Release 2.8.24
March 28, 2008
Requirements
- Blackboard 6.3 or above
- JDK 5.0 or above
NOTE: For information on new features and/or bugs fixed in this version, please visit the support section of our web site.
Important Notice
Due to an issue in Blackboard, you may experience a "PermGen space" error when installing or activating Campus Pack. The PermGen space is a special area of the Java memory map, called the permanent generation heap, used to hold class files and related data. Repeatedly installing building blocks tends to leak memory in this heap. When the heap becomes full, building blocks may fail. Sometimes they fail when they are activated (made available); other times they fail during use. Typically, restarting Blackboard (or just Tomcat) will resolve the error, as all old classfiles will be eliminated. Deployments that perform nightly Blackboard restarts rarely see this problem; on the other hand, deployments that have not restarted in some time are quite likely to see it.
As of Blackboard 7.2, 256 MB is allocated to the permanent generation heap. This is sufficient for many building block installations. Earlier versions of Blackboard allocated only 64 MB which is not sufficient to support installing many building blocks. On such systems it may be necessary to increase the PermGen space to prevent the out-of-memory error from occurring. To do so, perform the following steps:
- Edit the file
blackboard/config/bb-config.properties. Note that this file may use UNIX line feeds which are hard to edit under Windows; it will appear as one long line with square characters instead of new lines. Please do your best to edit it anyway.
- Search for the
bbconfig.jvm.options.extra.tomcat setting (you can typically just run a Find for "extra").
- Add the following value after the = character:
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m -XX:PermSize=64m
This will increase the heap size from 64 MB to 256 MB.
- Run the
blackboard/tools/admin/PushConfigUpdates script and wait for it to complete.
If you have a load-balanced system with shared configuration then you will need to bounce Tomcat on your other appservers; otherwise repeat this process on each appserver.
Note that you should only perform this process if you are familiar with, and comfortable running, the PushConfigUpdates script. For further information or assistance, please contact support@learningobjects.com.
Installation
IMPORTANT: If you have a previous release of Expo LX on your server, please
review the update section at the end of this document.
- Download the loi-expolx-2.8.x.x.war file from the download site and save
it to your desktop.
- Navigate to the System Admin tab in Blackboard.
- Click on Manage Building Blocks.
- Click on Install Building Block.
- Click on the Browse button, and find and select the saved loi-expolx-2.8.x.x.war file.
- Click the Submit button on the web page. The file will then upload.
- Click on the OK button on the receipt page to return to the Manage Building Blocks page.
- Change the status of Expo LX to Available.
- Click on the OK button on the Make Building Block Available page.
- The extension is now installed.
Registration
After installation, the extension must be registered with Learning Objects if you have not already registered or if you do not already have a license key for the application. To register, perform the following steps:
- Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.
- Click on the System Admin tab.
- Click on Manage Expo LX link under Tools.
- Click on the Register your extension link.
- Complete the form on the Register Expo LX page and accept the license.
If you do not have a promotional code, leave that field blank.
- Click submit on the form.
- Click OK on the receipt page.
Within 24 hours, a registration key will be emailed to the address entered
in the form.
- Return to the Expo LX License page.
- Click on the Install your key link.
- Copy the key from your email into the text box.
- Accept the license.
- Click submit on the form.
- The extension is now registered.
Enable Portal Module (Optional)
- Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.
- Click on the System Admin tab.
- Click on the Manage Tabs link under Portal System - Management.
- Click on the Modify button associated with the My Institution tab.
- Click on the Default Content link.
- Find the Expo Sites portal module.
- Check both the Displayed and Required boxes.
- Click submit.
- The portal module is now available to all users.
Configuration (Optional)
- Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.
- Click on the System Admin tab.
- Click on the Manage Expo LX link under Admin Tools.
- Click on the Manage Settings link.
- Update the storage location of Expo sites.
- Update the information the users are allowed to make publicly available.
- Update the name of the tab that the Expo LX portal module is on.
- Update the name of Expo LX.
- Click submit.
Supported Browsers
Expo LX uses the browser's Design Mode feature to implement WYSIWYG html
editing. The following is a list of browsers that support Design Mode:
- Internet Explorer 6.0 and above on Windows
- Firefox 1.0 and above on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux
- Mozilla 1.3 and above on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux
- Netscape 7.1 and above on Windows and Macintosh
- Safari 3.0 and above on Windows and Macintosh
Known Issues
A full list of known issues is in the Campus Pack release notes
Uninstall
- Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.
- Click on the System Admin tab.
- Click on Manage Building Blocks.
- Change the status of Expo LX to Inactive.
- Click on the OK button on the receipt page to return to the Manage
Building Blocks page.
- Return to the Manage Building Blocks page.
- Click on the remove button for Expo LX.
Update / Upgrade
If a previous release of Expo LX is installed, it must be uninstalled by
following the uninstall instructions (above), and then installing the newer
release.
- All Expo LX content remains in the system during an upgrade. There is no need to do anything to any Expo sites or their content.
- If there was a link to the Expo tool in the Tool panel, that link must be re-created after the upgrade. Likewise, if a tool tab was created for the Expo tool, the tab must be re-created after the upgrade.
- If a license key was installed with the previous release, it will continue to function with the newer release. The license does not need to be reapplied.
- If you are on Blackboard 7 or are planning on upgrading to Blackboard 7, a Migrate Filenames script will automatically be run upon installation of the 2.8.x build in order to avoid corruption of Expo sites due to a bug in Blackboard 7. To review the status of this script, navigate to the Manage Expo LX area in the Administrator Panel and select the "Administration Tasks" link. The "Migrate old-format filenames" task will indicate the progress of this script. If the script has not fully executed, you may select the "Execute" button for this task in order to execute the script manually.
Note: In previous versions of Expo LX, adminstrators were required to run the Migrate Filenames script. This is the same script, but the administrator is no longer required to manually initiate the script.
If you have a load-balanced configuration, special care must be taken when
upgrading to be sure that all of the application servers properly reload the new
version. The best way to ensure this is to restart each application server after
upgrading each of the Campus Pack applications. If you are unable to restart
your application servers, please wait 2 to 5 minutes after removing the old
versions before attempting to install the new ones.
You can check to be sure that each of the application servers upgraded
correctly by viewing the Expo LX logs.
- Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.
- Click on the System Admin tab.
- Click on Manage Expo LX.
- Click Download Logs.
- When prompted, save the log archive to a temporary location.
- Open the ZIP file and view each of the included Expo LX log files.
There should be one for each application server.
- Look in each log for a message showing that the old version stopped, and
a following message showing that the new version started.
Example: 2006-04-25 14:50:42|INFO: Expo LX v2.6.0.4487 stopped [com.learningobjects.util.ExtensionUtil.destroy]
2006-04-25 14:58:41|INFO: Logging at level INFO [com.learningobjects.util.ExtensionUtil.initLogging]
2006-04-25 14:58:41|INFO: Expo LX vx.x.x.x started on Blackboard v6.3.1.374 [com.learningobjects.util.ExtensionUtil.init]
- If any application server is missing these messages, restart Tomcat on
that server to force it to reload the application. After it finishes
restarting, check the log for that host again to ensure that the correct
version is running.