Integrating with Blackboard

Setup

You will have two options when adding an Embed to Blackboard, the different steps will be pointed out during setup:

• Adding the application to specific courses

• Adding the application globally for the account

You will also require admin privileges within Blackboard for this.

Prerequisites

1. At least one course must be created within the LMS, and any course you wish to link to an App List must have an SIS ID set

2. The accounts the administrators are using should be configured with SIS IDs containing their LDAP directory or SAML usernames

   • The LDAP directory used for lookup is taken from the Embed configured in AppsAnywhere

   • The corresponding directory user must also been given access to AppsAnywhere.

Setting up a Tool Provider

To add a new tool, firstly you want to click on the System Admin tab on the menu in Blackboard and navigate to LTI Tool Providers.

1. Click on Register LTI 1.1 Provider which will open a new form to base the tool on

2. Enter the AppsAnywhere domain you wish to connect to in Provider Domain (e.g. my.appsanywhere.com)
   

   

If Blackboard is configured on a different domain to your AppsAnywhere instance, there are known issues when using either Firefox or Safari

3. When filling in the form fields, you will need to copy the values from AppsAnywhere and paste them into their corresponding fields on the form.
a. Firstly you will want to navigate to Embeds in AppsAnywhere in a new tab (see: Viewing Embeds) and determine which Embed you wish to use

4. The Tool Provider Key (Consumer key), Tool Provider Secret (Consumer secret) and Tool Provider Custom Parameters (Config) should be copied and pasted from Embeds in AppsAnywhere
a. To enter configuration here, select Set globally, which means that applying custom parameters here will apply them globally for this tool.
5. Ensure that user data is being sent either via SSL (preferred) or over any connection
a. Role in Course is the only part of user data that is required

6. Click Submit

Placement

Now that the Tool Provider has been created, you can select it and click Manage Placements, found under the down-arrow beside the domain in the Tool/Provider column.

1. First enter a Label. This will be the name of the tool as it appears on a course (e.g. AppsAnywhere).

2. You will also need to enter a unique Handle for the placement (e.g. AppsAnywhere Placement).

   

3. This tool should be configured as a Course tool and Allow student access checked

4. Launch in New Window should NOT be used as the tool is designed to be embedded

5. For the Tool Provider Url, you will need to enter the AppsAnywhere domain followed by /lti/application/embed (e.g. https://my.appsanywhere.com/lti/application/embed)

6. If you chose not to apply configuration globally above, you will also have to copy the Tool Provider Key (Consumer key), Tool Provider Secret (Consumer secret) and Tool Provider Custom Parameters (Config) into this placement

   1. Applying custom parameters here will apply them separately for each link

7. 

   The AppsAnywhere Embed should now appear in the relevant course navigation menu(s)

To confirm the Embed is functional and for instructions on how course administrators can manage App Lists, head to the following article:  App List Administration