Blackboard links between Master and Section sites

BE CAREFUL USING THIS. MESSING UP HTML CAN MAKE YOUR ENTIRE SITE UNUSABLE!

It can be helpful to students if there is a link between the master site and the section sites when an augmented site is created. This can be done through a permanent announcement. I was able to create these in the following way.

0. I had the WYSIWYG editor turned off. (I always keep it off. To turn it off go to Home tab > Personal Information and follow the links.)

1. I obtained the "internal course ID" for the master site and each section site. In the following example the master site has an internal course ID of _148745_1, section A2 is _137109_1 and section AC is _137108_1. I found these by locating a link to the course, right clicking on it, Copy Shortcut, and then pasting the shortcut into notepad. The Course ID is at the end of the URL.

2. I went to each of the section sites, created an announcement, pasted in the following, indicated that the type was HTML, and made it permanent.


You are currently in the web site for your section of CHM205. There is also a <a target="_top" href="/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=%2Fbin%2Fcommon%2Fcourse.pl%3Fcourse_id%3D_148745_1">CHM205 MASTER SITE</a> that contains material that you will need.


3. I went to the master site, created an announcement, pasted in the following, indicated that the type was HTML, and made it permanent.


You are currently in the MASTER web site for CHM205. There are also section sits for <a target="_top" href="/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=%2Fbin%2Fcommon%2Fcourse.pl%3Fcourse_id%3D_137109_1">SECTION A2</a> and <a target="_top" href="/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=%2Fbin%2Fcommon%2Fcourse.pl%3Fcourse_id%3D_137108_1">SECTION AC</a> that contain material that you will need.

Note the lack of http://www.courses.miami.edu in the URLs. This means that they will work no matter how the person came to the site.

Also note the user of target="_top" to keep the link from nesting within the current frame.