alimoezzi / zoomrec

Record Zoom meetings automatically in headless docker container with Python and FFmpeg

zoomrec

A all-in-one solution to automatically join and record Zoom meetings.

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• Python3 - Script to automatically join Zoom meetings and control FFmpeg
• FFmpeg - Triggered by python script to start/stop screen recording
• Docker - Headless VNC Container based on Ubuntu 20.04 with Xfce window manager and TigerVNC

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Installation

The entire mechanism runs in a Docker container. So all you need to do is install Docker and use the image from Registry.

Requirements

• Docker - https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/

Docker Registry

Docker images are build and pushed automatically to Docker Hub and GitHub Container Registry.

So you can choose and use one of them:

• ghcr.io/kastldratza/zoomrec:master
• kastldratza/zoomrec:latest

For my examples in this README I used kastldratza/zoomrec:latest

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Usage

• Container saves recordings inside container at /home/zoomrec/recordings
• The current directory is used to mount recordings-Folder, but can be changed if needed
  • Please check use of paths on different operating systems
  • Please check permissions for used directory
• Container stops when Python script is terminated
• Zoomrec uses a CSV file with entries of Zoom meetings to record them
  • The csv can be passed as seen below (mount as volume or add to docker image)

CSV structure

CSV must be fromatted as in example/meetings.csv

• Delimiter must be a semicolon ";"
• Only meetings with flag "record = true" are joined and recorded
• "description" is used for filename when recording
• "duration" in minutes (+5 minutes to the end)

weekday	time	duration	id	password	description	record
monday	09:55	60	111111111111	741699	Important_Meeting	true
monday	14:00	90	222222222222	321523	Unimportant_Meeting	false

VNC

You can connect to zoomrec via vnc and see what is happening.

Connect (default)

Hostname	Port	Password
localhost	5901	zoomrec

Preparation

To have access to the recordings, a volume is mounted, so you need to create a folder that container users can access.

[ IMPORTANT ]

Create folder for recordings and set permissions (on Host)

mkdir -p recordings
chown -R 1000:1000 recordings

Flags

Set timezone (default: Europe/Berlin)

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped \
  -e TZ=Europe/Berlin \
  -v $(pwd)/recordings:/home/zoomrec/recordings \
  -v $(pwd)/example/meetings.csv:/home/zoomrec/meetings.csv:ro \
  -p 5901:5901 \
kastldratza/zoomrec:latest

Set debugging flag

• screenshot on error
• record joining
• do not exit container on error

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped \
  -e DEBUG=True \
  -v $(pwd)/recordings:/home/zoomrec/recordings \
  -v $(pwd)/example/meetings.csv:/home/zoomrec/meetings.csv:ro \
  -p 5901:5901 \
kastldratza/zoomrec:latest

Windows / cmd

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped \
  -v %cd%\recordings:/home/zoomrec/recordings \
  -v %cd%\example\meetings.csv:/home/zoomrec/meetings.csv:ro \
  -p 5901:5901 \
kastldratza/zoomrec:latest

Windows / PowerShell

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped \
  -v ${PWD}/recordings:/home/zoomrec/recordings \
  -v ${PWD}/example/meetings.csv:/home/zoomrec/meetings.csv:ro \
  -p 5901:5901 \
kastldratza/zoomrec:latest

Linux / macOS

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped \
  -v $(pwd)/recordings:/home/zoomrec/recordings \
  -v $(pwd)/example/meetings.csv:/home/zoomrec/meetings.csv:ro \
  -p 5901:5901 \
kastldratza/zoomrec:latest

Customization example

Add meetings.csv to image

# Switch to example directory
cd example

# Build new image by customized Dockerfile
docker build -t kastldratza/zoomrec-custom:latest .

# Run image without mounting meetings.csv
# Linux
docker run -d --restart unless-stopped -v $(pwd)/recordings:/home/zoomrec/recordings -p 5901:5901 kastldratza/zoomrec-custom:latest

# Windows / PowerShell
docker run -d --restart unless-stopped -v ${PWD}/recordings:/home/zoomrec/recordings -p 5901:5901 kastldratza/zoomrec-custom:latest

# Windows / cmd
docker run -d --restart unless-stopped -v %cd%\recordings:/home/zoomrec/recordings -p 5901:5901 kastldratza/zoomrec-custom:latest

Supported actions

• Show when the next meeting starts
• Join a Meeting from csv
  • with id and password
  • with url
• Wrong error: Invalid meeting ID | Leave
• Join with Computer Audio
• Please wait for the host to start this meeting.
• Please wait, the meeting host will let you in soon.
• Enter Full Screen
• Switch to Speaker View
• Continuously check: This meeting is being recorded | Continue
• Continuously check: Hide Video Panel
• Continuously check: This meeting has been ended by host
• Quit ffmpeg gracefully on abort
• Host is sharing poll results
• This meeting is for authorized attendees only
  • Leave meeting
  • Sign In to Join
• Breakout Rooms
• ...

Testing

Create unittests for different use cases:

• Join meeting
• Start / Stop ffmpeg and check if file was created
• ...

Tested with

• Ubuntu 20.04
  • Desktop
  • Server
• macOS
• Windows 10

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.