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Blackboard Markup Language BbML

Overview

BbML is a subset of HTML. The parameters of some methods accept BbML-formatted text. For more information about particular Learn REST endpoints, see the REST API documentation

BbML specification - version 1

A BbML field accepts text containing either:

Valid BbML uses only following HTML elements and only the attributes accepted for each element. You can use attributes marked Internal use only as part of a REST API GET method when you are patching/updating an existing resource. Do not use them to create a resource from scratch.

For more information about each accepted element, see below.

a
Attribute Comment
data-bbid Deprecated Internal use only.
data-bbfile Rendering control for use with Ultra UI. data-bbfile="{"render":"inline","linkName":"1.jpg","mimeType":"image/jpeg"}"
data-bbtype Internal use only.
data-mce-href Internal use only.
href  
rel[nofollow]  
br
Attribute Comment
data-mce-bogus Internal use only.
del
div
Attribute Comment
data-bbid Internal use only.
em
h4
h5
h6
img
Attribute Comment
align  
alt  
class  
data-mathml MathML from which the image was created if applicable.
data-mce-src Internal use only.
src  
li
ol
Attribute Comment
data-mce-style Internal use only.
style[list-style-type: *]  
p
span
Attribute Comment
data-mce-bogus Internal use only.
data-mce-style Internal use only.
style[font-style: ,font-weight: *,text-decoration:]  
strong
sub
sup
ul
Attribute Comment
data-mce-style Internal use only.
style[list-style-type: *]  

Examples

If one were to use the following as the input to a BbML field of a resource within an Ultra course context, such as an Ultra Document:

<!-- {"bbMLEditorVersion":1} -->

<div data-bbid="bbml-editor-id_9c6a9556-80a5-496c-b10d-af2a9ab22d45">
  <h2>Header Large</h2>

  <h5>Header Medium</h5>

  <h6>Header Small</h6>

  <p>
    <strong>Bold </strong
    ><em
      >Italic
      <span
        style="text-decoration:
  underline;"
        >Italic Underline</span
      ></em
    >
  </p>

  <ul>
    <li>
      <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em></em></span>Bullet 1
    </li>

    <li>Bullet 2</li>
  </ul>

  <p><img /></p>

  <p>
    <span
      >"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
      tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim
      veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris."</span
    >
  </p>

  <p><span>&lt;braces test="values" other="encoded values"&gt;</span></p>

  <p>Header Small</p>

  <ol>
    <li>Number 1</li>

    <li>Number 2</li>
  </ol>

  <p>
    Just words followed by a formula
    <img
      align="middle"
      alt="3 divided by 4 2
  root of 7"
      class="Wirisformula"
      data-mathml="«math

  xmlns=¨[http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML¨»«mn»3«/mn»«mo»/«/mo»«m
  n»4«/mn»«mroot»«mn»7«/mn»«mn»2«/mn»«

  /mroot»«/math»](https://community.blackboard.com/external-link.jspa?url=htt
  p%3A//www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML%25C2%25A8%25C2%25BB%25C2%25ABmn%25
  C2%25BB3%25C2%25AB/mn%25C2%25BB%25C2%25ABmo%25C2%25BB/%25C2%25AB/mo%25C2
  %25BB%25C2%25ABmn%25C2%25BB4%25C2%25AB/mn%25C2%25BB%25C2%25ABmroot%25C2%25BB
  %25C2%25ABmn%25C2%25BB7%25C2%25AB/mn%25C2%25BB%25C2%25ABmn%25C2%25BB2%25C2%2
  5AB/mn%25C2%25BB%25C2%25AB/mroot%25C2%25BB%25C2%25AB/math%25C2%25BB)"
    />
  </p>

  <p>
    <a
      href="[http://www.blackboard.com](https://community.blackboard.com/external-
  link.jspa?url=http%3A//www.blackboard.com/)"
      >Blackboard</a
    >
  </p>
</div>

Render

It would render as follows in Ultra UI:

BbMLrender.png

Uploaded files

When creating content using the Learn Public REST API, it is expected that any related file content be uploaded prior to creation. Uploading files can be done using the upload file endpoint documented at https://developer.blackboard.com/portal/displayApi

Once a file has been uploaded, the upload file endpoint will have provided an Id which will be used to reference the associated file.

Using the upload file id withing the Learn Public REST API, any BbML anchor tag href attribute can be used to associate the uploaded file using the following notation:

<a href="bbupload://<uploadFileId>">filename.ext</a>

For proper formatting and rendering within the ULTRA environment, it is recommened to also include a data-bbfile attribute. An example value of this can be seen above in the BbML specification section. However, to describe it a bit more, the data-bbfile attribute’s value is an HTML encoded json string:

HTML encoded:
`{"render":"inline","linkName":"1.jpg","mimeType":"image/jpeg"}`<br />
HTML decoded:
`{"render":"inline","linkName":"filename.ext","mimeType":"image/jpeg"}`

The end result of all this would be as follows:

<a
  href="bbupload://<uploadFileId>"
  data-bbfile='{"render":"inline","linkName":"filename.ext","mimeType":"image/jpeg"}'
>
       filename.ext
</a>

File Type Documentation

The editor recognizes the following values for data-bbfile, with the arguments it accepts for data-bbtype. For each plugin, the bbml element is given (usually a); the value of data-bbtype which selects that plugin; and the fields of data-bbfile which are expected. (data-bbfile is a JSON-encoded object.)

For example, for the Attachment plugin, the generated bbml is as follows (minus unneccessary whitespace I’ve added for easy viewing):

<a
  href="https://ultra-integ.int.bbpd.io/bbcswebdav/pid-486306-dt-content-rid-13383141_1/xid-13383141_1"
  data-bbtype="attachment"
  data-bbfile='{"extension":"pdf","linkName":"1-23MB","render":"inline","alternativeText":"1-23MB.pdf","mimeType":"application/pdf","isDecorative":false'
>
  1-23MB
</a>

Tags without a data-bbfile attribute, or with an unrecognized value for data-bbfile, are displayed normally.

Plugin Name: Attachment
element: <a href="${link}">
data-bbtype: attachment
data-bbfile:

Notes:

  1. The href attribute is the download url for the document.
  2. Attachments can be add from the local file system or the cloud (via Kloudless). After the item has been added, there is no way of distinguishing this.
  3. Attachments, whether displayed inline or not, are full-width.

Plugin Name: Block Images
element: <a href="${src}">
data-bbtype: image
data-bbfile: alt - the image alt text

Notes:

  1. Displays an image as a full-width block (instead of inline.)
  2. All images generated by Ultra are full-width blocks, but images converted from Learn are regular <img> elements.
  3. The href attribute in the bbml tag becomes the src attribute of the img tag.
  4. Mathml images (as generated by Wiris) are regular img elements that have the data-mathml attribute. It is beyond the scope of this document to describe the wiris service; however, no additional processing beyond that of a regular img tag is required to render mathml images.

Plugin Name: Custom Class
element: <a>
data-bbtype: customClass
data-bbfile: className

Notes:

  1. Transforms into <span class="${className}">.
  2. This type will never be encountered in saved bbml; it is generated at runtime to modify the editor display.

Plugin Name: Embedded Video
element: <a>
data-bbtype: video
data-bbfile: src - The link for the embedded video

Notes:

  1. Links to an embedded video from Youtube or Video which is shown in an iframe.
  2. Only links from Youtube or Vimeo are allowed.

Plugin Name: LTI Content Market
element: a
data-bbtype: lti
data-bbfile:Placement

Notes:

  1. It is beyond the scope of this document to describe LTI links.

Plugin Name: Video Everywhere (aka Collab Integration; aka Collab Video; aka Video Integration)
element: <img title="description" alt="alt text">
data-bbtype: collab_video
data-bbfile: video_uuid - The uuid of the collab video.

Notes:

  1. src is a relative image link returned by the collab service.
  2. title is the description of the video.
  3. alt is the alt text of the image.
  4. It is beyond the scope of this document to describe the collab service api.