Coursera Downloader for Windows

A windows utility developed with Coursera Downloader Python Scripts.

Download

You can get the lastest release from here.
https://github.com/nishad/coursera-dl-windows/releases/latest
Download coursera-dl-win-X.X.X.zip

Usage

usage: coursera-dl.exe [-h] [-u USERNAME] [-p PASSWORD] [--on-demand] [-b]
                       [--path PATH] [-sl SUBTITLE_LANGUAGE] [--about]
                       [-f FILE_FORMATS] [--ignore-formats IGNORE_FORMATS]
                       [-sf SECTION_FILTER] [-lf LECTURE_FILTER]
                       [-rf RESOURCE_FILTER]
                       [--video-resolution VIDEO_RESOLUTION] [--wget [WGET]]
                       [--curl [CURL]] [--aria2 [ARIA2]] [--axel [AXEL]]
                       [--resume] [-o] [--verbose-dirs] [--quiet] [-r]
                       [--combined-section-lectures-nums]
                       [--unrestricted-filenames] [-v] [-c COOKIES_FILE]
                       [-n [NETRC]] [-k] [--clear-cache] [--hook HOOKS] [-pl]
                       [--skip-download] [--debug] [-l LOCAL_PAGE]
                       class_names [class_names ...]

Download Coursera.org lecture material and resources.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --resume              resume incomplete downloads (default: False)
  -o, --overwrite       whether existing files should be overwritten (default:
                        False)
  --verbose-dirs        include class name in section directory name
  --quiet               omit as many messages as possible (only printing
                        errors)
  -r, --reverse         download sections in reverse order
  --combined-section-lectures-nums
                        include lecture and section name in final files
  --unrestricted-filenames
                        Do not limit filenames to be ASCII-only
  -v, --version         Display the version of udemy-dl and exit

Basic options:
  class_names           name(s) of the class(es) (e.g. "ml-005")
  -u USERNAME, --username USERNAME
                        coursera username
  -p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD
                        coursera password
  --on-demand           [DEPRECATED] get on-demand videos. Do not use this
                        option, it is deprecated. The script will try to
                        detect course type automatically.
  -b, --preview         get videos from preview pages. (Default: False)
  --path PATH           path to where to save the file. (Default: current
                        directory)
  -sl SUBTITLE_LANGUAGE, --subtitle-language SUBTITLE_LANGUAGE
                        Choose language to download subtitles. (Default: en)

Selection of material to download:
  --about               download "about" metadata. (Default: False)
  -f FILE_FORMATS, --formats FILE_FORMATS
                        file format extensions to be downloaded in quotes
                        space separated, e.g. "mp4 pdf" (default: special
                        value "all")
  --ignore-formats IGNORE_FORMATS
                        file format extensions of resources to ignore
                        (default: None)
  -sf SECTION_FILTER, --section_filter SECTION_FILTER
                        only download sections which contain this regex
                        (default: disabled)
  -lf LECTURE_FILTER, --lecture_filter LECTURE_FILTER
                        only download lectures which contain this regex
                        (default: disabled)
  -rf RESOURCE_FILTER, --resource_filter RESOURCE_FILTER
                        only download resources which match this regex
                        (default: disabled)
  --video-resolution VIDEO_RESOLUTION
                        video resolution to download (default: 540p); only
                        valid for on-demand courses; only values allowed:
                        360p, 540p, 720p

External downloaders:
  --wget [WGET]         use wget for downloading,optionally specify wget bin
  --curl [CURL]         use curl for downloading, optionally specify curl bin
  --aria2 [ARIA2]       use aria2 for downloading, optionally specify aria2
                        bin
  --axel [AXEL]         use axel for downloading, optionally specify axel bin

Advanced authentication options:
  -c COOKIES_FILE, --cookies_file COOKIES_FILE
                        full path to the cookies.txt file
  -n [NETRC], --netrc [NETRC]
                        use netrc for reading passwords, uses default location
                        if no path specified
  -k, --keyring         use keyring provided by operating system to save and
                        load credentials
  --clear-cache         clear cached cookies

Advanced miscellaneous options:
  --hook HOOKS          hooks to run when finished
  -pl, --playlist       generate M3U playlists for course weeks

Debugging options:
  --skip-download       for debugging: skip actual downloading of files
  --debug               print lots of debug information
  -l LOCAL_PAGE, --process_local_page LOCAL_PAGE
                        uses or creates local cached version of syllabus page

Introduction

Coursera is arguably the leader in massive open online courses (MOOC) with a selection of more than 300 classes from 62 different institutions as 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.

This utility 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 the lectures page, and then downloads the related materials into appropriately named files and directories.

Why is this helpful? A utility like wget can work, but has the following limitations:

1. 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.
2. Using names from the syllabus page provides more informative names.
3. Using wget in a for loop picks up extra videos which are not posted/linked, and these are sometimes duplicates.

Browser extensions like DownloadThemAll is another possibility, but coursera-dl provides more features such as appropriately named files.

This work was originally inspired in part by youtube-dl by which I've downloaded many other good videos such as those from Khan Academy.

Features

• Support for both regular (i.e., time-based) courses as well as on-demand courses.
• Intentionally detailed names, so that it will display and sort properly on most interfaces (e.g., VLC or 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 .netrc file.
• Core functionality tested on major new Windows editions.

Disclaimer

coursera-dl is meant to be used only for your material that Coursera gives you access to download.

We do not encourage any use that violates their Terms 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."

Note: You must already have (manually) agreed to the Honor of Code of the particular courses that you want to use with coursera-dl.

Create an account with Coursera

If you don't already have one, create a Coursera account and enroll in a class. See https://www.coursera.org/courses for the list of classes.

Running the script

Run the exe to download the materials by providing your Coursera account credentials (e.g. email address and password or a ~/.netrc file), the class names, as well as any additional parameters:

General:                     coursera-dl -u <user> -p <pass> modelthinking-004
On-Demand course:            coursera-dl -u <user> -p <pass> --on-demand calculus1
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

Note: Some of the options like -sf and -f may not work with on-demand courses. Downloading on-demand courses are mutually exclusive with regular courses.

Maintain a list of classes in a dir:
  Initialize:              mkdir -p CURRENT/{class1,class2,..classN}
  Update:                  coursera-dl -n --path CURRENT `\ls CURRENT`

Note that we do support the new On Demand classes. You have to use the option --on-demand for that purpose. You also have to download those classes separately for regular, time-based classes.

Use of a ~/.netrc file 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 .netrc in your home directory (or the equivalent, 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 -u and -p to simply call coursera-dl with the option -n instead. 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 downloads

In 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 --resume which continues your downloads from where they stopped:

coursera-dl -u <user> -p <pass> --resume sdn1-001

This option can also be used with external downloaders:

coursera-dl --wget -u <user> -p <pass> --resume sdn1-001

Note 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 files WON'T be 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. See issue #213 for more information.

Troubleshooting

If 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/index

• To download an On Demand course, use the --on-demand option of the program.

• Have you tried to clean the cached cookies/credentials with the --clear-cache option?

• 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.

• One can export a Netscape-style cookies file with a browser extension (1, 2) and use it with the -c option. 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 .netrc file).

• 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 --preview parameter.

• If you get an error like Could 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. class and the current version of the course (a number). For example, for a class named class, you would have to use class-001, class-002 etc.
  • 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 course via the website.

• If:

  • You get an error when using -n to specify that you want to use a .netrc file and,
  • You want the script to use your default netrc file and,

  • You get a message saying coursera-dl: error: too few arguments

    Then 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 -n begins with an hyphen (-). Otherwise, Python's argparse module 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 bug

When reporting bugs against coursera-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 exe?
• What operating system are you using?
• Which version of the script you are using? (Output of coursera-dl.exe -v)
• 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 --debug option before posting the messages as a bug report. Please, copy and paste them. Don't reword/paraphrase the messages.

Contact

Please, post bugs and issues on github.