring on your local machine.

1. Enable download-throttling

Blackboard apparently imposes a throttle download limit on your account if you download a large number of files at one go. It is best to throttle your downloads. The recommended max throttle wait time is 10 seconds while the min throttle wait time is 3 seconds.

2. Install in your Downloads folder

It is recommended that you install Blackbox in your Downloads folder for easy access.

1. Auto-sync

2. Define custom file extension blacklist

3. Define custom download location

Blackbox is written in Python 2.7. It uses Selenium and chromedriver (renamed to boxdriver) to scrap the links of the courses first, then uses a persistent requests session to extract other data and download files. All user credentials is stored using keyring.

Blackbox is freezed into executables using cx_Freeze which supports cross-platform exporting and 32-bit and 64-bit systems. To prevent compatibility during compilation, it is recommended to use a single Python script.

PRs welcome.

Pip install cx_Freeze

$ python2 -m pip install cx_Freeze --upgrade

Build for current system (build)

$ python2 setup.py build

Build for Windows (build & dist)

$ python2 setup.py bdist_msi

Build for Mac (build & dist)

$ python2 setup.py bdist_dmg

or

$ python2 setup.py bdist_mac

There is no easy way to determine whether a file has been updated or not - a file must be re-downloaded to determine whether so. Blackbox supports either an indiscriminate (re-)download of all files or a download of new files.

The author accepts no responsibility for any damage done to your machine in your course of using this program.

• Jarrett Yeo

• Adi

Contributors feel free to add your name here after your PR is accepted!