bb tour anz 2017 - workshop - integration strategies

Michael Garner

Senior Solutions Engineer, APAC

Integration Strategies in Blackboard Learn

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Philosophy of Integration Evolution

Strong comittment to supporting the development community that dates back to 2003

With our commitment to deliver Learn on SaaS and with the Ultra experience, we are significantly improving the user experience

To support that experience, we’re delivering a new integration model – Representational State Transfer (REST)

To do that, we’ve launched a new Bb Developer Platform, an API gateway, and a developer forum on Bb Community.

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The Integration Landscape

Learn now has a number of approaches to integration capabilities available now

They each have their pros and cons which impact your decision to use one over the other

IMS LTI Integration

Strategic partnership with publishers / Content MarketWide variety of Integration options through APIs (Building Blocks)

REST / SOAP Web Services

Admin Integration Frameworks (SIS, Grades Journey)

IntegrationFramework

The Integration Landscape

The Integration Landscape

IMS Global Consortium standard

Vendor agnostic remote, out-of-process tool communication

Consumer/Provider model – Blackboard Learn is a consumer

Tool links can be registered system-wide or at the course level

LTI – Learning Tools Interoperability

Built around Blackboard’s proprietary Java API – requires Java

Apps installed into the application via a customer GUI in the Admin panel

Run in-process as part of Blackboard Learn

Deployment points and tag libraries allow Building Blocks to create pages that render in Learn

The Integration Landscape

Building Block APIs

Building Block APIshttp://www.blackboard.com/partnerships/extensions.aspx

http://projects.oscelot.org/gf/project/

Course Catalog B2

• Creates a catalog of browsable courses

• Course tool configuration

Building Block APIs

https://community.blackboard.com/docs/DOC-1115

Building Block APIs

• Development in Java

• Installed into Learn

Building Block APIs

The Integration Landscape

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SOAP Web Services

XML-encoded method calls sent over HTTP

UDDI for service discover, WSDL for service description

Consumer/Provider model – Blackboard Learn can be either

Provide a limited set of APIs compared to Building Blocks

SOAP Web Services

The Integration Landscape

RESTAn architectural style of building web services

REST APIs are integration interfaces built using REST principles

Blackboard REST APIs are not just for Learn – other cloud products

Runs out-of-process – nothing is installed in the Learn instance

Programing language agnostic

REST - /learn/api/public/v1/users

REST - /learn/api/public/v1/users/userName:mgarner

Grades Journey – supporting assessment & grades management

HR/ERP

Library

Timetable

SIS

Grades Column

Provisioning

GradesExchange

Flat File, SOAP or REST web services

Blackboard Confidential

• Grades approval,release

• Optional read-onlyafter post

Tools to manage your REST Integrationhttps://developer.blackboard.com/portal/displayApi

Open API

Examples of data structures- oAuth- Users- Courses- Content and Assignments- Enrolments- Groups- Grades- Data sources

Tools to manage your REST Integration

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The full range of options

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Choosing the Right Path

User Experience: Original or Ultra

Target Platform: 9.1 or SaaS

Architectural Goals: In or Out of Process

• You have a full range of options for how you integrate with Learn – some older, some newer

• Each option has pros and cons that will impact your decision as to which to use

• The approach to take depends on three major factors

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Choosing the Right Path: Target Platform

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For integrations to work in SaaS – Original Experience

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For integrations to work in SaaS + Ultra Experience

REST API Roadmap

Available now Developer Platform API Gateway Learn APIs Content (3000.1) Courses (3000.1) Data Sources (3000.1) Gradebook (3000.11) Memberships (3000.1) Terms (3000.1) Users (3000.1)

In Research Learn APIs Accessibility Announcements Assessments Assignments Attempts Calendar

Collaborate and Transact APIs

Discussions Events Groups Hierarchy Localization

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ResourcesDeveloper Portal: https://developer.blackboard.com Latest APIs: https://developer.blackboard.com/portal/displayApiSample Code: https://github.com/search?q=blackboard+REST+BBDN-&type=Repositories&ref=searchresultsREST Community Site: https://community.blackboard.com/community/developers/restThe REST API Architecture: https://community.blackboard.com/docs/DOC-1733Setting up Learn to use your REST Integration: https://community.blackboard.com/docs/DOC-1580DVM Object Gen: https://github.com/blackboard/BBDN-LearnObjectGen_Python

Contact Us: developers@blackboard.com

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Open Discussion

What are some of your integration challenges?

How could Blackboard provide a better integration experience?

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Open Discussion

How could Blackboard provide a better integration experience?

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Questions?

For more information please contact me:

Michael.Garner@blackboard.com

@mikegarnr