This section provides information about common issues that may occur when they are creating, editing, and deploying Language Packs within Blackboard Learn.

Broken links to documentation resources

After updating or changing a Language Pack, users cannot access Blackboard Help from Learn. They instead are taken to the Help Page Not Found page and see the following message:

Sorry, but we couldn't find the page or document you're looking for.

This indicates that the existing links to the documentation were broken when the Language Pack was updated.

Open the custom Language Pack and verify that the links in the documentation.properties Locale Bundles are pointing to the appropriate material.

Collaboration server issues

Deploying a custom Language Pack in a load-balanced environment may result in problems with the Collaboration Server. This issue only affects users that are using the custom Language Pack. When a custom Language Pack is created a new jar file is also created on the Application Server at the following location:

blackboard/apps/collab-server/http/webapps/clientlib/yourlanguagepack-collab-locale.jar

However, this new jar file is not created on the Collaboration Server itself, which leads to the problem.

There are two solutions to this problem:

Solution #1

  1. Log into the Collaboration Server.
  2. Navigate to this location: blackboard/content/locale/YOURLANGUAGEPACK/collab/
  3. Run the following script:

    [root@grimlock collab]# cat BuildCollabLocaleJar.sh

    #! /bin/bash

    ## This script requires JAVA_HOME environment variable to be set

    ## This script takes an optional parameter for PATH_TO_COLLAB

    ############## BuildCollabLocaleJar.sh

    #############################

    #

    # CHANGE THIS VALUE IF YOU COPY THIS SCRIPT FOR A DIFFERENT

    LOCALE

    ################################################################

    ###

    LOCALE=en_US <-------EDIT HERE TO SPECIFY YOUR LANGUAGE PACK

    LOCALE

    PATH_TO_COLLAB=$1

    export LOCALE PATH_TO_COLLAB

    if [ "$PATH_TO_COLLAB" != "" ]; then cd $PATH_TO_COLLAB; fi

    if [ "$JAVA_HOME" = "" ]; then

    echo "JAVA_HOME variable not defined."

    exit 1

    fi

    echo "Using JAVA_HOME: $JAVA_HOME"

    echo "PATH_TO_COLLAB: $PATH_TO_COLLAB"

    JAR_CMD="$JAVA_HOME/bin/jar -cf"

    JAR_DEPLOY_DIR=../../../../apps/collabserver/

    http/webapps/client-lib/

    export JAR_CMD JAR_DEPLOY_DIR

    JAR_CMD="$JAR_CMD $LOCALE-collab-locale.jar images messages"

    echo "Building $LOCALE-collab-locale.jar"

    $JAR_CMD

    echo "Deploying $LOCALE-collab-locale.jar to $JAR_DEPLOY_DIR"

    cp $LOCALE-collab-locale.jar $JAR_DEPLOY_DIR

    rm $LOCALE-collab-locale.jar

    exit

Solution #2

  1. Log into the Application Server.
  2. Navigate to this location: blackboard/apps/collab-server/http/webapps/client-lib/
  3. Copy the new jar file (created as a result of deploying the custom Language Pack) from the Application Server.
  4. Log into the Collaboration Server.
  5. Add the new jar file to the same location in the Collaboration Server.
  6. Restart the Collaboration Server.

Page display issues

Some portal pages and the System Admin panel may experience some problems in the display of their content. The following error message may be received:

can't parse argument number module_title

This problem is most often encountered after an upgrade. The solution is to apply the modifications that are outlined in the bundle_diff.txt file that accompanies the upgrade. After the initial upgrade process is complete, make sure to bring the custom Language Pack up-to-date with the current version.

Open and review the bundle_diff.txt file and update the custom Language Pack accordingly.

More on maintaining language packs

Themes

Proper storage of the Themes is critical to their successful use in Blackboard Learn. Determine if they are in the correct folders on all appropriate Application Servers.

Themes must be set as default after editing; this is accomplished through the Administrator Panel.

Care must be taken when editing the CSS file for a Theme. It is recommended that a text editor with a validation capability be used when editing the CSS files.

More on themes