Blackboard Knowledge Forum Request

From AnalysisWiki

Jump to: navigation, search

KFR Requirements:

  • Only available to instructors of OISE courses
  • Discussed this further and decided this will be determined via a web services query to somewhere. This will be provided via Ed commons in some form (Mark to let Laurel know this info).
  • Available from a course control panel.
  • REST protocol based call is made to a web service which then completes the request and returns a "pending" notification. If button is pressed again, the script should handle it and continue to return "pending" notification. Once script has fully processed then accessing this web service should return some sort of "ready" message. Ideally we will try to complete the process in one request so we don't have to deal with the pending/ready issue.
  • Interface consists of message information and a button or link to "Request Knowledge Forum access for this course".

Note: Completing the request via system calls consists of: (1) create a new Knowledge Forum database using KF46create, (2) update the config file by adding an appropriate line in the Databases section, and (3) kill -HUP the server

  • may also wish to include instructions on how to make the other KF student tools available to students via the "course options: manage tools: Building Block Tool Availability" link.

REST protocol

  • Request a database - post

parameters are: (1) instructor name - does this mean the instructor username from BB, surname, etc.? (2) course code (3) session id (4) year (5) a unique hash code for security ...waiting to find out if there are more parameters required. 

curl -d "course_cd=code&course_section=L0101&course_instructor=&FullName&session_term=Fall&session_year=2007" http://<URL>/ole/ole_ws.php
    • response on success if the db is being created but is not complete

- a 202 Accepted status code also seems appropriate to return here - see http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<result course_cd="code" course_section="L0101" instructor="FullName" session_term="Fall" session_year="2007">
       pending
</result>

- This should also be returned if the user makes subsequent requests (i.e. if instructor presses the button more than once).

    • response on success if the db has already been created.

- a 201 Created status code also seems appropriate to return here - see http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<result course_cd="code" course_section="L0101" instructor="FullName" session_term="Fall" session_year="2007">
       ready
</result>
    • response on failure

- 400 Bad Request would be appropriate if there was a problem with the request/ - not sure what to respond if there is a problem with the script - probably just use the error message. On failure: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<result course_cd="code" course_section="L0101" instructor="FullName" session_term="Fall" session_year="2007">
       error_msg
</result>
Retrieved from "http://analysis.ikit.org/w/index.php/Blackboard_Knowledge_Forum_Request"
Personal tools