Blackboard Building Blocks

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Blackboard Building BlocksData Integration and
Administration

• Raymond Peterson,
• Blackboard, Inc.

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Now a word from our lawyers

• Any statements in this presentation about future
  expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard
  and other statements containing the words
  "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects,"
  "will," and similar expressions, constitute
  forward-looking statements within the meaning of
  The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
  1995. Actual results may differ materially from
  those indicated by such forward-looking
  statements as a result of various important
  factors, including the factors discussed in the
  "Risk Factors" section of our most recent 10-K
  filed with the SEC. In addition, the
  forward-looking statements included in this press
  release represent the Company's views as of April
  11, 2005. The Company anticipates that subsequent
  events and developments will cause the Company's
  views to change. However, while the Company may
  elect to update these forward-looking statements
  at some point in the future, the Company
  specifically disclaims any obligation to do so.
  These forward-looking statements should not be
  relied upon as representing the Company's views
  as of any date subsequent to April 11, 2005.
  Blackboard, in its sole discretion, may delay or
  cancel the release of any product or
  functionality described in this presentation.

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Overview

• Background
• APIs
• Security and Context
• Calling the Event APIs
• Demonstration
• Summary

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Background

• Event API is the oldest public API in Blackboard
  Learning System
• First released with Blackboard5 version 5.5
• Same data model as the Snapshot data integration
  - IMS 1.2 Enterprise Specification
• Dont confuse this with Event Triggers/Callbacks
  This is a Java API only
• New API packages in Release 6, brought into line
  with Blackboard Building Blocks API
• Integration password new in Release 6 for remote
  client capability

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Which API is that?

• blackboard. Building Block API
• blackboard.admin. Release 6 Event API
• com.blackboard.event. Bb 5.5 Event
  API (deprecated)

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Event API in a Nutshell

• Similar data model as Building Block API
• Two main types of objects in the API
• entities (objects)
• persisters (actions)
• Entities include the objects that represent data
  in the system, such as users.
• Persisters are behind-the-scenes methods that
  handle the storage of the entities into a
  persistent store or transient data format.

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Event API Entities

• IMS specification five entities
• Person (User)
• Course / Organization
• Enrollment / Staff assignment / Organization
  membership
• Course / organization category
• Course / organization category membership
• Additional Blackboard-specific entities
• Data Source
• Portal Role Membership

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Building Block vs Event API

• Event API entities are sub-classes of the
  Building Block API entities.
• All entities include rowStatus attribute (e.g.,
  getRowStatus(), setRowStatus()) not found on core
  data entities
• java.lang.Object -blackboard.data.BbObject
  -blackboard.data.user.UserInfo
  -blackboard.data.user.User
  -blackboard.admin.data.user.Person

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Building Block vs Event API

• Event API persisters are NOT sub-classes of the
  Building Block API persisters.
• blackboard.persist.user Interface
  UserDbLoaderAll Superinterfaces
• blackboard.persist.Loader
• blackboard.admin.persist.user Interface
  PersonLoader All Superinterfaces
• blackboard.persist.Loader

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Event API Packages

• Packages contained in cms-admin.jar

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blackboard.admin.data.user

• Person
• Inherits from blackboard.data.user.User
• Batch UID (Unique Identifier) is the external
  systems primary key

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blackboard.admin.data.course

• CourseSite, Organization
• Inherits from blackboard.data.course.Course
• StaffAssignment, Organization Membership
• Inherits from blackboard.data.course.CourseMembers
  hip
• Enrollment
• Role is Student only

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blackboard.admin.data.category

• CourseCategory, OrganizationCategory
• Represents a category in a Course or Organization
  catalog
• CourseCategoryMembership, OrganizationCategoryMemb
  ership
• Ties courses and organizations together with
  Categories

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Data Source

• Programmatic equivalent of same entity in
  Snapshot
• Explicit instance of the sourcedid attribute
  from the IMS specification
• Used to group logically related entities
• For example
• Group users by term
• Group courses by term
• Group by college
• or whatever
• Always a default SYSTEM data source

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blackboard.admin.persist.user

• PersonLoader
• Load by BatchUID, Template
• PersonPersister
• changeKey, insert, remove, save, update

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blackboard.admin.persist.course

• CourseSiteLoader, Organization Loader
• Load by BatchUID
• Load by Template
• EnrollmentLoader, OrganizationMembershipLoader,
  StaffAssignmentLoader
• CourseSitePersister, Organization Persister

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blackboard.admin.persist.course

• In addition to typical persister operations,
  CourseSitePersister can perform a clone operation
  (Course Copy)

public void clone( java.lang.String srcCrsBatchUid
, java.lang.String tgtCrsBatchUid,
CloneConfig cfg)
Tip The CloneConfig object controls what areas
of a course are copied.
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Other Packages

• blackboard.admin.persist.category
• blackboard.admin.persist.role
• blackboard.admin.persist.datasource

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Persistence Operations

• Persistence operations (load and store) are what
  differentiate the Admin APIs from the Blackboard
  Building Block APIs
• More flexible than the Blackboard Building Block
  APIs, which just do persist() (insert vs. update)
• Smart update
• Update only those attributes that are explicitly
  set
• Change Key update the batchUID for a new
  value from the external system (User only)
• Derived from snapshot operation

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Persistence Operations

• Template loads
• Create a data object that looks like the data
  you want to return
• Can use SQL wildcards, closest thing to ad hoc
  queries we have
• Use with care

PersonLoader pLoader pLoader
(PersonLoader) bbPm.getLoader(PersonLoader.TYPE)
Person template new Person()
template.setFamilyName( B ) List list
pLoader.load( template )
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Security and Context

• No security manager or permissions manifest
• Initialize the BbServiceManager from system
  properties
• String configFile "c/blackboard/config/service
  -config-standalone.properties"BbServiceManager.i
  nit( configFile )
• BbServiceManager then allows access to the other
  services, such as Persistence to create loaders
  and persisters.
• BbPersistenceManager bbPm BbServiceManager.getPe
  rsistenceService().getDbPersistenceManager()
• Should explicitly close the BbServiceManager
• BbServiceManager.shutdown()

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Security and Context

• If installed remotely, also need to supply
  Integration password and VI to initialize
  BbServiceManager (same as required to run the
  Snapshot Client remotely)
• String configFile "c/blackboard/config/service
  -config-standalone.properties"
• Properties bbProps new Properties()
• bbProps.setProperty("remote.access.password",
  "InTeGr_at_i0n")
• bbProps.setProperty("remote.access.domain","server
  .dc.blackboard.com")
• BbServiceManager.init( configFile, bbProps )
• ...
• BbServiceManager.shutdown()

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Security and Context

• Initialise context from the VI with
  BbServiceManager
• ContextManagerServerImpl cMgr
• VirtualInstallationManager vMgr null
• VirtualHost vHost null
• try
• cMgr (ContextManagerServerImpl)BbServiceMa
  nager. lookupService(
  ContextManager.class )
• vMgr (VirtualInstallationManager)BbService
  Manager. lookupService(
  VirtualInstallationManager.class )
• vHost vMgr.getVirtualHost("server.dc.black
  board.com")
• cMgr.setContext(vHost)
• catch (Exception e)
• throw e
• ...
• cMgr.releaseContext()

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Security and Context

• The Event APIs can also be called from within a
  Building Block. In this case, the Building Block
  API contains taglibs to initialize the
  BbServiceManager and Context.
• lt_at_ taglib uri"/bbData" prefix"bbData"gt
• ltbbDatacontextgt
• lt
• // BbServiceManager is available to create other
  services
• BbPersistenceManager bbPm BbServiceManager.getPe
  rsistenceService().getDbPersistenceManager()
• ...
• gt
• lt/bbDatacontextgt
• Use extreme care if including Event API calls in
  Building Blocks! Include checks on who can
  access the pages, confirmation pages on deletes,
  etc.

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Calling the Event APIs

• Write a Java app that runs on the Blackboard app
  server, invoked via the command line
• Write a Java app that runs on another server,
  which has the Blackboard Snapshot client called
• Write a JSP page deployed as part of a Building
  Block (Note can mix and match calls to both
  APIs)
• Write a web-service that accepts data via HTTP
• Write RPC wrappers for an external system to
  invoke
• and the possibilities are endless!!!

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Demonstration
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Summary

• Blackboard Event APIs allow access to perform
  data integration tasks, via a Java API
• The Event API contains a number of interfaces to
  control Bb entities
• The Event API can be called from any Java
  environment, including a Blackboard Building
  Block
• For further information, see
• Advanced Integration and Data Management Manual
• Administrative API Specifications
• Download from http//behind.blackboard.com/