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Audience B2 Developers that want to create Portal Modules Java/JSP Programmers Some knowledge of B2 Programming …Or Just Interested to see what’s possible with Portal Modules
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Portal Modules & Module Types
Heather NatourSenior Software Engineer, Blackboard Community System
Road Map
What are Portals? Module Types Creating Modules API
Audience
B2 Developers that want to create Portal Modules Java/JSP Programmers Some knowledge of B2 Programming …Or Just Interested to see what’s possible with Portal
Modules
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”
Example of a “sticky” Portal
Blackboard Portal ComponentsTab
ModuleModule Edit
MinimizeDelete
Contents Layout
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
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
Manage Modules Page
Admin
Creating Module Types
JSP is easiest Tags Provided for Edit and Admin Pages (more info in
Dev Guide)– modulePersonalizationPage– modulePersonalizationReceipt– moduleAdminPage– moduleAdminReceipt
Portal API
Java Class: CustomData In package blackboard.portal.external Javadoc available in SDK
Portal API
CustomData data = CustomData.getModuleData(pageContext);
String text = data.getValue(“body.lunchMenu”); String text = data.getValue(“body.type”);
To get the Global CustomData for a module, use getModuleData(context)
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();
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
<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>
Put it in a System Extension Package JSPs in /module directory
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
Creating a Module
Module is packaged as a standard Building Blocks Package
bb-manifest.xml– module– channel
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>
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>
Specifying a Module
Can also optionally specify Portal Roles (Primary and Secondary)
<module-groups> <module-group id=“student"/> <module-group id=“faculty"/></module-groups>
Demonstration!
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