Blackboard Building Blocks™: Data Integration and Administration Raymond Peterson, Blackboard, Inc.

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Overview –Background –APIs –Security and Context –Calling the Event APIs –Demonstration –Summary

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 –Don’t 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

Which API is that? blackboard.*Building Block API blackboard.admin.* Release 6 Event API com.blackboard.event.*Bb 5.5 Event API (deprecated)

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.

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

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

Building Block vs Event API Event API persisters are NOT sub-classes of the Building Block API persisters. blackboard.persist.user Interface UserDbLoader All Superinterfaces: –blackboard.persist.Loader blackboard.admin.persist.user Interface PersonLoader All Superinterfaces: –blackboard.persist.Loader

Event API Packages Packages contained in cms-admin.jar

blackboard.admin.data.user Person –Inherits from blackboard.data.user.User –Batch UID (Unique Identifier) is the external system’s primary key blackboard.admin.data. user

blackboard.admin.data.course CourseSite, Organization –Inherits from blackboard.data.course.Course StaffAssignment, Organization Membership –Inherits from blackboard.data.course.CourseMembership Enrollment –Role is Student only blackboard.admin.data. course

blackboard.admin.data.category CourseCategory, OrganizationCategory –Represents a category in a Course or Organization catalog CourseCategoryMembership, OrganizationCategoryMembership –Ties courses and organizations together with Categories blackboard.admin.data. category

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

blackboard.admin.persist.user PersonLoader –Load by BatchUID, Template PersonPersister –changeKey, insert, remove, save, update blackboard.admin.persist. user

blackboard.admin.persist.course CourseSiteLoader, Organization Loader –Load by BatchUID –Load by Template EnrollmentLoader, OrganizationMembershipLoader, StaffAssignmentLoader CourseSitePersister, Organization Persister blackboard.admin.persist. course

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, CloneConfigCloneConfig cfg) Tip: The CloneConfig object controls what areas of a course are copied.

Other Packages blackboard.admin.persist.category blackboard.admin.persist.role blackboard.admin.persist.datasource

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

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 );

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.init( configFile ); –BbServiceManager then allows access to the other services, such as Persistence to create loaders and persisters. –BbPersistenceManager bbPm = BbServiceManager.getPersistenceService(). getDbPersistenceManager(); –Should explicitly close the BbServiceManager –BbServiceManager.shutdown();

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", bbProps.setProperty("remote.access.domain","server.dc.blackboard.co m"); BbServiceManager.init( configFile, bbProps );... BbServiceManager.shutdown();

Security and Context –Initialise context from the VI with BbServiceManager ContextManagerServerImpl cMgr VirtualInstallationManager vMgr = null; VirtualHost vHost = null; try { cMgr = (ContextManagerServerImpl)BbServiceManager. lookupService( ContextManager.class ); vMgr = (VirtualInstallationManager)BbServiceManager. lookupService( VirtualInstallationManager.class ); vHost = vMgr.getVirtualHost("server.dc.blackboard.com"); cMgr.setContext(vHost); } catch (Exception e) { throw e; }... cMgr.releaseContext();

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. <% // BbServiceManager is available to create other services BbPersistenceManager bbPm = BbServiceManager.getPersistenceService().getDbPersistence Manager();... %> –Use extreme care if including Event API calls in Building Blocks! Include checks on who can access the pages, confirmation pages on deletes, etc.

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!!!

Demonstration

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