#Coursera Downloader utility

I use this scripts to download and store coursera resources (videos, subtitles and slides).

Requisites

• Python2 (2.5 or newer, tested on Python 2.7 but i think i don't use features not found in 2.5, have to try)
• PyCurl (http://pycurl.sourceforge.net/ for windows use http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#pycurl)
• lxml (in Pypi and http://lxml.de/index.html#download)

Features

• Multi-platform (tested on Windows and Linux, i have to test yet in OSX).
• Use cookies from Chromium or Firefox, in Linux use Chromium cookies path by default
• Course selected from command line.
• Only download what's new, check the existence of files in the output folder before download them.
• Select what to download from videos, subtitles, slides.
• Select in what format do you want the subtitles and slides.
• Limits download speed.
• Search for a concrete section in the selected course.
• Log activity
• Let's you stop download using ctrl+c
• Show a progress bar in console
• Rename resources to be the same of the lesson title, and create the sections directories for you.
• Autonumerate videos and sections to let you know the original order found in the course.

Help output

Usage: coursera_downloader.py [options]

Options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -x, --verbose         verbose print log messages to console, default: False
  -c COURSE, --course=COURSE
		    the course url path inside www.coursera.org examples:
		    saas, modelthinking, algo, nlp, crypto, pgm,
		    gametheory
  -o OUTPUT_FOLDER, --output-folder=OUTPUT_FOLDER
		    the folder where we will store and sync our downloads
  -b COOKIES_BROWSER, --cookies-browser=COOKIES_BROWSER
		    the browser from where we are going to read the needed
		    cookies, default: chromium, options: firefox, chromium
  -k COOKIES_DB_PATH, --cookies-db-path=COOKIES_DB_PATH
		    the path for the selected browser sqlite cookies
		    storage file, default:
		    /home/USER/.config/chromium/Default/Cookies
  -v, --download-videos
		    download selected course videos, default: False
  -s, --download-subtitles
		    download selected course subtitles, default: False
  -f SUBTITLES_FORMAT, --subtitles-format=SUBTITLES_FORMAT
		    the format for the subtitles to download: txt, srt,
		    default: srt
  -i, --download-slides
		    download selected course slides (links in videos
		    page), default: False
  -p SLIDES_FORMAT, --slides-format=SLIDES_FORMAT
		    the format for the slides to download: pptx, ppt, pdf,
		    default: pdf
  -m MAX_BANDWITH, --max-bandwith=MAX_BANDWITH
		    maximum bandwith to use in downloads in bytes/s,
		    default: None
  -r SEARCH_STRING_SECTION, --search-string-section=SEARCH_STRING_SECTION
		    let's specify a search string to download only the
		    section that have this text in his name
  -d, --disable-progressbar
		    disable the progress bar shown downloading files

Usage examples

Download nlp class videos and subtitles in srt format to /tmp/nlp at a maximum rate of 250Kb/s using the default Chromium cookies in Linux.

./coursera_downloader.py -c nlp -o /tmp/nlp -v -s -f srt -m 250000

Download algo class slides in pdf format to /tmp/algo using cookies from Firefox in Linux without maximum rate.

./coursera_downloader.py -c algo -o /tmp/algo -i -p pdf -b firefox -k ~/.mozilla/firefox/174o50qz.default/cookies.sqlite

Download all the content from ModelThinking to c:\temp\modelthinking class in Windows 7 using Chrome cookies.

coursera_downloader.py -c modelthinking -o c:\temp\modelthinking -v -i -s -k c:\users\USER\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cookies

Know bugs

• In windows i can't use the cookies from Firefox if it is 4 or newer, they changed sqlite to use a feature in cookies.sqlite only available to sqlite 3.7.0 or newer but sqlite bundled in python it is 3.6.2, i didn't have time to research if i can do any workaround.

FAQ

#####Why?

• I think this videos are gold, i am doing all the courses that i can and i am storing the videos for future reference, last fall i did Machine Learning and databases and still any times i consult the videos i downloaded at the time.
• I use chromium in Linux and i have not found a good way to rate-limit the download so when i am downloading content manually i am efectively consuming all my bandwith, i have used trickle other times or QoS but anyway i would have to manually download every link and rename to the lesson title every resource manually this is just better.

TODO

• Add default paths for cookies, Firefox in Linux and Windows and Chrome in Windows.
• Create an self-contained exe with Pyinstaller for Windows users.