Note: This article describes how to setup an integration for Learning Management Systems and other platforms which do not support the LTI protocol. If your LMS supports LTI, please view the following article https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000047773-creating-an-meets-integration-instance-for-lti-supported-lmss.
Using its unique integration architecture, CirQlive MEETS allows integrating web conferencing services with management systems which do not support the LTI protocol. This includes many Learning Management Systems, Talent Management Systems (TMSs) and Human Resources (HR) Management Software such as Google Classrooms, SAP Successfactors, Sumtotal, Saba, Cornerstone Ondemand, and more.
Supported web conferencing services include Cisco Webex, GoToMeeting/GoToTraining/GoToWebinar, Zoom and BlueJeans, which can be integrated with LTI as well as non-LTI systems using MEETS.
The connection will require users to authenticate via your organization's active authentication source(s), ensuring only authorized users are allowed to access relevant web conferencing sessions.
You can create multiple connections and contexts (contexts group a series of events - see below), or even create multiple links for a context with different permissions.
In order to create a MEETS connection:
- Click the "Platform Connections" tab in the Admin Panel menu
- Select your LMS security settings (default: lock icon). See Advanced Settings: LMS Security Settings for more information.
- Enter a name for this platform (e.g.: test, production,...)
- Enter the LMS URL. This field is optional. It is recommended for identifying the LMS platform connected to that MEETS instance.
- Ensure to select Federated Authentication Links under Host Platform Connection. This creates a non-LTI link.
- Select your settings for this MEETS instance (default: all buttons highlighted except for the 3rd buttonn from the left, used for student platforms). See Advanced Settings: MEETS User Permissions for more information.
- Click the "Save" button
Next, to configure this link click on the link buttonwhich appears when saving this MEETS connection.
This will bring up the following screen, which will require you to set up the following:
- Set up an active authentication source: For non-LTI links, MEETS will require your platform to be connected to an authentication source for authenticating users. If an authentication source is available a green check mark appears, else, a red warning sign will appear. To setup an authentication source, please see https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000080886-setting-up-federated-authentication-in-meets before continuing this setup.
- Link an active authentication source to this connection: If you have an active authentication source available (a green check mark in point 1), you can connect this authentication source to this link by clicking "Setup authentication links" and by following the steps in this article https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000082138-configuring-authentication-requirements-when-generating-meeting-links. You can also link multiple active authentication sources to a connection, allowing users to authenticate using several authentication sources.
- Create context(s): Once connecting active authentication sources, you can create context for this connection. A context groups together a series of events and the users that are allowed to access them. Typically a context is used as a course, which can then contain individual classes. However, contexts can be used for any needed grouping such as events and users for a particular team, department, region, study group, and so on.
- Clicking on create context(s) will allow you too create one or multiple contexts, with a different link for each. The prefix and suffix fields allow you to optionally add a prefix and suffix to the contexts for organizational purposes. Once adding the contexts, click on "Proceed".
- Which will bring up your list of contexts. Click on Save.
- Your contexts will now be shown. To finish the setup of your contexts use the buttons which appear next to each context to do the following:
- Optionally use one of the following buttons:
Use the cogwheel button to edit the name of this context.
Add and manage users to this context. This will allow you to add, edit and delete users who can access this context. You can also allow users to self-enroll into contexts depending on the link settings (see next point). - Finally, to setup your contexts, click on the link buttonand configure the following:
- Permission for existing users: Select what permissions to give existing users when accessing this context. You can choose to keep the existing user permissions or assign another permission for users logging in. You can also select the "Users" button which appears on the right to manage users for this context.
- Permission for non-existing users: Select what permissions to give for users which don't exist in this context. You can either choose to disallow non-existing users, or choose what role to assign, allowing non-existing users to self-enroll with a certain role when accessing this context.
- HTTP Referer enforcement: Select whether to enforce an HTTP referer, which can be used to ensure that users access this link from a specific URL. You can choose to not enforce HTTP referers, or enforce a matching domain, domain and path, or domain, path and query parameters. For more information regarding HTTP referers, please view https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000089220-using-http-referers-in-meets.
- Click on Generate link. This will display a link which you can use to allow your users to access MEETS from your organization's system.
You can repeat the above steps to create multiple connections and contexts, or even create multiple links for a context with different permissions, allowing users to access the web conferencing integration.
For examples and use cases when different links and permission sets may be useful, please see https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000089160-when-to-use-different-permission-sets-for-non-lti-connections-and-contexts.
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