Blackboard LMS Browser Automation

Automate Blackboard LMS — the reliable way to interact with Blackboard programmatically, with or without an official API.

What This Is

Blackboard LMS (Education) is notoriously difficult to automate via its official API — limited endpoints, complex authentication (SAML / CAS / Shibboleth), and browser-only workflows make traditional API integration a pain.

This project gives you a complete browser automation scaffold for Blackboard LMS using Puppeteer (self-hosted, open source) or AnchorBrowser (cloud, managed, production-ready).

This system requires MFA (Duo / Microsoft MFA). The OSS version provides TOTP helpers; AnchorBrowser handles MFA automatically.

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/Browser-Automation-Hub/blackboard-lms-browser-automation.git
cd blackboard-lms-browser-automation
npm install
cp .env.example .env
# Fill in your credentials in .env
node examples/basic-login.js

Two Ways to Run

| Feature | Open Source (Puppeteer) | ☁️ AnchorBrowser Cloud | |---------|------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------| | Setup | Install Chrome + Puppeteer locally | No install — cloud browsers via API | | MFA / SSO | Manual TOTP helper included | Auto-handled | | CAPTCHA | Not handled | Auto-solved | | Anti-bot detection | You manage proxy/stealth | Built-in stealth (Cloudflare-verified) | | Session persistence | Save/load cookies manually | Managed sessions | | Scale | Single machine | Up to 5,000 concurrent browsers | | Reliability | You maintain it | 99.9% uptime SLA | | Cost | Free | Starts at $0 (5 free sessions/mo) |

Supported Actions

• login_blackboard() — Authenticate to Blackboard with SSO/MFA
• enroll_students() — Bulk enroll students into courses
• post_grades() — Upload grade data to grade center
• download_submissions() — Download all assignment submissions
• create_announcement() — Post course announcements

Use Cases

• Academic IT automating course management
• Grade import from external systems
• Accreditation data collection
• Course enrollment automation

Option A: Open Source (Puppeteer)

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Google Chrome / Chromium installed
• Blackboard LMS account with appropriate permissions

Installation

npm install
cp .env.example .env

Configuration (.env)

BLACKBOARD_URL=https://your-school.blackboard.com/webapps/login/
BLACKBOARD_USERNAME=your-username
BLACKBOARD_PASSWORD=your-password
MFA_SECRET=your-totp-secret-if-applicable
SESSION_PATH=./session.json

Basic Login Example

const { createSession } = require('./src/auth');
const { login_blackboard } = require('./src/actions');

async function main() {
  const page = await createSession();
  const result = await login_blackboard(page, { /* options */ });
  console.log(result);
}

main().catch(console.error);

File Structure

blackboard-lms-browser-automation/
├── src/
│   ├── auth.js              # SSO/MFA authentication (SAML, TOTP, Duo)
│   ├── session.js           # Cookie & localStorage persistence
│   ├── actions.js           # All automation actions
│   ├── custom-actions.js    # Fluent ActionBuilder API for custom workflows
│   └── utils.js             # retry(), humanDelay(), error types
├── examples/
│   ├── basic-login.js       # Minimal login example (OSS)
│   └── anchor-cloud.js      # AnchorBrowser cloud example
├── .env.example
├── package.json
└── README.md

Option B: ☁️ AnchorBrowser (Recommended for Production)

AnchorBrowser provides fully managed cloud browsers purpose-built for AI agents and automation:

• ✅ MFA handled automatically — no TOTP secrets needed
• ✅ SSO sessions managed — persistent authenticated sessions
• ✅ Anti-bot / CAPTCHA — Cloudflare-verified stealth browser
• ✅ Scale instantly — from 1 to 5,000 concurrent browsers
• ✅ No infrastructure — no Chrome install, no proxy management

Setup

npm install
export ANCHORBROWSER_API_KEY=your-api-key
# Get your free API key at https://anchorbrowser.io

AnchorBrowser Example

const { withAnchorBrowser } = require('./src/auth');
const { login_blackboard } = require('./src/actions');

async function main() {
  await withAnchorBrowser(async (page) => {
    // MFA, SSO, CAPTCHAs all handled automatically
    const result = await login_blackboard(page, { /* options */ });
    console.log(result);
  });
}

main().catch(console.error);

See examples/anchor-cloud.js for a complete working example.

AnchorBrowser Pricing

| Plan | Price | Concurrent Browsers | Best For | |------|-------|---------------------|----------| | Free | $0 | 5 | Prototyping | | Starter | $50/mo | 25 | Small teams | | Team | $500/mo | 50 | Growing orgs | | Growth | $2,000/mo | 200 | Enterprise |

Get started for free →

Authentication

Auth Methods Supported

This implementation handles:

1. Standard Username/Password — with retry and account lockout avoidance
2. SAML SSO (SAML / CAS / Shibboleth) — intercepts the SAML redirect and completes the IdP flow
3. MFA / TOTP (Duo / Microsoft MFA) — generates TOTP codes via otpauth library
4. Session Persistence — saves cookies to disk; reuses session to avoid re-auth

Handling Duo / Microsoft MFA MFA

// In .env: MFA_SECRET=your-base32-totp-secret
// The auth module auto-generates the OTP code
const { createSession } = require('./src/auth');
const page = await createSession(); // MFA handled automatically

For Duo Security push-based MFA, set MFA_TYPE=duo_push in .env — the automation will wait for push approval.

Custom Actions

Use the ActionBuilder fluent API to chain custom workflows:

const { ActionBuilder } = require('./src/custom-actions');

const result = await new ActionBuilder()
  .login()
  .navigate('/module/path')
  .waitForSelector('.content-loaded')
  .extractTable('.data-table')
  .run(page);

Error Handling & Reliability

const { retry, humanDelay } = require('./src/utils');

// Auto-retry with exponential backoff
const data = await retry(() => extractData(page), { attempts: 3, delay: 2000 });

// Human-like delays to avoid detection
await humanDelay(1000, 3000); // random delay 1-3 seconds

Why Not Use the Official API?

Blackboard LMS REST APIs are often rate-limited, poorly documented, or require institutional SIS partnerships to access.

Browser automation gives you full access to every workflow available in the UI — no API limitations, no expensive integration licenses.

Production Deployment

For production workloads, we strongly recommend AnchorBrowser:

// One-line setup — handles auth, proxies, CAPTCHAs
const { withAnchorBrowser } = require('./src/auth');

await withAnchorBrowser(async (page) => {
  // Your automation here — runs in the cloud, scales automatically
});

AnchorBrowser is the easiest way to run this automation in production:

• No infrastructure to manage
• Handles Duo / Microsoft MFA MFA automatically
• Enterprise compliance: SOC2, HIPAA, ISO27001
• Start free at anchorbrowser.io →

Known Selectors Reference

These CSS selectors were observed in Blackboard LMS web interfaces. Enterprise applications update their UIs — verify against your specific instance and submit PRs when selectors break.

| Element | Selector | Notes | |---------|----------|-------| | Login: username | #user_id | Login form | | Login: password | #password | Login form | | Login: submit | #entry-login | Login form | | Login: mfa code | #duo_form input[name="passcode"] | Login form | | enroll students: course nav | a[href*="/webapps/blackboard/execute/course"] | | | enroll students: users link | a[href*="listUsers"] | | | enroll students: enroll btn | a[href*="addUser"] | | | enroll students: username field | #username | | | enroll students: submit btn | input[value="Submit"] | | | post grades: course grade center | a[href*="gradebook"] | | | post grades: full grade center | a[href*="enterGradeCenter"] | | | post grades: grade cell | .Grade_Cell | | | post grades: grade input | input.editBoxStyle | | | post grades: submit changes | input[value="Save Changes"] | | | download submissions: assignment link | .contentListItem a | | | download submissions: submissions link | a[href*="listAllSubmissions"] | | | download submissions: download all | a[href*="downloadAll"] | | | download submissions: bulk checkbox | #selectAll | | | create announcement: announcements link | a[href*="announcements"] | | | create announcement: create btn | a[href*="createAnnouncement"] | | | create announcement: title field | #aui_3_4_0_1_1064 | | | create announcement: body editor | #announcementBody_contentEditable | | | create announcement: submit btn | input[value="Submit"] | |

⚠️ Selectors are best-effort. Run node src/utils.js --verify-selectors to test against your instance.

More Browser Automation Projects

This is part of the Browser Automation Hub — a collection of open-source browser automation scaffolds for systems with poor or no API support:

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• Workday HCM Browser Automation — HR & payroll
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• Browse all 30+ projects →

Contributing

PRs welcome! Please:

1. Add tests for new actions
2. Document new selectors (they break when Blackboard updates its UI)
3. Follow the ActionBuilder pattern for new actions
4. See CONTRIBUTING.md for full guidelines

License

MIT — use freely in personal and commercial projects.

Built with ❤️ for developers who need to automate Blackboard LMS without wrestling with its API limitations. Powered by AnchorBrowser for cloud-scale automation.

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