WebCT Tips and Cheats

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CD-ROM | Glossary | Headers and footers | Navigation

Paths | Tool pages / Icon layout | Javascript | Welcome page

CD-ROM

The only major issue with the CD-ROM Tool is making sure the links are correct and the mirror is set up perfectly. Making all links absolute with help out in this area. E.g.:

src="/gepl216/CD-ROM/movs/T04q03.mov"

Here are two help pages I made when working on GEPL 216.

CD-ROM Trouble shooting tips

CD-ROM setup guide for instructors

Glossary

To save time you can embed the links to the glossary in the html files to be uploaded. This means you have direct control over what is linked to the glossary from your path pages. Using the search and replace tool in Dreamweaver, I found this was actually quicker and easier than adding them using the WebCT interface and also meant that the links were permanent and were not erased each time you updated the student view.

<a name="equity"></a>
<a href="javascript:showWindow('equity')">equity</a>

The anchor tag is not strictly necessary but should be there if you wish to modify the glossary using the WebCT interface. The glossary word (i.e. 'equity') is case sensitive and should have any spaces replaced with %20.

Also note that each glossary entry can have any HTML code in it. Some useful things to have in the glossary are:

• Formatting and/or linking to a style sheet
• Linking to an external URL for further information
• Linking to another glossary entry. You can do this using the WebCT interface as well but again it is quicker to add it into the HTML. Here is an example

:consumer services <p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> These are services that are produced in the actual form in which they are used by the person who buys them, the consumer. Consumer services directly fulfill human needs.<br> See also <a href="/SCRIPT/gepl216/scripts/student/serve_glossary?_home page+_home page+producer%20services+link"> producer services</a>.</font></p>

Note that the link to another glossary entry is different to the original link. This is because the cross linked glossary entry will open in the same window, not a new one.

Headers and footers

There are two types of headers and footers:

• Multiple - like those found in the Home page, Welcome page and any additional tool pages.
• Single - like those found in the Path page, Quiz page and most other tools.

You can insert any html into a header or footer. The most useful things I have done inside footers are:

Tables
Wrap a table around the entire page so I can control its alignment and width etc. More on this below.

Style sheets
Link the page to the same style sheet that all the content pages use.

Add images and text boxes with direct control over their appearance. Note that on the welcome page the images you use, unless already linked in the standard WebCT way, cannot be inside the course as they are password protected. See the section on Welcome pages below.

 

Navigation

Home button
There is the student and instructor view for the home page. Here is the link to the home page which will work for both:

href="/SCRIPT/<course_id>/scripts/serve_home"

An example button noting the 'window.parent.location' that needed if the Home button is in a path page. For other pages use 'window.location'.

<form>
<input type=button name=home width=50 value="Home" onClick="window.parent.location= '/SCRIPT/em311/scripts/student/serve_home'">
</font>

Close button
Some pages, such as expanded figures, are opened in a new window. They are in a path but I do not want the Forward and Backward buttons displayed but I do want the Close button. I turn of the button bar and then insert my own Close button:

<form>
<input type=button name=close width=50 value="Close" onClick="parent.close();">
</form>

Other buttons
In other places I have linked to paths content listing pages and other WebCT generated pages. Usually these will be long ugly cgi links and usually have a long ID number in them. E.g.:

href="/SCRIPT/<course_id>/scripts/student/serve_tree?882560079"

 

Paths

Single Pages
Only the files inside path pages are tracked. Instead of using a 'Single Page' add a path with the file you wanted and then turn off the Button Bar and Content Listing. In most browsers the only difference is a frame border at the very top.

Frames
Some of the pages I have created use frame sets. I have set it up as above so that the frame set file is the first file in the path and the Button Bar and Content listing are turned off.

If you want to track each individual frame then you will need to make a new frame set file for each content frame. This

If you want to track single pages put them into a path, turn off the button bars and content listing and bypass the contents at the start. This is great for things like the info pages that included frames.

 

Tool pages / Icon layout

All of the cells in the main tool page are vertically aligned to the middle. I have many icons that have two line labels and some with one which makes the icons not line up properly. To avoid this I put this code at the end of each single line label:

</a><Br>&nbsp;

If you want to insert a blank icon (i.e. without a graphic or an icon) then set the label to this:

</a>&nbsp;

or you will see a linked '_' instead of a white space.

 

Javascript

WebCT strips out some javascript under certain curcumstances. You can get around some of the code changes by not using <a> tags which get rewritten by WebCT.

Ie a standard dreamweaver rollover might look like this:

<a href="#" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('document.swap', 'document.swap','Images/right.gif', '#959149142540')">
<img src="Images/up.gif" width="20" height="20" name="swap" border="0"></a>

notice how it wraps <a> tags around the lot and then applies events to the <a> tag

This version does exactly the same stuff but applies the events directly to the image tag. WebCT doesn't parse the img tag and so the code stays intact

<img src="Images/up.gif" width="20" height="20" name="swap" border="0" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('document.swap', 'document.swap', 'Images/right.gif', '#959148424930')">

 

Welcome page

The welcome page is generated by WebCT and can link to files inside the password protected area, such as images. To do this it copies the files into a public directory such as /public/unit_name/.

To move something into the public area so that you can use it from outside the unit follow these steps:

1. As a designer go to Welcome Page > Customize Page > Header.

2. Select the Image radio button and browse to the file you want to copy into the public directory. NOTE: This can be any file not just an image.

3. Click update

4. Now create a link or reference to the file you just copied. For example

   <img src="/public/gepl123/image2.gif">

   <a href="/public/gepl123/index.htm">Click here</a>

5. Now delete the header. NOTE: You could also have copied the file by using image bow in a header.

This obviously has a lot of uses but is limited in that you have to copy each file and make sure that all the links will work once in place. Updating those files adds another step in the process. For anything more than a couple files I suggest you place the files on public server and reference them from there. Something like an image or a style sheet that doesn't get changed a lot but may be referenced a lot would be ideal to copy to the public directory.