Bring your mobile app to life!
Feeds are dynamic pieces of information that update in the app as they are updated at the source. For example, when an RSS feed is updated with the newest information regarding last night's football game, that piece of news will show up in the mobile app's Top Stories section and Sports section.
You can include any of the following types of feeds:
- Facebook pages (not accounts)
- YouTube (accounts, lists, and channels)
- Flickr
- RSS
Different feeds will update different sections of the mobile app:
- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and RSS will appear in News.
- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and RSS can instead appear in Superintendent or Sports.
- Flickr and Instagram will only appear in Photos.
- Facebook photos can appear in Photos, if chosen.
- All feeds appear in Stream.
Add a feed for the mobile app
Before creating a feed, make sure there's a Social Media account for the feed you're setting up.
Configure a social media account
- From the Blackboard Communications HQ interface menu, select Settings > App Config.
- Select the organization Name to update the information.
- Select the Feeds tab to manage the mobile feeds.
- Select the icon of the type of feed to add - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, RSS/Atom, a Sport site created for your school, or if you are integrated with a Blackboard Web Community Manager site, you can also connect to the feeds available on that site.
- Type the location for the feed and select Add.
- Test the link when finished.
Add a sport site
You can add a URL of your district and school sport sites as a feed for the mobile app.
- From the Blackboard Communications HQ interface menu, select Settings > App Config.
- Select the organization Name to update the information.
- Select the Feeds tab to manage the mobile feeds.
- Select Add Sport Feed/Website icon.
- Select New Sports Web Site to add the site.
- Type the feed title.
- Add the URL of the sports website in the Links to box.
Select Test Link to test the connection.
- Select Save when finished.
Add a sport score
You can also create a feed directly to the latest score of each sports team.
- From the Blackboard Communications HQ interface menu, select Settings > App Config.
- Select the organization Name to update the information.
- Select the Feeds tab to manage the mobile feeds.
- Select Add Sport Feed/Website icon.
- Select New Sports Score to add the scores to the app.
- Type the feed title.
- Add the URL of the website you use to monitor sport scores in the Links to box.
Select Test Link to test the connection.
- Select Save when finished.
Assign a feed to a different mobile app area
Feeds are by default connected to specific locations in your mobile app. You can manually change some of the locations. For Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and RSS feeds, you can set the content for the Superintendent area, the Sports area, or None. The default area is News.
- From the Blackboard Communications HQ interface menu, select Settings > App Config.
- Select the organization Name to update the information.
- Select the Feeds tab to manage the mobile feeds.
- Select the Name of the feed to change.
- Select the mobile app area.
Select None to temporarily hide the feed from your mobile app without deleting the feed.
- Select Save when finished.
Assign Facebook images to the mobile app photo area
- From the Blackboard Communications HQ interface menu, select Settings > App Config.
- Select the organization Name to update the information.
- Select the Feeds tab to manage the mobile feeds.
- Select the Name of the feed to change.
- Select Include in Media to add images to the Photo area in the mobile app.
- Select Save when finished.
Assign a feed to the Top Story area in the mobile app
You can determine if a feed will appear as the Top Story for the app.
- From the Blackboard Communications HQ interface menu, select Settings > App Config.
- Select the organization Name to update the information.
- Select the Feeds tab to manage the mobile feeds.
- Select the Name of the feed to change.
- Select Top Story Feed.
- Select Save when finished.
Remove a feed from the mobile app
You can remove any feed that you may have used in previous school years.
- From the Blackboard Communications HQ interface menu, select Settings > App Config.
- Select the organization Name to update the information.
- Select the Feeds tab to manage the mobile feeds.
- Select the Name of the feed to remove.
- Select Delete to remove the feed.