Additional Configurations

There are many commands available in Tutor and Open edX. View the Tutor documentation to learn about these commands and how to use them.

Tutor Commands

For example, Tutor has a command to import the demo course:

tutor local importdemocourse

You can list all available Tutor commands by running:

tutor local -h

Open edX Commands

For example, Tutor uses the Open edX commands (manage.py) to delete a course. This command shows how to execute the Open edX command ./manage.py cms delete_course.

tutor local run cms ./manage.py cms delete_course  course-v1:edX+DemoX+Demo_Course

You can list all available Open edX CMS commands by running:

tutor local run cms ./manage.py cms

You can list all available production commands by running:

tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms --settings production help

Course Management Commands

Here are some common commands that we use

Create a course

# tutor local run cms ./manage.py cms create_course split email ORG CODE DATE
tutor local run cms ./manage.py cms create_course split user@host.com ENG CS_01 2021_2022

Delete a course

# Requires a prompt to confirm
tutor local run cms ./manage.py cms delete_course course_ID

# Delete without a prompt (no undo)
yes | tutor local run cms ./manage.py cms delete_course course_ID

User Management Commands

Create user

tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms manage_user username email_address

Change user password

tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms changepassword username

Delete user

tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms manage_user --remove username email_address

Bulk Processing

Bulk commands can be run inside of the docker stack to speed up the process. Otherwise, each iteration requires starting the required containers. We use methods like this to import and export courses. This example shows how to create a user and set their password without user interaction.

First, start the stack. This example mounts a volume in /tmp/volume to share data (course imports, exports, user accounts, etc.) between the container and host.

docker-compose -f /home/$USER/.local/share/tutor/env/local/docker-compose.yml \
-f /home/$USER/.local/share/tutor/env/local/docker-compose.prod.yml \
--project-name tutor_local run \
--volume /tmp/volume:/tmp/volume \
--rm lms /bin/bash

You can then execute commands in a shell script using ./manage.py to create and modify user accounts.

An example script to create users programmatically might look like something like:

USER=jim
EMAIL=jim@jimmy.com
PASS=8QkbL4QDT1

# Create the user account using 'manage_user'
/openedx/edx-platform/manage.py lms manage_user jim jim@jimmy.com

# Call the script in the volume directory to change the password without user interation
/tmp/volume/changepass.sh $USER $PASS

Contents of changepass.sh

#!/usr/bin/expect -f
# Changes a user's pasword without interaction.
#   - Must install expect first
#   - apt install expect

set user [lindex $argv 0]
set pass [lindex $argv 1]

spawn python /openedx/edx-platform/manage.py lms changepassword $user

expect "Password:"
send "$pass\r"
expect "Password (again):"
send "$pass\r"
expect eof