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Blackboard Building Blocks : Data Integration and Administration

Now a word from our lawyers?. Any statements in this?presentation about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the m

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Blackboard Building Blocks : Data Integration and Administration

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    1. Blackboard Building Blocks™: Data Integration and Administration Raymond Peterson, Blackboard, Inc.

    2. Now a word from our lawyers… Any statements in this presentation about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our most recent 10-K filed with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of April 11, 2005. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to April 11, 2005. Blackboard, in its sole discretion, may delay or cancel the release of any product or functionality described in this presentation.

    3. Overview Background APIs Security and Context Calling the Event APIs Demonstration Summary

    4. Background Event API is the oldest public API in Blackboard Learning System™ First released with Blackboard5™ version 5.5 Same data model as the Snapshot data integration - IMS 1.2 Enterprise Specification Don’t confuse this with Event Triggers/Callbacks This is a Java API only New API packages in Release 6, brought into line with Blackboard Building Blocks API Integration password new in Release 6 for remote client capability

    5. Which API is that? blackboard.* Building Block API blackboard.admin.* Release 6 Event API com.blackboard.event.* Bb 5.5 Event API (deprecated)

    6. Event API in a Nutshell Similar data model as Building Block™ API Two main types of objects in the API: entities (objects) persisters (actions) Entities include the objects that represent data in the system, such as users. Persisters are behind-the-scenes methods that handle the storage of the entities into a persistent store or transient data format.

    7. Event API Entities IMS specification – five entities Person (User) Course / Organization Enrollment / Staff assignment / Organization membership Course / organization category Course / organization category membership Additional Blackboard-specific entities Data Source Portal Role Membership

    8. Building Block vs Event API Event API entities are sub-classes of the Building Block API entities. All entities include rowStatus attribute (e.g., getRowStatus(), setRowStatus()) not found on core data entities java.lang.Object | +-blackboard.data.BbObject | +-blackboard.data.user.UserInfo | +-blackboard.data.user.User | +-blackboard.admin.data.user.Person

    9. Building Block vs Event API Event API persisters are NOT sub-classes of the Building Block API persisters. blackboard.persist.user Interface UserDbLoader All Superinterfaces: blackboard.persist.Loader blackboard.admin.persist.user Interface PersonLoader All Superinterfaces: blackboard.persist.Loader

    10. Event API Packages Packages contained in cms-admin.jar

    11. blackboard.admin.data.user Person Inherits from blackboard.data.user.User Batch UID (Unique Identifier) is the external system’s primary key

    12. blackboard.admin.data.course CourseSite, Organization Inherits from blackboard.data.course.Course StaffAssignment, Organization Membership Inherits from blackboard.data.course.CourseMembership Enrollment Role is Student only

    13. blackboard.admin.data.category CourseCategory, OrganizationCategory Represents a category in a Course or Organization catalog CourseCategoryMembership, OrganizationCategoryMembership Ties courses and organizations together with Categories

    14. Data Source Programmatic equivalent of same entity in Snapshot Explicit instance of the “sourcedid” attribute from the IMS specification Used to “group” logically related entities For example… Group users by term Group courses by term Group by college … or whatever Always a default “SYSTEM” data source

    15. blackboard.admin.persist.user PersonLoader Load by BatchUID, Template PersonPersister changeKey, insert, remove, save, update

    16. blackboard.admin.persist.course CourseSiteLoader, Organization Loader Load by BatchUID Load by Template EnrollmentLoader, OrganizationMembershipLoader, StaffAssignmentLoader CourseSitePersister, Organization Persister

    17. blackboard.admin.persist.course In addition to typical persister operations, CourseSitePersister can perform a clone operation (Course Copy):

    18. Other Packages blackboard.admin.persist.category blackboard.admin.persist.role blackboard.admin.persist.datasource

    19. Persistence Operations Persistence operations (load and store) are what differentiate the Admin APIs from the Blackboard Building Block APIs More flexible than the Blackboard Building Block APIs, which just do persist() (insert vs. update) “Smart” update Update only those attributes that are explicitly set “Change Key” – update the batchUID for a new value from the external system (User only) Derived from snapshot operation

    20. Persistence Operations Template loads Create a data object that “looks like” the data you want to return Can use SQL wildcards, closest thing to ad hoc queries we have Use with care…

    21. Security and Context No security manager or permissions manifest Initialize the BbServiceManager from system properties String configFile = "c:/blackboard/config/service-config-standalone.properties"; BbServiceManager.init( configFile ); BbServiceManager then allows access to the other services, such as Persistence to create loaders and persisters. BbPersistenceManager bbPm = BbServiceManager.getPersistenceService(). getDbPersistenceManager(); Should explicitly close the BbServiceManager BbServiceManager.shutdown();

    22. Security and Context If installed remotely, also need to supply Integration password and VI to initialize BbServiceManager (same as required to run the Snapshot Client remotely) String configFile = "c:/blackboard/config/service-config-standalone.properties"; Properties bbProps = new Properties(); bbProps.setProperty("remote.access.password", "InTeGr@i0n"); bbProps.setProperty("remote.access.domain","server.dc.blackboard.com"); BbServiceManager.init( configFile, bbProps ); ... BbServiceManager.shutdown();

    23. Security and Context Initialise context from the VI with BbServiceManager ContextManagerServerImpl cMgr VirtualInstallationManager vMgr = null; VirtualHost vHost = null; try { cMgr = (ContextManagerServerImpl)BbServiceManager. lookupService( ContextManager.class ); vMgr = (VirtualInstallationManager)BbServiceManager. lookupService( VirtualInstallationManager.class ); vHost = vMgr.getVirtualHost("server.dc.blackboard.com"); cMgr.setContext(vHost); } catch (Exception e) { throw e; } ... cMgr.releaseContext();

    24. Security and Context The Event APIs can also be called from within a Building Block. In this case, the Building Block API contains taglibs to initialize the BbServiceManager and Context. <%@ taglib uri="/bbData" prefix="bbData"%> <bbData:context> <% // BbServiceManager is available to create other services BbPersistenceManager bbPm = BbServiceManager.getPersistenceService().getDbPersistenceManager(); ... %> </bbData:context> Use extreme care if including Event API calls in Building Blocks! Include checks on who can access the pages, confirmation pages on deletes, etc.

    25. Calling the Event APIs Write a Java app that runs on the Blackboard® app server, invoked via the command line Write a Java app that runs on another server, which has the Blackboard Snapshot client called Write a JSP page deployed as part of a Building Block (Note: can mix and match calls to both APIs) Write a web-service that accepts data via HTTP Write RPC wrappers for an external system to invoke … and the possibilities are endless!!!

    26. Demonstration

    27. Summary Blackboard Event APIs allow access to perform data integration tasks, via a Java API The Event API contains a number of interfaces to control Bb entities The Event API can be called from any Java environment, including a Blackboard Building Block For further information, see: Advanced Integration and Data Management Manual Administrative API Specifications Download from http://behind.blackboard.com/

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