A ticket landed at the DBA’s feet having to do with users not being able to login after logout. My first thought was it had to be the custom login page. So I recommended the Branding settings be checked that the same file id was used for both the login and logout pages. They were.…
Last week I posted on how to verify the cookie domain on nodes not just looking in the Ear file on the admin node. That same concept has another cool use: Verifying which VSTs the nodes actually have. Typically one-off updates from Blackboard has us run the updateWebctEar to replace classes in the war file.…
A couple thoughts about problems with Blackboard’s SafeAssign product. The product appears to be designed to be used by a single institution learning context from CE/Vista systems. We have an institution (InstA) which hosts collaborative programs. Faculty quite reasonably would like to use SafeAssign at InstA just like they do at their home institution (InstB). It appears…
Just finished a Oracle WebLogic Server 11g: Administration Essentials class today. So there are lots of things floating about in my head I want try. (Thankfully we have lots of development clusters for me to break beyond repair. Kidding. Sorta.) One of the common support questions Blackboard asks for those of us CE/Vista clients running…
One of the common complaints instructors have about CE/Vista is the Tracking reports don’t have recent enough data. They are shown this for selecting the date range. Including here the most recent time the tracking was processed (which the application already displays to the server administrator in background jobs) would help the instructor know whether…
Earlier today, Blackboard announced the keynote will be given by Anya Kamenetz, author of DIY U as the DevCon keynote. It continues the tradition of ironic keynote speakers in even years: 2008 Michael Wesch who spoke on how the traditional one-to-many classroom model isn’t good for helping students learn. The two LMS products Blackboard makes…
There was an interesting question the other day about a student claiming CE/Vista lost the draft a student wrote. The administrator, Michael Scalero, wanted to know how we “administrators recover or assist users in gaining access to the content that the students (or instructors) have saved”. Part of my response was, Besides, CE/Vista isn’t designed for administrators…
The highest revision of Oracle database supported by Blackboard for CE/Vista is 10g. Wondering if other Bb clients have noticed Oracle 10g leaves Premier Support on July 31, 2010. The first year of Extended SUpport fees are waived, so July 31, 2011 we’ll have to start paying extra money to Oracle unless Blackboard starts supporting…
Note we don’t usually run single installs. Previous work with clustered installs didn’t present this issue that I know. First run of Blackboard CE/Vista 8 Service Pack 3 Hoftfix 1 installer on a single install gave me: Installation error. Cannot install Java as target directory already exists – /path/to/node/jdk150_13 The installer hung because it went…