My First Building Block

1
My First Building Block

• Presented By Tracy Engwirda

28 September, 2005
2
Overview

• Background
• Planning
• UI Integration
• Which APIs
• Package Structure
• Manifest Structure
• Security Framework
• UI Taglibs
• Building Blocks Manager
• .. and more

3
Terminology

• Building Blocks Program
• All development and integration with Blackboard
  products
• Building Blocks Framework
• The set of patterns and objects that allow
  interaction with all of Blackboards products
• Building Blocks API
• The Java and .NET interfaces
• Building Blocks Manager
• The management interface for Building Blocks
• Building Block
• An application that relies on the Building Blocks
  API
• Blackboard Enabled
• A quality assurance and testing program for
  Building Blocks

4
Terminology

• Building Block Types
• Plug-in
• Stand alone
• Communicate only with Learning System
• Bridge
• Communicates with external server(s) and Learning
  System
• Will not function without external server

5
Planning

• What are you project goals?
• What are the application requirements?
• How are you going to build your application?
• JSP? Servlet? Web Service?
• Where are you going to hook your application?
• Which APIs are you going to use?

6
Planning

• Where are you going to hook your application into
  Blackboard?

7
UI Entry Points

• New Course Tool
• New Course Communication Tool
• New Control Panel Tool
• New System Admin Tool
• New Portal Module
• New Content Type
• New User Tool

8
Entry Points

• Programmatic Entry Points
• Specified in bb-manifest.xml
• Manual Entry Points
• System Administrator created

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Course Tool

• ltlinkgt
• lttype value"tool"/gt
• ltname value"Sample Tool"/gt
• lturl value"tool_1/tool.jsp" /gt
• ltdescription value"The description of Sample
  Tool." /gt
• lticonsgt
• ltlistitem value"/images/icon.gif"/gt
• lt/iconsgt
• lt/linkgt
• Course ID is passed to page

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Course Communication Tool

• ltlinkgt
• lttype value"communication"/gt
• ltname value"Sample Communication Tool"/gt
• lturl value"communication_1/tool.jsp" /gt
• ltdescription value"The description of Sample
  Communication Tool." /gt
• lticonsgt
• ltlistitem value"images/icon.gif"/gt
• lt/iconsgt
• lt/linkgt
• Course ID is passed to page

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Course Control Panel

• ltlinkgt
• lttype value"course_tool"/gt
• ltname value"Sample Control Panel Tool"/gt
• lturl value"control_panel_1/tool.jsp" /gt
• ltdescription value"The description of Control
  Panel Tool." /gt
• lticonsgt
• ltlistitem value"images/icon.gif"/gt
• lt/iconsgt
• lt/linkgt
• Course ID is passed to page

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System Admin Panel

• ltlinkgt
• lttype value"system_tool"/gt
• ltname value"Sample Admin Panel Tool"/gt
• lturl value"admin_panel_1/tool.jsp" /gt
• ltdescription value"The description of Control
  Panel Tool." /gt
• lticonsgt
• ltlistitem value"images/icon.gif"/gt
• lt/iconsgt
• lt/linkgt
• Nothing passed to page

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Content Type

• ltcontent-handlergt
• ltname value"Sample Content"/gt
• lthandle value "resource/x-bbgs-sample"/gt
• lthttp-actionsgt
• ltcreate value"handler/create.jsp"/gt
• ltmodify value"handler/modify.jsp"/gt
• ltremove value"handler/remove.jsp"/gt
• lt/http-actionsgt
• lticonsgt
• lttoolbar value"/images/add_ch1.gif"/gt
• ltlistitem value"/images/icon.gif"/gt
• lt/iconsgt
• lt/content-handlergt
• Course ID and Container ID are passed to page

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Portal Module

• ltmodule-defsgt
• ltmodule-type ext-ref"smpl-module"
  title"Sample Module Type" uicreatable"true"gt
• ltjsp-dirgtmodulelt/jsp-dirgt
• ltjspgt
• ltviewgtview.jsplt/viewgt
• ltadmingtadmin.jsplt/admingt
• lt/jspgt
• lt/module-typegt
• lt/module-defsgt
• Nothing is passed to page

15
User Tool

• ltlinkgt
• lttype value"user_tool"/gt
• ltname value"Sample User Tool"/gt
• lturl value"user_tool_1/tool.jsp" /gt
• ltdescription value"The description of User
  Tool." /gt
• lticonsgt
• ltlistitem value"images/icon.gif"/gt
• lt/iconsgt
• lt/linkgt
• Nothing passed to page

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Custom Tab

• System admin can change the location of a tab to
  point to a Building Block

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Custom Course Link

• System admin or course instructor change add a
  Building Block to the course navigation area

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Hidden Link

• A page does not need to be in the manifest in
  order to be loaded.

19
Planning

• Which APIs are you going to use?

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API Capabilities

• Building Blocks APIs
• Announcement (read and write)
• Calendar (read and write)
• Content (read and write)
• Gradebook (read and write)
• Session (read and write)
• File system (read and write)
• User (read)
• Course (read)
• Membership (read)
• .. And Many, many more!

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API Capabilities

• How to write to User/Course/Membership?? Event
  APIs
• Event APIs use a similar data model to the
  Building Block APIs but has a different security
  model. Data object naming conventions match IMS
  structure of snapshot data.

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API Capabilities

• Event APIs
• Person (User)
• Group (Course / Organization)
• Membership
• Catalog Category
• Catalog Link
• Data Source Key

23
Planning

• Installation

24
Installation

• Only system administrators can install
• No restart required with Bb 6
• Must confirm Building Block permissions
• Often requires configuration
• Installation is through the Building Blocks
  Manager

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Building Block Manager

• Heart of the Blackboard Platform
• Controls security, permissions, and availability
• Manages the hook points within the UI
• Handles deployment

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Building Block Manager
User Interface Hooks / Availability
Context Passing
Security Manifest Controls
Deployment Tracking
API Wrappers Convenience Methods
Data Integrity Enforcement
Content
Gradebook
Announcements
User
Course
Membership
Calendar
File System
Persistence
Plugin
Security
Session
TagLib (UI)
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Building Block Manager
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Structure of Building Blocks
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Building Block Webapp

• A Building Block is a Java Web Application
  (webapp) with one extra file
• The extra file is bb-manifest.xml

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Directory Layout
Shared via web
Hidden from web
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Package Format

• A webapp is a zip file with a specific directory
  structure
• WinZip, PkZip, Javas Jar utility, or Ant will
  all create the correct package
• Even though it is a zip file, the extension does
  not matter (.zip, .war, .bb will all work)

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WEB-INF

• Hidden from web
• Contents
• web.xml
• bb-manifest.xml
• Config directory
• Classes directory
• Lib directory

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Config Directory

• Hidden from web
• Only accessible by the Building Block
• Can contain anything
• One option for storing your application data.
• No size limit

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Custom Code and Libraries

• Classes
• Stored in WEB-INF\classes
• Jars
• Stored in WEB-INF\lib
• Automatically on classpath via custom classloader

35
Manifest Structure

• bb-manifest.xml
• Set of directives the developer provides
• Building Blocks Configuration
• Application Definitions
• Content Handlers
• UI Links
• Portal Modules
• Security Declarations
• Lets Take a Look

36
bb-manifest.xml File
lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"ISO-8859-1"?gt ltmanif
estgt ltplugingt ltname value
"Blackboard Link Checker"/gt lthandle
value "link-checker"/gt ltdescription
value "This plugin is for checking and disabling
external links in Blackboard."/gt ltversion
value "2.0.4"/gt ltrequiresgt
ltbbversion value"6.0.0"/gt lt/requiresgt
ltvendorgt ltid value"bb"/gt
ltname value"Blackboard Research and
Development"/gt lturl
value"http//www.blackboard.com/" /gt
ltdescription value"Blackboard Research and
Development Team" /gt lt/vendorgt
lthttp-actionsgt ltconfig
value"admin/config.jsp"/gt ltremove
value"admin/remove.jsp"/gt
lt/http-actionsgt ltapplication-defsgt
ltapplication handle"linkchecker"
type"course" use-ssl"false" name"Link Checker"
can-allow-guest"true" small-icon""
large-icon""gt
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bb-manifest.xml File
lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"ISO-8859-1"?gt ltmanif
estgt ltplugingt ltname value
"Blackboard Link Checker"/gt lthandle
value "link-checker"/gt ltdescription
value "This plugin is for checking and disabling
external links in Blackboard."/gt ltversion
value "2.0.4"/gt ltrequiresgt
ltbbversion value"6.0.0"/gt lt/requiresgt
ltvendorgt ltid value"bb"/gt
ltname value"Blackboard Research and
Development"/gt lturl
value"http//www.blackboard.com/" /gt
ltdescription value"Blackboard Research and
Development Team" /gt lt/vendorgt
lthttp-actionsgt ltconfig
value"admin/config.jsp"/gt ltremove
value"admin/remove.jsp"/gt
lt/http-actionsgt ltapplication-defsgt
ltapplication handle"linkchecker"
type"course" use-ssl"false" name"Link Checker"
can-allow-guest"true" small-icon""
large-icon""gt
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bb-manifest.xml File
ltapplication-defsgt
ltapplication handle"linkchecker" type"course"
use-ssl"false" name"Link Checkergt
ltdescription lang"en_US"gtLink Checker tool
installed with the Link Checker
Pluginlt/descriptiongt ltlinksgt
ltlinkgt lttype
value"course_tool"/gt ltname
value"Link Checker"/gt lturl
value"links/checklinks.jsp" /gt
ltdescription value"Checks and disables links in
Blackboard." /gt lticonsgt
ltlistitem value"images/link-logo.gif"/gt
lt/iconsgt
lt/linkgt lt/linksgt
lt/applicationgt lt/application-defsgt
ltpermissionsgt
ltpermission type"persist" name"Content"
actions"modify"/gt ltpermission
type"attribute" name"user.authinfo"
actions"get"/gt ltpermission
type"socket" name"" actions"connect"/gt
lt/permissionsgt lt/plugingt lt/manifestgt
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bb-manifest.xml File
ltapplication-defsgt
ltapplication handle"linkchecker" type"course"
use-ssl"false" name"Link Checkergt
ltdescription lang"en_US"gtLink Checker tool
installed with the Link Checker
Pluginlt/descriptiongt ltlinksgt
ltlinkgt lttype
value"course_tool"/gt ltname
value"Link Checker"/gt lturl
value"links/checklinks.jsp" /gt
ltdescription value"Checks and disables links in
Blackboard." /gt lticonsgt
ltlistitem value"images/link-logo.gif"/gt
lt/iconsgt
lt/linkgt lt/linksgt
lt/applicationgt lt/application-defsgt
ltpermissionsgt
ltpermission type"persist" name"Content"
actions"modify"/gt ltpermission
type"attribute" name"user.authinfo"
actions"get"/gt ltpermission
type"socket" name"" actions"connect"/gt
lt/permissionsgt lt/plugingt lt/manifestgt
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bb-manifest.xml File
ltapplication-defsgt
ltapplication handle"linkchecker" type"course"
use-ssl"false" name"Link Checkergt
ltdescription lang"en_US"gtLink Checker tool
installed with the Link Checker
Pluginlt/descriptiongt ltlinksgt
ltlinkgt lttype
value"course_tool"/gt ltname
value"Link Checker"/gt lturl
value"links/checklinks.jsp" /gt
ltdescription value"Checks and disables links in
Blackboard." /gt lticonsgt
ltlistitem value"images/link-logo.gif"/gt
lt/iconsgt
lt/linkgt lt/linksgt
lt/applicationgt lt/application-defsgt
ltpermissionsgt
ltpermission type"persist" name"Content"
actions"modify"/gt ltpermission
type"attribute" name"user.authinfo"
actions"get"/gt ltpermission
type"socket" name"" actions"connect"/gt
lt/permissionsgt lt/plugingt lt/manifestgt
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Security Framework

• Security must be explicitly declared in the
  bb-manifest.xml file.
• XML Format corresponds closely with the format
  for Standard Java policy files
• Security will be enforced by the JVM

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UI Taglibs

• XML style tags that can be placed on a jsp page.
• Blackboard supplies two sets of taglibs
• bbUI for making pages fit in with the product
• bbData for giving pages context and virtual
  installation information
• Specify your own in web.xml

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More information

• Building Blocks Website http//www.blackboard.com/
  developers/
• Building Blocks Catalog
• Software Development Kit (SDK)
• Blackboard Developer Network (BbDN)http//behind.
  blackboard.com/
• Learning System Developer License
• Communities, Knowledge Base, Code Snippets, White
  Papers, Beta Software
• Other Community Resources
• Open Source User Group and BBUG forums
  http//www.bb-opensource.org/

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Why Start from Scratch?

• Start with a sample Building Block
• Reuse existing code
• Customize to meet your needs

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Enough of the theory!
Lets take a look at some real code
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Questions?