Package: coursera
Coursera DownloaderIntroductionCourserais arguably the leader inmassive open online courses(MOOC) with a selection of more than 300
classes from 62 different institutionsas of February
2013.
Generous contributions by educators and institutions are making
excellent education available to many who could not afford it otherwise.
There are even non-profits with “feet on the ground” in remote areas of
the world who are helping spread the wealth (see the feedback below fromTunapanda).This script makes it easier to batch download lecture resources (e.g.,
videos, ppt, etc) for Coursera classes. Given one or more class names
and account credentials, it obtains week and class names from thelecturespage, and then downloads the related materials into
appropriately named files and directories.Why is this helpful? A utility likewgetcan work, but has the following limitations:Video names have numbers in them, but this does not correspond to the
actual order. Manually renaming them is a pain that is best left for
computers.Using names from the syllabus page provides more informative names.Usingwgetin a for loop picks up extra videos which are not
posted/linked, and these are sometimes duplicates.Browser extensions likeDownloadThemAllis another possibility, butcoursera-dlprovides more features such as appropriately named
files.This work was originally inspired in part byyoutube-dlby which I’ve
downloaded many other good videos such as those from Khan Academy.FeaturesSupport for all kinds of courses (i.e., “Old Platform”/time-based as
well as “New Platform”/on-demand courses).Intentionally detailed names, so that it will display and sort
properly on most interfaces (e.g.,VLCor MX Video on Android devices).Regex-based section (week) and lecture name filters to download only
certain resources.File format extension filter to grab resource types you want.Login credentials accepted on command-line or from.netrcfile.Core functionality tested on Linux, Mac and Windows.Disclaimercoursera-dlis meant to be used only for your material that Coursera
gives you access to download.We do not encourage any use that violates theirTerms Of
Use. A relevant excerpt:“[…] Coursera grants you a personal, non-exclusive,
non-transferable license to access and use the Sites. You may
download material from the Sites only for your own personal,
non-commercial use. You may not otherwise copy, reproduce,
retransmit, distribute, publish, commercially exploit or otherwise
transfer any material, nor may you modify or create derivatives
works of the material.”Installation instructionscoursera-dlrequires Python 2 or Python 3 and a free Coursera
account enrolled in the class of interest. (As of February of 2016, we
test automatically the execution of the program with Python versions
2.6, 2.7, Pypy, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5).Note:Westronglyrecommend that you use a Python 3 interpreter
(3.4 or later).On any operating system, ensure that the Python executable location is
added to yourPATHenvironment variable and, once you have the
dependencies installed (see next section), for abasicusage, you will
need to invoke the script from the main directory of the project and
prepend it with the wordpython. You can also use more advanced
features of the program by looking at the “Running the script” section
of this document.Note:You must already have (manually) agreed to the Honor of Code of
the particular courses that you want to use withcoursera-dl.Recommended installation method for all Operating SystemsFrom a command line (preferrably, from a virtual environment), simply
issue the command:pip install courseraThis will dowloadthe latest released
versionof the program from
thePython Package Index (PyPI)along withallthe necessary dependencies. At this point, you should be ready to
start using it.If this does not work, because your Python 2 version is too old (e.g.
2.7.5 on Ubuntu 14.4), try:apt-get install python3 python3-pip
pip3 install courserainstead.Note 1:Note that the PyPI package is called simplycoursera,
but the command-line is calledcoursera-dl. This is an unfortunate
fact related to conflicting names.Note 2:We strongly recommend that youdon’tinstall the package
globally on your machine (i.e., with root/administrator privileges), as
the installed modules may conflict with other Python applications that
you have installed in your system (or they can interfere withcoursera-dl). Prefer to use the option--usertopip install, if you need can.Note 3:As already mentioned, westronglyrecommend that you use a
new Python 3 interpreter (e.g., 3.4 or later), since Python 3 has better
support for SSL/TLS (for secure connections) than earlier versions. If
you must use Python 2, be sure that you have at least Python 2.7.9
(later versions are OK). Otherwise, you can still usecoursera-dl,
but you will have to install the extra packagendg-httpsclient,
which may involve compilation (at least on Linux systems).Alternative ways of installing missing dependenciesWe strongly recommend that you consider installing Python packages withpip, as in it is the
currentpreferred
method, unless
directed otherwise by one of the project members (for instance, when
testing or debugging a new feature or using the source code directly
from our git repository). If you are usingpip, you can directly
install all the dependencies from the requirements file usingpip install-rrequirements.txt.Alternative installation method for Unix systemsWe strongly recommend that you installcoursera-dland all its
dependencies in a way that doesnotinterfere with the rest of your
Python installation. This is accomplished by the creation of avirtual
environment, or “virtualenv”.For the initial setup, in a Unix-like operating system, please use the
following steps (create/adapt first the directory/directory/where/I/want/my/courses):cd /directory/where/I/want/my/courses
virtualenv my-coursera
cd my-coursera
source bin/activate
git clone https://github.com/coursera-dl/coursera
cd coursera
pip install -r requirements.txt
./coursera-dl ...To further download new videos from your classes, simply perform:cd /directory/where/I/want/my/courses/my-coursera
source bin/activate
cd coursera
./coursera-dl ...We are working on streamlining this whole process so that it is as
simple as possible, but to support older versions of Python and to cope
with Coursera disabling SSLv3, we have to take a few extra steps. In any
case, it ishighlyrecommended that you always install the latest
version of the Python interpreter that you can.Installing dependencies on your ownWarning:This method is not recommended unless you have experience
working with multiple Python environments.You can use thepipprogram to install the dependencies on your own.
They are all listed in therequirements.txtfile (and the extra
dependencies needed for development are listed in therequirements-dev.txtfile).To use this method, you would proceed as:pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -r requirements-dev.txtThe second line above should only be needed if you intend to help with
development (and help isalwayswelcome) or if a maintainer of the
project asks you to install extra packages for debugging purposes.Once again, before filing bug reports, if you installed the dependencies
on your own, please check that the versions of your modules are at least
those listed in therequirements.txtfile (and,requirements-dev.txtfile, if applicable).Create an account with CourseraIf you don’t already have one, create aCourseraaccount and enroll in a class.
Seehttps://www.coursera.org/coursesfor the list of classes.Running the scriptRun the script to download the materials by providing your Coursera
account credentials (e.g. email address and password or a~/.netrcfile), the class names, as well as any additional parameters:General:                     coursera-dl -u <user> -p <pass> modelthinking-004
Multiple classes:            coursera-dl -u <user> -p <pass> saas historyofrock1-001 algo-2012-002
Filter by section name:      coursera-dl -u <user> -p <pass> -sf "Chapter_Four" crypto-004
Filter by lecture name:      coursera-dl -u <user> -p <pass> -lf "3.1_" ml-2012-002
Download only ppt files:     coursera-dl -u <user> -p <pass> -f "ppt" qcomp-2012-001
Use a ~/.netrc file:         coursera-dl -n -- matrix-001
Get the preview classes:     coursera-dl -n -b ni-001
Specify download path:       coursera-dl -n --path=C:\Coursera\Classes\ comnetworks-002
Display help:                coursera-dl --help

Maintain a list of classes in a dir:
  Initialize:              mkdir -p CURRENT/{class1,class2,..classN}
  Update:                  coursera-dl -n --path CURRENT `\ls CURRENT`Note:If yourlscommand is aliased to display a colorized
output, you may experience problems. Be sure to escape thelscommand (use\ls) to assure that no special characters get sent to
the script.Note that wedosupport the New Platform (“on-demand”) classes.On *nix platforms, the use of a~/.netrcfile is a good alternative
to specifying both your username (i.e., your email address) and password
every time on the command line. To use it, simply add a line like the
one below to a file named.netrcin your home directory (or theequivalent, if you are
using Windows) with contents like:machine coursera-dl login <user> password <pass>Create the file if it doesn’t exist yet. From then on, you can switch
from using-uand-pto simply callcoursera-dlwith the
option-ninstead. This is especially convenient, as typing
usernames (email addresses) and passwords directly on the command line
can get tiresome (even more if you happened to choose a “strong”
password).Resuming downloadsIn default mode when you interrupt the download process by pressing
CTRL+C, partially downloaded files will be deleted from your disk and
you have to start the download process from the begining. If your
download was interrupted by something other than KeyboardInterrupt
(CTRL+C) like sudden system crash, partially downloaded files will
remain on your disk and the next time you start the process again, these
files will be discraded from download list!, therefore it’s your job to
delete them manually before next start. For this reason we added an
option called--resumewhich continues your downloads from where
they stopped:coursera-dl -u <user> -p <pass> --resume sdn1-001This option can also be used with external downloaders:coursera-dl --wget -u <user> -p <pass> --resume sdn1-001Note 1: Some external downloaders use their own built-in resume
feature which may not be compatible with others, so use them at your own
risk.Note 2: Remember that in resume mode, interrupted filesWON’Tbe
deleted from your disk.NOTE: If your password contains punctuation, quotes or other “funny
characters” (e.g.,<,>,#,&,|and so on), then
you may have to escape them from your shell. With bash or other
Bourne-shell clones (and probably with many other shells) one of the
better ways to do so is to enclose your password in single quotes, so
that you don’t run into problems. Seeissue
#213for more
information.TroubleshootingIf you have problems when downloading class materials, please try to see
if one of the following actions solve your problem:Make sure the class name you are using corresponds to the resource
name used in the URL for that class:https://class.coursera.org/<CLASS_NAME>/class/indexHave you tried to clean the cached cookies/credentials with the--clear-cacheoption?Note that many courses (most, perhaps?) may remove the materials
after a little while after the course is completed, while other
courses may retain the materials up to a next session/offering of the
same course (to avoid problems with academic dishonesty, apparently).
In short, it is not guaranteed that you will be able to download
after the course is finished and this is, unfortunately, nothing that
we can help you with.Make sure you have installed and/or updated all of your dependencies
according to therequirements.txtfile as described above.One can export a Netscape-style cookies file with a browser extension
(1,2)
and use it with the-coption. This comes in handy when the
authentication via password is not working (the authentication
process changes now and then).If results show 0 sections, you most likely have provided invalid
credentials (username and/or password in the command line or in your.netrcfile).For courses that have not started yet, but have had a previous
iteration sometimes a preview is available, containing all the
classes from the last course. These files can be downloaded by
passing the--previewparameter.If you get an error likeCould not find class: <CLASS_NAME>,
then:Verify that the name of the course is correct. Current class names
in coursera are composed by a short course name e.g.classand
the current version of the course (a number). For example, for a
class namedclass, you would have to useclass-001,class-002etc.Second, verify that you are enrolled in the course. You won’t be
able to access the course materials if you are not officially
enrolled and agreed to the honor coursevia the website.If:You get an error when using-nto specify that you want to use
a.netrcfile and,You want the script to use your default netrc file and,You get a message sayingcoursera-dl:error: too few argumentsThen you should specify--as an argument after-n, that is,-n--or change the order in which you pass the arguments to the
script, so that the argument after-nbegins with an hyphen
(-). Otherwise, Python’sargparsemodule will think that what
you are passing is the name of the netrc file that you want to use.
See issue #162.Filing an issue/Reporting a bugWhen reporting bugs againstcoursera-dl, please don’t forget to
include enough information so that you can help us help you:Is the problem happening with the latest version of the script?What operating system are you using?Do you have all the recommended versions of the modules? See them in
the filerequirements.txt.What is the course that you are trying to access?What is the precise command line that you are using (feel free to
hide your username and password with asterisks, but leave all other
information untouched).What are the precise messages that you get? Please, use the--debugoption before posting the messages as a bug report.
Please, copy and paste them. Don’t reword/paraphrase the messages.FeedbackI enjoy getting feedback. Here are a few of the comments I’ve received:“Thanks for the good job! Knowledge will flood the World a little
more thanks to your script!” Guillaume V. 11/8/2012“Just wanted to send you props for your Python script to download
Coursera courses. I’ve been using it in Kenya for my non-profit to
get online courses to places where internet is really expensive and
unreliable. Mostly kids here can’t afford high school, and
downloading one of these classes by the usual means would cost more
than the average family earns in one week. Thanks!” Jay L.,Tunapanda3/20/2013“I am a big fan of Coursera and attend lots of different courses.
Time constraints don’t allow me to attend all the courses I want at
the same time. I came across your script, and I am very happily using
it! Great stuff and thanks for making this available on Github - well
done!” William G. 2/18/2013“This script is awesome! I was painstakingly downloading each and
every video and ppt by hand – looked into wget but ran into wildcard
issues with HTML, and then.. I came across your script. Can’t tell
you how many hours you’ve just saved me :) If you’re ever in Paris /
Stockholm, it is absolutely mandatory that I buy you a beer :)”
Razvan T. 11/26/2012“Thanks a lot! :)” Viktor V. 24/04/2013ContactPlease, post bugs and issues ongithub. Send
other comments to Rogério Theodoro de Brito (the current maintainer):rbrito@ime.usp.br(twitter:
[@rtdbrito]21) or to John Lehmann
(the original author): first last at geemail dotcom (twitter:
[@jplehmann]12).