© Blackboard, Inc. All rights reserved. My First Java Building Block for the Blackboard Content System Stephanie Cupp Senior Product Analyst Blackboard Inc. July 19 th 9am

2 Overview » Brief intro to the Bb Content System » Understanding its place in the Academic Suite » Getting started with Building Blocks » Sample Building Block: Content System Report » Sample Building Block: “Hello Content System” » Q&A

© Blackboard, Inc. All rights reserved. COLLECTION Content and File Mgmt Versioning Disk Space and Bandwidth Mgmt DISCOVERYSHARING Collaborative File Storage e-Portfolios Workflows Learning Objects Catalog e-Reserves

4 Content & File Management » Single point of editing » Create many links to one file » Edit files one time to change everywhere » Share files and folders with other users or members of groups » Share “passes” to files with people outside of system » Use versioning to manage content

5 Disk Space & Bandwidth Mgmt » Grant space and quota by Institution Role or User » Monitor system usage » Guard against system abuses

© Blackboard, Inc. All rights reserved. COLLECTION Content and File Mgmt Versioning Disk Space and Bandwidth Mgmt DISCOVERYSHARING Collaborative File Storage e-Portfolios Workflows Learning Objects Catalog e-Reserves

7 Collaborative Web-enabled File Storage » Shared workspaces for content development: » Course content » Learning objects » Departmental resources » General Documents » WebDAV support » Share files and folders with other » Users » Groups » Members of courses » Institution roles

© Blackboard, Inc. All rights reserved. COLLECTION Content and File Mgmt Versioning Disk Space and Bandwidth Mgmt DISCOVERYSHARING Collaborative File Storage e-Portfolios Workflows Learning Objects Catalog e-Reserves

9 Learning Objects Catalog » Search high-quality content » Browse by category » Keyword searches » Find targeted content with metadata tags » Full-text search

10 Within the Bb Learning System » Course content » Visual Text Box Editor » Question Pools (Release 6.3) » Test and Surveys (Release 7.1) » Etc.

11 Within the Bb Community System » Modules: » personal content » institution content » course content » bookmarks » e-Portfolios » workflows » search » etc.

12 What are Building Blocks? » Applications that developers build to extend the Blackboard platform and to integrate Blackboard with external applications, content, or services.

13 Getting Started » What are your resources? » What are you project goals? » What are the application requirements? » How are you going to build your application? » Where are you going to “hook” your application? » Which APIs are you going to use? » Where do you intend to deploy your application?

14 What are your resources? » Blackboard Learning System Javadoc » Blackboard Content System Javadoc » Blackboard Building Blocks Developers Guide » Blackboard Building Blocks: Introduction to the Building Blocks APIs and Runtime » Blackboard Web Site » Bb Open-Source Listserv » Sample Building Blocks » Each other!

15 What are your project goals? » Sample: To provide a report to Administrators that displays user information including quota, so that they can better track usage.

16 What are the application requirements? » Sample: » Being able to determine which users the report should display (including all) » Counting the users reported » Displaying the quota allowed » Displaying the quota amount and percentage free

17 How can this be built? » Sample: » Need the report to be available to Administrators » Link » Need the Administrator to select the users and info to include in the report » Data Collection Page » Need to display the report to the Administrator » List Page

18 How: UI taglibs » XML style tags that can be placed on a jsp page. » Blackboard supplies two sets of taglibs » bbUI for making pages look like Blackboard (style) » bbData for giving pages context and virtual installation information (current session, current user, etc.) » Specify your own in web.xml

19 What Content System “hooks” are available? » Action dropdown » Content System Tools » My Portfolios » Modify file » Modify folder » Manage Portfolio » Administrator Panel

20 Action dropdown

21 Tools & My Portfolios

22 Modify file & Modify folder

23 Manage Portfolio

24 Administrator Panel

25 Which APIs to use? » When the Content System is installed, the APIs are available to use from the entire Academic Suite, NOT just those installed which use CS specific UI hooks.

26 Plan for deployment and support » Consider your audience again » Your campus only? » Other installations? » Bb Building Blocks catalog? » How will this functionality be supported?

27 Packaging » Use WinZip, PkZip, Java’s Jar utility, Ant, etc. » /classes, /jars, other data should be under WEB-INF Shared via web Hidden from web

28 Install & Publish » Only Administrators can manage Building Blocks. » Install by browsing for your package. » Publish by making it Available.

29 Tips on publishing while developing » Start with a shell ».jsp files will compile at runtime, so just refresh your browser. ».java files will require restarting tomcat

30 Sample Building Block: Content System Reports » Sample provided on behind.blackboard.com » Let’s take a look!

31 Sample Building Block: “Hello Content System” » Possible types of links: » cs_action » cs_tool » cs_modify_folder » cs_modify_file » cs_manage_portfolio » cs_my_portfolios » system_tool

32 Hello Content System: Bb-manifest.xml

33 Hello Content System: Bb-manifest.xml <application handle="cshello" type="system" use-ssl="false" name="Hello Content System" can-allow-guest="false" small-icon="" large-icon=""> Creates a new tool link in the Content System.

34 Hello Content System: Bb-manifest.xml

35 Hello Content System: hello.jsp My First Bb Content System Building Block This could be a tool for your Bb Content System users to better manage their content.

36 Hello Content System » Let’s take a look!

37 Q & A » Any questions?

38 Thank you! What’s next on the schedule? 10 – 10:15 Break (South Gallery)