Launch LRS Documentation

Quick start

To get started immediately the quick start section provides the basic information required. Instructions are provided in further detail in the relevant sections.

Sign in

Sign into your Launch LRS with the following default administrator credentials, you will be required to change you password on first sign in:

username: admin
password: password

xAPI configuration

The majority of activity providers use Basic Authentication to connect to an LRS. To send an xAPI statement to Launch LRS you will need to use an endpoint, username and password.

Endpoint: The domain of your Launch LRS followed by /xapi/ with the correct protocol (HTTP or HTTPS) for your site. Depending on your activity provider you may not need the trailing forwards slash. For example:

https://lrs.example.com/xapi/

Username: Within the User page add a user for your activity provider, ensuring the username relates to the provider you’re configuring

Password: Add a strong password and make a note of it

The endpoint and credentials created can be added to your activity provider’s settings to start sending data to Launch LRS.

Users

A Launch LRS user is any person or system that connects to Launch LRS. This includes but is not limited to administrators, activity providers and other LRSs.

Administrators

Launch LRS is configured to have an initial administrator.

An administrator can:

view the total number stored statements in the dashboard
add and delete users
store statements in the LRS
view all statements in the LRS
view and add licences
configure statement mirroring and statement forwarding
change their own password

An administrator is not able to delete their own user from the system.

Non-administrative users

Non admin users are usually activity providers. A user can:

view the total number stored statements in the dashboard
change their own password

A user is not able to delete themselves from the system.

Adding a user

When logged in as an administrator, navigate to the Users tab

Within the Add User section at the bottom of the page enter a username and password for the new user

Choose a strong password and make a note of it. The password will not be displayed.

Only select the administrator checkbox if you want the user to have administrator privileges

Click Add

Adding an activity provider

An activity provider is an application that sends data to Launch LRS. The majority of activity providers use Basic Authentication to connect to an LRS.

An activity provider is a normal user of the LRS and therefore added the same way.

Ensure the username relates to the activity provider you’re configuring in case you wish to delete it in the future.

Make a note of the password, you will need to know it to configure your activity provider.

Connecting to an activity provider

Launch LRS configuration

We recommend that at activity provider sending data to Launch LRS does not have administrator access to ensure the provider only has access to the data it sends

Click add

Activity provider configuration

Within your activity provider settings connect to Launch LRS with the username and password created. Your activity provider might refer to them as Key and Secret Key.

The URL to use is the domain of your Launch LRS followed by /xapi/, using the correct protocol (HTTP or HTTPS) for your site. Depending on your activity provider you may not need the trailing forwards slash. For example:

https://lrs.example.com/xapi/

Integrating with LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning supports xAPI version 1.0.0 and uses OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow to authenticate with Launch LRS. For more information view the LinkedIn Learning xAPI Administration Guide.

Add a provider within Launch LRS

On the user page add a new non-administrative user for LinkedIn Learning. You will need the username and password of this new user to configure the LinkedIn Learning integration.

Configure LinkedIn Learning

Log in to your LinkedIn Learning account, if you are not already in the Admin screen, select Go to Admin, then click Me > Integration settings.

From the left-hand navigation menu, select LMS Reporting APIs.

Expand the “xAPI” section.

Click Add integration and fill out the following fields.

Integration name: A name to identify the xAPI connection, for example, Launch LRS
User type: Choose any of ID, username or e-mail
OAuth Server URL: This is the domain of your Launch LRS followed by /oauth2/token with the correct protocol (HTTP or HTTPS) for your site. For example: https://lrs.example.com/oauth2/token
Tenant Server URL: This is the domain of your Launch LRS followed by /xapi with the correct protocol (HTTP or HTTPS) for your site. For example: https://lrs.example.com/xapi
Client ID: Username for the LinkedIn Learning user previously created
Client Secret: Password for the LinkedIn Learning user previously created

Click Enable.

Licences

A Launch LRS licence plan can be purchased if additional storage is required or to access our technical support. When a licence is purchased a unique activation key will be provided.

Adding a licence

Log into Launch LRS as an administrator and navigate to the Licences page
In the Add Licence section enter your licence key and click add

If the licence is valid it will be added to the list of licences and additional information associated with the licence will be displayed.

If the licence key is invalid, expired or already in use an error message will be displayed.

Additional licence keys may be entered to increase the total number of allowed statements.

Installation

Launch LRS has several installation options. View our installation page for instructions on how to get started with AWS CloudFormation, AWS AMI and Ubuntu. For help getting started on different platforms please contact us.

Database configuration

If a database is not specified, the Launch LRS application will use an in-memory database which will be wiped every time you restart the Launch LRS application.

For a production environment we recommend configuring the Launch LRS database on a different host to the Launch LRS application.

Prerequisites

An existing database server with a new database. Launch LRS supports MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server and H2.
A user with full permission to the database.
Security of the database server configured to allow inbound traffic from the IP of your Launch LRS.

Step 1: Connect to your Launch LRS server

Step 2: Add your database configuration

Create and open an application.properties file in the same directory as the Launch LRS application, for example:

[user ~]$ sudo vi /opt/launch/lrs/application.properties

Insert the configuration below into the application.properties file, substituting the following:

dbms: mysql, sqlserver or postgresql
endpoint: URL of your database server. For internal database installations use localhost
dbname: name of the database you intend to use for Launch LRS
user: a username with full permissions to the specified database
changeMe: password for the user

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:dbms://endpoint:3306/dbname?zeroDateTimeBehavior=convertToNull
spring.datasource.username=user
spring.datasource.password=changeMe

Save and quit.

Step 3: Restart Launch LRS

[user ~]$ sudo systemctl restart launch-lrs

If you now access Launch LRS in your browser you should notice the in-memory warning message at the bottom of the screen has gone.

If you receive 502 Bad Gateway, ensure you’re credentials, endpoint and port are correct in the configuration file.

If you changed your password during the initial setup, it will have been set back to the default when the database was specified. Select manage and sign in with the following credentials:
username: admin
password: password
You will be required to change your password on first sign in after specifying a database.