Chamilo 2 does not change conference_meeting status to 0 when BBB session is ended

[mxc]

Hi,

We are running Chamilo 2 with BigBlueButton for multi-day instructor-led courses. Each course day involves a single BBB session running for 4–9 hours with multiple participants.

We have identified a reproducible bug in the BBB plugin where Chamilo's conference_meeting table is not updated when a BBB session ends, causing a complete loss of video conference functionality the following day.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open a video conference session from within a Chamilo 2 course or session.
2. At the end of the day, click "End Session for All" or "Leave Session" inside BBB.
3. The following day, click the "Video Conference" button in Chamilo 2.
4. Result: "An unexpected error occurred. Please try again later."

Root cause (as diagnosed):
When a BBB session is ended from within the BBB interface (rather than via Chamilo's "Close Meeting" button), Chamilo does not receive or process any notification from BBB. The conference_meeting row for the session retains status = 1 (open). On the next attempt to start a session, Chamilo tries to rejoin the now-defunct BBB meeting and fails.

This affects all session-ending scenarios we have tested:

• "End Session for All" from inside BBB
• "Leave Session" from inside BBB
• BBB ending the session due to the meeting duration limit (we initially had this set to the default 300 minutes)

Current workaround:
We manually reset the stuck record in the database before each day's session:

UPDATE conference_meeting
SET status = 0, closed_at = NOW()
WHERE status = 1;

We have also written a cron-based reconciliation script that calls BBB's getMeetingInfo API every minute and closes stale records automatically, but this should not be necessary.

Environment:

• Chamilo 2 (latest)
• BigBlueButton 2.6+
• Meeting duration set to 0 (unlimited) in BBB plugin settings
• meetingDuration=0, meetingExpireIfNoUserJoinedInMinutes=15, meetingExpireWhenLastUserLeftInMinutes=30 in bbb-web.properties

Questions:

1. Is there a supported mechanism (e.g. meetingEndedURL callback or webhook) that Chamilo 2 should be using to receive end-of-meeting notifications from BBB, and if so, is it implemented in the current release?
2. Should Chamilo's "Video Conference" entry point call getMeetingInfo before attempting to join, and gracefully handle a notFound response by creating a new session?
3. Is there a recommended upgrade, patch, or configuration that addresses this?

We are happy to provide database dumps, logs, or test access if that would help.

Thank you.

[DisciplinaDigital]

Hi!
The cron you have created actually demonstrates the problem. Your system is essentially saying: “Every minute, I will look for meetings that Chamilo believes are still open and check whether they actually exist.”
I understand that you may have implemented this with AI because it is a functional approach, but it is not particularly robust.
I think a safer and less predictable approach would be to rely on BBB notifying Chamilo when a meeting ends; and, if that notification is lost for any reason, Chamilo should verify the meeting status before attempting to reuse it. (Apologies if I’m mistaken.)

For example:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Doctrine\DBAL\Connection;
use Symfony\Component\Dotenv\Dotenv;

require dirname(__DIR__).'/vendor/autoload.php';

$projectDir = dirname(__DIR__);

if (file_exists($projectDir.'/.env')) {
    (new Dotenv())->bootEnv($projectDir.'/.env');
}

/*
 * Bootstrap the Symfony/Chamilo application.
 */
$kernel = new \App\Kernel(
    $_SERVER['APP_ENV'] ?? 'prod',
    (bool) ($_SERVER['APP_DEBUG'] ?? false)
);

$kernel->boot();

$container = $kernel->getContainer();

/** @var Connection $db */
$db = $container->get('doctrine.dbal.default_connection');

/*
 * 1. Retrieve only meetings that Chamilo currently considers open.
 *
 * These are the records that may be out of sync with the actual
 * BigBlueButton meeting state.
 */
$sql = <<<'SQL'
SELECT
    id,
    remote_id,
    status,
    closed_at
FROM conference_meeting
WHERE status = 1
SQL;

$meetings = $db->fetchAllAssociative($sql);

foreach ($meetings as $meeting) {

    $meetingId = (int) $meeting['id'];
    $remoteId  = $meeting['remote_id'];

    /*
     * Skip records without a BigBlueButton meeting identifier.
     */
    if (empty($remoteId)) {
        continue;
    }

    /*
     * 2. Query BigBlueButton for the current meeting status.
     *
     * IMPORTANT:
     * This function should use the BigBlueButton API client/service
     * already configured and used by the Chamilo installation.
     *
     * The purpose of this check is to reconcile Chamilo's database
     * state with the actual state reported by BigBlueButton.
     */
    $bbbInfo = getMeetingInfoFromBBB($remoteId);

    /*
     * 3. If BigBlueButton no longer knows about the meeting,
     *    the meeting has already ended or expired.
     *
     * Mark the corresponding Chamilo record as closed so that
     * the next conference attempt can create a new meeting.
     */
    if ($bbbInfo === null || $bbbInfo['notFound'] === true) {

        $db->update(
            'conference_meeting',
            [
                'status' => 0,
                'closed_at' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s'),
            ],
            [
                'id' => $meetingId,
            ]
        );

        echo sprintf(
            "[%s] CLOSED Chamilo meeting=%d BBB=%s\n",
            date('Y-m-d H:i:s'),
            $meetingId,
            $remoteId
        );

        continue;
    }

    /*
     * 4. If BigBlueButton reports that the meeting is no longer
     *    running, close the corresponding Chamilo record.
     *
     * This covers cases where the meeting still exists in BBB's
     * records but is no longer an active conference.
     */
    if (
        isset($bbbInfo['running'])
        && $bbbInfo['running'] === false
    ) {

        $db->update(
            'conference_meeting',
            [
                'status' => 0,
                'closed_at' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s'),
            ],
            [
                'id' => $meetingId,
            ]
        );

        echo sprintf(
            "[%s] CLOSED Chamilo meeting=%d BBB=%s\n",
            date('Y-m-d H:i:s'),
            $meetingId,
            $remoteId
        );

        continue;
    }

    /*
     * The meeting is still active according to BigBlueButton.
     * No changes are required in Chamilo.
     */
    echo sprintf(
        "[%s] OK Chamilo meeting=%d BBB=%s\n",
        date('Y-m-d H:i:s'),
        $meetingId,
        $remoteId
    );
}

$kernel->shutdown();


/**
 * Query BigBlueButton for the current meeting information.
 *
 * This function is intentionally kept as an integration point.
 * It should be connected to the BigBlueButton client/service
 * actually used by the Chamilo 2 installation.
 *
 * The implementation should return an array containing information
 * such as:
 *
 * [
 *     'notFound' => false,
 *     'running'  => true,
 * ]
 *
 * For a meeting that no longer exists:
 *
 * [
 *     'notFound' => true,
 * ]
 *
 * IMPORTANT:
 * Do not duplicate the BigBlueButton configuration here if Chamilo
 * already provides the required service.
 *
 * In particular, avoid duplicating:
 *
 * - BigBlueButton server URL
 * - BigBlueButton shared secret
 * - API checksum generation
 * - HTTP client configuration
 * - BigBlueButton API response parsing
 */
function getMeetingInfoFromBBB(string $meetingId): ?array
{
    /*
     * TODO:
     *
     * Use the BigBlueButton API client/service provided by Chamilo.
     *
     * The implementation should call the BBB getMeetingInfo API
     * and translate the response into the normalized structure
     * expected by the reconciliation process.
     */

    return null;
}

[christianbeeznest]

Thanks for reporting this.

A fix has now been merged into master: PR #8922 – BBB: reconcile meetings ended outside Chamilo.

The fix adds two protections:

BBB can notify Chamilo when a meeting actually ends, so the local conference_meeting record is closed.
Before reusing a meeting that Chamilo still considers open, Chamilo checks BBB. If BBB reports that the meeting is no longer running, the stale local meeting is closed and a new one can be created normally.

This also provides a fallback in case the end callback is not received, so a cron-based reconciliation should no longer be necessary.