System Announcement Shutdown Hack

Here’s how to get started using Google Analytics in Blackboard

1. Register with Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/).
   1. Identify a test server outside your firewall and note its domain name.
   2. Create a Google Analytics Account.
   3. Register the domain name of your server through the Google
   4. Analytics setup pages.
   5. Save the script provided by Google Analytics.
2. Open <sharedDir>/web_analytics/googleAnalyticsSnippet.vm (For example c:/blackboard/content/web_analytics/googleAnalyticsSnippet.vm), paste your script, and save the file.
3. You can restart Blackboard Learn Services for the changes to take effect immediately or wait until the .vm file cache is refreshed, once every 12 hours.

At this point, every page that loads will include the code that you pasted into googleAnalyticsSnippet.vm.  Give it a try, I’ll wait. Neat.  Wait a few days, and you’ll have wonderfully rich analytics to pour over. Now, let’s get funky.  Think about this for a second.  You can paste ANYTHING YOU WANT into googleAnalyticsSnippet.vm, and it will get inserted into every page that loads within Blackboard.  What else could you put in that file? 1)  Use multiple analytics software.  There’s no reason to limit yourself to Google Analytics.  You can use Piwik (http://piwik.org/), Woopra (http://www.woopra.com/), or any other analytics tool you have access to.  You can even use more than one, just put the relevant snippets of code one after the other in the googleAnalyticsSnippet.vm file.

========= Begin Sample Google Script Code ==========
<script type="text/javascript">
 var _gaq = _gaq || [];
 _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-12312323-1']);
 _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
 (function() {
 var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type =
'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
 ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' :
'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
 var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
 })();
</script>
========= End Sample Google Script Code ==========

2)  Build an on-demand emergency notification system that can put a message on every page notifying online users of real-time problems. During normal day to day operations, no one notices anything. However, if you need to take the system down for emergency maintenance, or if there is a campus emergency and you need to alert everyone currently online, you put your message in a special text file, and it immediately begins displaying on everyone’s page. Here’s a sample of the welcome page:  https://img.skitch.com/20110421-crsyyq9cp1j3upajf1dt6f5m92.jpg Another sample of our Login page: https://img.skitch.com/20110421-n9mb7e6itwa17cxfcsiy3qaawr.jpg a)  Put this script and DIV in the googleAnalyticsSnippet.vm file. This can work along side whatever analytics code you already have in place.  Either restart Blackboard or wait 12 hours for the cache to refresh for this to take effect.

========= Begin Script Code ==========
<script type="text/javascript">
 function togglewall(){ $('wallbox').toggle(); }
 function wallrnd(){ return String((new Date()).getTime()).replace(/\D/gi,'') }
 window.onload=function(){
 url = '/wall.html?'+wallrnd();
 new Ajax.Request(url,
 {
 method:'get',
 onSuccess: function(transport){
 var response = transport.responseText;
 if(response.length > 0){
 //alert(url + "\n\n" + response);
 var wallDiv = document.getElementById("wallbox");
 wallDiv.innerHTML=response;
 togglewall();
 }
 },
 });
 }
</script>
<div id="wallbox" style="display:none;
position: absolute;
border-style:solid;
border-width:4px;
border-color:#C00;
background-color: #CA9;
left: 10px;
top: 10px;
padding: 6px;
z-index:+9999;
font-size:150%;
font-weight:bold;
font-family: sans-serif;
"></div>
========= End Script Code ==========

(b) create the empty file blackboard/docs/wall.html (c) When you have need, put your message in wall.html. Example message:  The system will be shutdown for maintenance in 10 minutes.  Please save or submit your work now or risk it being lost. The message should appear in both the top frame and the lower frame immediately the next time a page is loaded. Note:  This code does not modify the currently loaded page, it only takes effect the next time a page is loaded.  However, it’s certainly possible to use some AJAX to regularly poll the system for an updated wall.html message.  I personally think it’s overkill.]]>