Developing Blackboard Building Blocks 
Blackboard Building Blocks
Practical Exercises
Note: some starter files are the same as the solution
Please keep in mind these are simple sample code and we are not responsible for any repercusion on utilization of the code below.
The zipped files are from Eclipse projects. You may create a new Eclipse project and then copy the files into your workspace. All these exercises come from the Tutorial please read it to better understand each exercise.
Click here to download a building block that displays all courses for a given user.
Click here to learn more about the configuration file bbmanifest.xml.
| Objective | Instructions | Starter Files | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Download below | Download below | ||
| Basic Course Tool | Download and unzip b2WS-01.zip
|
b2WS-01.zip | b2WS-01.zip |
| Course Tool: Display User Information |
Download b2WS-02.zip Modify the .jsp file to display User information from the current context Update the bb-manifest.xml file Create package (.zip) Install Test, Revise, Reinstall |
b2WS-02.zip | b2WS-02.zip |
| Course Tool: Form Input | Download b2WS-03.zip Modify the .jsp file to display a customized form with Title Bar and icon Bread Crumb Bar 2 Steps with text and input fields Submit Step |
b2WS-03.zip | b2WS-03.zip |
| Course Control Panel |
Download and extract the starter package b2WS-05ControlPanel.zip Modify bb-manifest.xml with your vendor id Repackage and install Add a breadcrumbBar and a titleBar Add a FORM that calls another jsp Make a hidden field with the courseId Create the second jsp and retrieve the courseID from the previous page |
b2WS-05ControlPanel.zip | b2WS-05ControlPanel.zip |
| List All Courses for a User |
Download and extract the starter package b2WS-06-UserPicker.zip Modify bb-manifest.xml with your vendor id Repackage, install Instantiate a User object with the username selected (hint: UserDbLoader class) Display a heading in step 2 with personal data for the selected user selected, e.g. “Courses for FirstName LastName:” Find the class and method you will need to retrieve all the courses for the selected user. |
b2WS-06-UserPicker.zip | b2WS-06-UserPicker.zip |
| User list and listElement |
Download b2WS-07-CourseList.zip Replace the out.print display of courses for a given user with a tabular display. Use bbUI tags list and listElement Continue to display a column for the first instructor’s name Bonus: Display all instructors for each course. Use a nested iterator. To thoroughly test your building block, remember to enroll students and instructors in your courses |
b2WS-07-CourseList.zip | b2WS-07-CourseList.zip |
| Administration Panel | 1. Download b2WS-08-ReplaceInstructor.zip
2. Suppose an instructor leaves the institution mid-semester. The substitute needs to take over all his or her Blackboard Courses. 3.Write a Building Block that replaces the substitute as the instructor in all the departing instructor’s courses. |
b2WS-08-ReplaceInstructor.zip | b2WS-08-ReplaceInstructor.zip |
| Course Content |
1. Download b2WS-09-CourseContent.zip 2. Install the zipped file above 3. Go to Control Panel/Content Areas/Course Documents 4. On the Drop Down Menu select the Demo Course Content then click Go 5.Create a new document and submit 6.You have just created a new document in the “Course Documents” |
b2WS-09-CourseContent.zip | b2WS-09-CourseContent.zip |
Community System: Hello World Module Example |
1. Download b2WS-10-ComSystemModule.zip 2. Install 3. Test the new module |
b2WS-10-ComSystemModule.zip | b2WS-10-ComSystemModule.zip |