My First Building Block as a Portal Module

1. My First Building Block as a Portal Module Heather NatourSenior Lead EngineerBlackboard Inc.September 29, 2005

2. Road Map • What are Portals? • Module Types • Creating Modules • API

3. Audience • Building Blocks Developers that want to create Blackboard Community System Modules • Java/JSP Programmers • Some knowledge of Building Blocks Programming • …Or Just Interested to see what’s possible with Community System Modules

4. What are Portals? • Provides an Entry Point • Provides a Customized User Experience • Unites several sources of information and present them in one central place • Sites can customize Portal for a specific type of user or market • Student, Faculty, East, West • “Sticky”

5. Example of a “sticky” Portal

6. Blackboard Community System Components Tab Contents Layout Module Module Edit Minimize Delete

7. Module Types • Code for the Module • Every Module has an associated Type – A Type could have more than one instance • One or more JSP pages

8. Pre Built Module Types • Include HTML • Include URL • RSS Channel

9. Module Type JSP Pages • View • What gets displayed when the module is rendered • Admin • Edit Global properties • Edit • User customizable properties

10. View • Rendered Inline • No HTML Header or Body Tags

11. Edit Calls the edit page

12. Edit

13. Admin Manage Modules Page Admin Page for Global Configuration

14. Admin

15. Creating Module Types • JSP is easiest • Tags Provided for Edit and Admin Pages (more info in Dev Guide) • modulePersonalizationPage • modulePersonalizationReceipt • moduleAdminPage • moduleAdminReceipt

16. Portal API • Java • Class: CustomData • In package blackboard.portal.external • Javadoc available in SDK

17. Portal API • To get the Global CustomData for a module, use getModuleData(context) CustomData data = CustomData.getModuleData(pageContext); String text = data.getValue(“body.lunchMenu”); String text = data.getValue(“body.type”);

18. Portal API • Can also save Global properties for a module using this same object CustomData data = CustomData.getModuleData(pageContext); String text = data.setValue(“body.lunchMenu”, “Roast Turkey”); String text = data.setValue(“body.type”,”Entrée”); data.save();

19. Portal API • Similar Methods exist to set user specific data CustomData data = CustomData.getModulePersonalizationData(pageContext); String text = data.setValue(“userpref.display”, “ALL”); data.save();

20. Packaging the Module Type • Put it in a System Extension Package • JSPs in /module directory <module-type ext-ref="smpl-module" title="Sample Plug-in Module Type" uicreatable="true"> <jsp-dir>module</jsp-dir> <jsp> <view>view.jsp</view> <edit>edit.jsp</edit> <admin>admin.jsp</admin> </jsp> </module-type>

21. Creating a Module • Can specify a module type already in the system or in the same installation package • Many modules can be created using the Bb supplied types • Could leverage types that become available in the community

22. Creating a Module • Module is packaged as a standard Building Blocks Package • bb-manifest.xml • module • channel

23. Specifying a Module • Manifest Entry (Module Def): • <module type="portal/channel" isadmin="true" useraddable="true" isdeletable="true" title="Sample Channel Module"> • <description>Sample channel module. This module accesses the RSS channel installed with this plug-in.</description> • <ExtraInfo> • <property key="channel.id" type="String">macnews</property> • </ExtraInfo> • </module>

24. Specifying a Module • Channel Manifest Entry (Channel Def): • <rss-channel ext-ref=“macnews" title=“Mac News"> • <data-url> • http://www.macnn.xml/macnn.xml </data-url> • </rss-channel>

25. Specifying a Module • Can also optionally specify Institution Roles (Primary and Secondary) <module-groups> <module-group id=“student"/> <module-group id=“faculty"/> </module-groups>

26. Demonstration!

27. Thank you!