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A Blackboard Building Block™ Crash Course for Web Developers

A Blackboard Building Block™ Crash Course for Web Developers. Murali Yellepeddy, Architect. Agenda. Blackboard Building Block Introduction Hooks into the platform B2 Manager Blackboard ® API Tag libraries Security Q&A. Introduction.

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A Blackboard Building Block™ Crash Course for Web Developers

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  1. A Blackboard Building Block™ Crash Course for Web Developers Murali Yellepeddy, Architect

  2. Agenda • Blackboard Building Block Introduction • Hooks into the platform • B2 Manager • Blackboard® API • Tag libraries • Security • Q&A

  3. Introduction • If you've ever built a webapp for Tomcat®, WebLogic®, WebSphere®, etc Or a portlet for uPorta®l, Liferay®, etc - you've essentially already built a Blackboard Building Block • Blackboard® itself is nothing more than a bunch of webapps running on Tomcat

  4. Bb DB Server Bb App Server(s) Client Blackboard® Architecture Apache / IIS Static files .html Oracle® / SQL* Server® Tomcat .jsp pages /webapp pages Locale images Collab Server chat & virtual classroom

  5. Blackboard Building Block Contents • B2s are most-closely-related to a portlet in that it's a simple webapp with 1 extra XML file that tells Blackboard where your app will hook into it webapp Manifest (XML)

  6. BB-Manifest.XML • Describes the web application to the Blackboard plug-in manager • Metadata • Allows to extend functionality • Custom Content • Links • Portal Modules • Register to Notifications • Gradable Items • Security • Entitlements • Permissions

  7. Basic Structure of a Blackboard-Manifest File <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <manifest> <!-- core extension information --> <plugin> <!-- general information: name, handle, etc. --> <http-actions> ... </http-actions> <!– Register to Notifications --> <extension-defs> ... </extension-defs> <!-- Custom Portal Modules --> <module-defs> ... </module-defs> <!–- Score Providers --> <score-providers> ... </score-providers>

  8. Basic Structure of a Blackboard-Manifest File <!-- custom content handlers --> <content-handlers> <content-handler> ... </content-handler> </content-handlers> <!-- Tools defined by this extension --> <application-defs> <application> ... </application> </application-defs> <permissions> ... </permissions> </plugin> </manifest>

  9. Example Code • Hello World Mashup content handler • Adds a course tool

  10. Blackboard® B2 Manager

  11. What to use to build it.. • Just like a webapp, you can use whichever framework technology you want to use - Struts & Spring are the most common. • You can also use straight JSPs for the most basic of projects, but using MVC is recommended as a better practice • Similarly, you can easily add supporting libraries such as those from the Apache Commons projects to avoid reinventing the wheel for common tasks. Note, a lot of libraries already ship with Blackboard® Learn™(check /blackboard/apps/tomcat/lib)

  12. Blackboard® Look & Feel • Easy to render the user interface using the Blackboard tag libraries - similar to the JSTL libraries (Java) or SharePoint web part Web UI Controls used to render HTML. • The tag libraries inherit the look/feel, usability, and accessibility of the core product • You can also roll your own UI using straight HTML if desired

  13. Example Code

  14. Javascript • Blackboard uses Prototype. • You can layer additional AJAX technologies on top of it such as Scriptaculous for slick web 2.0-like behavior. • Would not recommend using JQuery as sometimes Prototype and JQuery don't interact so well. Another one to look at is AjaxTags.

  15. Blackboard® API to Access Blackboard Data • Base persistence objects are defined in the package, blackboard.persist, with sub-packages including • announcement • calendar • content • course • gradebook • user

  16. Context vs Persistence Context tag • Current Session • Current Page • Who am I? • Where am I? Persistence objects • Permanent Data Store • Retrieve or update data • Single objects • UserId given UserName • Lists of objects • All users in a course • All courses for a user

  17. Permissions • Wrapper around Java security • Allows administrators to allow or deny a building block based on what it is trying to access

  18. References • Documentation and API reference • http://www.edugarage.com • Tag libraries: • Current versions on your Blackboard Learn Server …/blackboard/content/WEB-INF/config/taglibs • Generate documentation (html-format)https://taglibrarydoc.dev.java.net/

  19. Questions ?

  20. Please provide feedback for this session by emailing DevConFeedback@blackboard.com.  The subject of the email should be title of this session: A Building Block Crash Course for Web Developers

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