Blackboard Building Blocks Portal Modules and Module Types Monday, November 16, 2015 Tom Joyce, Product Manager, Product Development

Road Map What are Portals? Module Types Creating Modules API

What are Portals? Portal = Entry point Customizable for the user Can unite several sources of information and present them in one central place Sites can customize the Portal for a specific type of user or market Good portals are “sticky”

Example of a “sticky” Portal

Blackboard Portal Components Tab Module Module Edit Minimize Delete Contents Layout

Module Types Code for the Module Every Module has an associated Type One or more JSP pages

Pre Built Module Types Include HTML Include URL RSS Channel

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

View Rendered Inline No HTML Header or Body Tags

Edit Calls the edit page

Edit

Admin Admin Page for Global Configuration

Admin

Creating Module Types JSP is easiest Tags Provided for Edit and Admin Pages –modulePersonalizationPage –modulePersonalizationReceipt –moduleAdminPage –ModuleAdminReceipt

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

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

Portal API Can also save module global properties CustomData data = CustomData.getModuleData(pageContext); String text = data.setValue(“body.lunchMenu”, “Roast Turkey”); String text = data.setValue(“body.type”,”Entrée”); data.save();

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

Packaging the Module Type Put it in a System Extension Package JSPs in /module directory module view.jsp edit.jsp admin.jsp

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 Entries in bb-manifest.xml file: –module –channel

Creating a Module Module is packaged a standard Integration Agent Package bb-manifest.xml –module –channel

Specifying a Module Module Manifest Entry: Sample channel module. This module accesses the RSS channel installed with this plug-in. smpl-gamenews

Specifying a Module Channel Manifest Entry (Module Def): Sample channel module. This module accesses the RSS channel installed with this plug-in. smpl-gamenews

Specifying a Module Channel Manifest Entry (Channel Def):

Specifying a Module Can also optionally specify Portal Roles

Demonstration!

Thank You Demos to Follow >