Setting up the Learning Suite Feed
The Learning Suite feed is used to get information from the Learning Suite schedule onto the Capstone Dashboard. This requires creating the feed input, configuring the item parser, editing the Learning Suite schedule to be consistent with the feed, and importing the feed. Each of these is discussed below.
Starting on the Capstone site (byucapstone.byu.edu)
On the grey menu bar click “Content”
Click on the 3 dots (or bars) to the right of the Content tab. Then select “Feeds”
Click on the blue “Add feed” button
Enter a feed title (e.g., Winter2022feed)
Enter a feed
URL from Learning Suite. The feed url is obtained by doing the following:
Go to the Learning Suite page for the course/semester
Click on the “Schedule” tab
Click on the “Get iCalendar Feed” link (note that the course must be published to have an iCalendar feed. When setting up things before the course is to be publicly ready, first create a copy of the course in the LS development area, publish it, then use its
URL)
Select the option “Copy and paste the
URL…”
Copy the
URL that is shown in the option radio button test.
Click the “OK” button
Now paste the copied
URL from LS into the feed
URL box on the capstone box
Select the school year for the feed (start typing, wait for the drop down menu to appear, and select the year)
Next, copy the course
URL for the Learning Suite calendar from Learning Suite
Go to the Learning Suite page
Click on the Schedule tab
Copy the
URL for the page (in the browser address box)
Paste the calendar
URL into the “LS Course
URL” box on the capstone box
Click “Save and import”. The website will report (in green) the successful copy. (Prompts for more imports can be ignored)
Configuring the Item Parser
There is a parser that converts iCal items into specific types of Learning Suite Events for the websites. The type of the events is used to control their display on the Dashboard.
The following are the currently defined LS Event types:
Event: A schedule item that has a date, but does not require any action other than attending the event
Coach Event: An event that applies only to coaches. It will not appear on student calendars
Assignment: An individual assignment that must be turned in
Team Member Grades: A grade that is to be assigned by a coach to a team member
Discussion Grades: Not currently used.
The parser applies to all Learning Suite feeds. The parser is configured as follows:
From the gray management menu bar, click “Structure”
Select “Content Type”
On the “LS Event” line, click “Manage Fields”
On the “Event Type” line, click the “List (text)” link. This shows the allowed values for LS Events. You can add values, but probably don't want to do it without talking with the developers.
Click on the “Edit” tab
The page now displays a series of rules that will determine the type of the event. Every rule is checked for each imported LS Item. The last rule to apply determines the type of the event. If none of the rules applies, the Default value (at the bottom of the page) applies
Edit the rules used to determined the event types as desired
Editing the Learning Suite Schedule
The text in the Learning Suite schedule items will determine the type of the LS Event, as described above. Edit your Learning Suite schedule items to match the parser. Then, import the feed (Importing the Feed) and check to see that things have gone as expected.
-
Look at each of the newest events (the old ones were imported earlier)
See if they are correct
If they are incorrect, either change the LS Schedule items or the parser
Click “Content” on the management bar
Click the three dots on the right, and select “Feeds”
Click on the Feed you are editing
Click the “Delete Items” button
Click the “Import” button
Repeat the previous step until you are satisfied with the import and parsing
Note: The schedule recorded in Learning Suite Schedule is the “official” one, and has to manually be made consistent with the “AtAGlanceMaker*.xlsm” (e.g., AtAGlanceMaker 2022-23.xlsm) on BOX. The feed copies the LS schedule to the BYU Capstone site.
Importing the Feed
The feed will automatically import on a regular basis. However, if you edit the Learning Suite schedule to make some changes in how the events are classified during import, you will likely wish to import manually, rather than waiting for the automatic import. This is done as follows:
On the gray management menu bar, click “Content”
Click on the tab with three dots (to the right of the “Content” tab, and select “Feeds”
Click on the name of the feed you wish to import
If desired, delete the existing feed items by clicking the “Delete items” button. You must delete the existing items if you have removed items from your Learning Suite schedule. It is probably best practice to delete items before every import.
Click the orange “Import” button on the top of the page