The very first article posted in this category will give you a step-by-step instruction about how to set up a Blackboard Academic Suite development environment on your local computer.
Generally speaking, Blackboard Academic Suite contains three major parts: Learning System, Community System, and Content Management System. The following guide should be suitable for any combination. Due to the copy right issue, I cannot post any screenshots.
System Specification
- Operating System: Windows XP sp2
- Database Management System: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express
- Configuration: One server (Blackboard Academic Suite and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express)
- Blackboard Academic Suite 7.2.x
- JDK: J2SE Development Kit 5.0 Update 11 (JDK-1.5.0_11)
- License: Blackboard Academic Suite Development License (Depending on the license you’ve got)
1. Get the latest copy of JDK5
Download the latest JDK 1.5 (1.5.0_11) for Windows platform fromhttp://java.sun.com/.
2. Install JDK
Please DO NOT use the default installation path (C:\ProgramFiles\). The name of installation directory cannot contain space, or Blackboard installation may fail.
Use C:\java\jdk5 for JDK installation and C:\java\jre5 for JRE installation.
3. Add environment variable JAVA_HOME
Add environment variable JAVA_HOME and set its value to C:\java\jdk5: right-click ‘My Computer’ and choose ‘Properties’.
4. Add JDK binaries to environment variable PATH
Add C:\java\jdk5\bin to environment variable PATH: right-click ‘My Computer’ and choose ‘Properties’. Click ‘Environment Variables’ in Advanced tab. Find the PATH variable under System Variables.
5. Test your JDK installation
Open a ‘Command Prompt’, type in the following command:
java -version
Check the result and make sure JDK 1.5.0_11 has been successfully installed.
Windows System Setup (Log in your computer using local administrator account)
1. Create local blackboard user
Create a new blackboard user using the ‘Administrative Tools/Computer Management’ from Control Panel.
In the ‘Local Users and Groups’ section, right-click ‘Users’ and choose ‘New Users…’ to create a local account.
Set the password for blackboard user and uncheck the ‘User must change password at next login’ option.
2. Add blackboard to local Administrator group
Right-click the newly created ‘blackboard’ user and choose ‘Properties’ in the pop-up menu.
Click ‘Add…’ button in ‘Member of’ tab. Click ‘Advanced..’ button in the pop-up ‘Select Groups’ window.
Click ‘Find Now’ button in the pop-up ‘Select Groups’ window. All the available groups should be displayed at the bottom. The ‘Administrators’ group should be the first one in the list. Highlight it and click ‘OK’.
Click ‘OK’ buttons to close all the windows.
3. Create blackboard installation directory
Create blackboard installation directory C:\blackboard. Please add this directory and all its sub-directories to AntiVirus software exclusion list.
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Setup (Log in your computer using local blackboard account)
Notice
Before installation, please make sure that you have successfully logged in your computer using local blackboard account. The blackboard account should be a member of local Administrator group.
1. Enable IIS service
Open the ‘Add or Remove Program’ window by clicking ‘Add or Remove Program’ in Control Panel.
Click ‘Add/Remove Windows Components’ on the left. Choose ‘Internet Information Services (IIS)’ in the components list (use the default configurations), and click ‘Next’ button.
The configuration process will then ask you to insert Windows XP sp2 CD. Once the required file has been located, the configuration will finish automatically.
2. Check IIS service configuration
Open your web browser and input http://localhost/ as URL. The default IIS welcome page will display.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Installation (Log in your computer using local blackboard account)
Notice
Before installation, please make sure that you have successfully logged in your computer using local blackboard account. The blackboard account should be a member of local Administrator group.
1. Copy the installer
Copy the installer to a temporary folder.
2. Create installation directory
Create the installation directory. Please make sure the directory name does not contain any space or your Blackboard Academic Suite installation may fail.
Create C:\mssql directory.
3. Install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express
The installer will check your system configuration. Normally, it will ask your permission to install two additional components.
When prompt, please choose input password for ’sa’ account. Please take a note of the password you just entered, you will need it during the Blackboard Academic Suite installation.
4. Configure Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express
Once the database server has been successfully installed, please open ‘SQL Server Surface Area Configuration’ from ‘Programs/Microsoft SQL Server 2005/Configuration Tools/’. Click ‘Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections’ to open ‘SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration’ window.
By default, SQL Server 2005 Express, Evaluation, and Developer editions allow local client connections only. So the default installation will set the Remote Connection of Database Engine to ‘Local connections only’. Please choose the ‘Local and remote connections/Using TCP/IP only’ option to enable local TCP/IP connection, or your Blackboard Academic Suite installation will fail.
Click ‘Apply’ button to save your change. It will display a ‘Connection Settings Change Alert’ window with following message: ‘Changes to Connection Settings will not take effect until you restart the Database Engine service.’ Please click ‘OK’ button to close the alert window.
By default, the SQL Server Browser service is disabled. Please change the ‘Startup type’ to Automatic and start the service manually. The SQL Server Browser service will then start automatically each time you start your computer.
Click ‘OK’ button to close ‘Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections’ window.
Please do not forget to restart your SQL Server service (SQLExpress) to enable local TCP/IP connection. Please right-click ‘SQL Server’ in the service window and choose ‘Restart’ (SQL Server Configuration Manager).
Blackboard Academic Suite Installation (Log in your computer using local blackboard account)
Notice
Before installation, please make sure that you have successfully logged in you computer using local blackboard account. The blackboard account should be a member of local Administrator group. Please also make sure that Internet Information Services (IIS) and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 have been successfully enabled/installed/configured using above instructions.
Please open a ‘Command Prompt’ and type in ‘ipconfig /all’. In the ‘Windows IP Configuration’ section, you could find the host name and primary DNS suffix of your machine. So the full machine name should look like ‘itcsxp.cpc.uea.ac.uk’. Blackboard Academic Suite installer will detect your network settings automatically, but you may have to type it in manually.
Before the installation, please manually create two directories: C:\blackboard (for Blackboard Academic Suite web applications and content), C:\blackboardsql (for Blackboard Academic Suite database data). You may consider to put these two directories into AntiVirus software exclusion list.
1. Download the Blackboard Academic Suite 7.2 installer
URL:
http://behind.blackboard.com/
2. Copy the installer and the license XML file
Copy the installer and the license XML file to a temporary folder.
3. Launch the installer
Run the following command to launch the blackboard installer. Before doing this, please make sure that you have logged in using local blackboard account and blackboard is a member of local Administrator group. The windows installer is GUI based.
java –jar bb-as-solaris-7.2.xx.jar
4. Blackboard Destination
The default Blackboard destination directory is C:\blackboard.
5. Installation Type
Please choose Full Installation. (AppServer Only Installation is used when installing a load-balanced system).
6. Terms & Conditions
The installer will then display the Blackboard Software License Agreement.
7. License File
Please specify the location of the license file.
8. Java Location
The installer will ask you to specify the location of Java SDK. The installer will check the JAVA_HOME environment variable to detect the default JDK location.
9. Shared Content
The installer will ask you to specify the location to store shared content. Shared Content Directory will store the content files associated with courses, images uploaded to the system, and all other files added to the system.
10. Server
The installer will ask you to specify the name of application server. The installer will detect the machine name of the server it is run on and use that to populate the default value.
11. AppServer Domain
Hit Enter to accept the default appserver domain.
12. AppServer Port Number
Hit Enter to accept the default appserver port number: 8009. This is the port that application uses for communication.
13. Mod_Perl Port Number
Hit Enter to accept the default mod_perl port number: 8008. This is a port used by mod_perl for internal communication.
14. Database
The installer will ask you to specify the details of the database server. The default hostname is the local machine.
15. Database Instance Name
Type in the database instance name: SQLExpress (if the default database instance name has not been changed during SQL server installation).
16. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 System Administrator Password
Please use the one you created during Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express installation.
17. Blackboard Database User Password
That is the password used by Blackboard Academic Suite.
18. Blackboard Database Report User Password
That is the password used by Blackboard Academic Suite.
19. Collab Server Machine Name
This should be same as your local machine name.
20. Collab Server TCP/IP Port Number
Collaboration Server TCP/IP Port: 8010
21. Collab Server HTTP Port Number
Collaboration Server HTTP Port: 8011
22. Mod_Perl Port Number
Mod Perl Port Number: 8008
23. SMTP Server
SMTP server: you SMTP server address.
24. Blackboard Administrator Account Password
This is the password for Blackboard Academic Suite ‘administrator’ account.
25. Blackboard root_administrator Account Password
This is the password for Blackboard Academic Suite ‘root’ account.
26. Blackboard Integration Account Password
This is the password for Blackboard Academic Suite ‘integration’ account.
27. Administrator Name
Blackboard Academic Suite administrator name.
28. Administrator Email
Blackboard Academic Suite administrator email address.
29. Institution Name
Institution Name: Your institution name.
30. City
City: Your city.
31. Post Code
Post Code: Your post code.
32. State
State: Your state.
33. Country
Country: Your country.
After Installation Configuration (Please log in your computer using local blackboard account)
If the installation finished successfully, you have to disable the default IIS web site.
Please open the ‘Internet Information Services’ window (Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Internet Information Services).
You should see two Web Sites listed under your local computer. Please right-click ‘Default Web Site’ and choose ‘Stop’ to stop the default web site. Please make sure the ‘blackboard_bb_bb60′ web site is running.
Now you should have an instance of Blackboard Academic Suite running on your local computer.
Java IDE Setup (Eclipse)
1. Download Eclipse SDK
Please go to Eclipse.org website to download the latest Eclipse SDK (Eclipse SDK 3.2.2 as the time of writing). The URL is:
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
2. Configure Eclipse
Please extract the Eclipse zip file to your local file system. The default directory should be ‘eclipse’. You may consider add the ‘eclipse’ folder to your AntiVirus exclusion list.
The default Eclipse JVM setting may not be enough to process large project. So you may consider modify the settings by changing the variable values in eclipse.ini file. For example, your eclipse.ini could be changed to this:
-vmargs
-Xms64m
-Xmx512m
-XX:PermSize=64m
-XX:MaxPermSize=160m
3. Install Eclipse Plugins
The default Eclipse SDK installation does not support JavaEE development. You have to download an official Eclipse plugin from Eclipse Web Tools Project to enable such support. Please open the Install/Update window by go to ‘Help/Software Update/Find and Install…’, and choose ‘Search for new features to install’ option. There should be an Update site called ‘Callisto Discovery Site’ displayed in the update site list. Please choose it and click ‘Finish’ button.
In the ‘Update Site Mirrors’ window, please choose the default ‘UK Mirror Service’ and click OK button.
In the ‘Search Results’ window, you should be able to see a list of features available for your Eclipse SDK. Please choose ‘Web and JEE Development’ at the bottom of the list, and click ‘Select Required’ button on the right.
Eclipse Update Manager will download and install the plugins you have chosen after you click the ‘Next’ button.
When the installation is finished, Eclipse SDK will ask for your permission to restart Eclipse SDK.
After the restart, you should get a Java web development enabled Eclipse IDE.
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