The Custom Hosted Widget Replacement Service is a feature of the Custom Hosted Widget EOL Support page. The replacement service scans the entire Brightspace site for instances of a custom hosted widget and replaces them with equivalent system widgets. This is particularly useful on sites where custom hosted widgets are installed on a large number of homepages.
Preparing Your Site
To ensure a smooth replacement of custom hosted widgets, consider the following guidelines:
- Ensure that staff members are unable to add custom hosted widgets to homepages while the replacement service is running. Either inform staff that custom-hosted widgets should no longer be added or temporarily remove homepage editing permissions for applicable roles.
- Ensure that each custom-hosted widget has its analogous system widget enabled for your instance, and confirm that the system widget tool is activated for your organization.
Note: D2L automatically entitled and enabled system widget analogs for all clients with Custom Hosted HWEP widgets entitled. - Plan to run your widget replacements during a period of off-peak usage. Custom Hosted and System Widgets have minor variations, which may distract users if changed suddenly.
- Automated replacements cannot be undone automatically. The only way to revert the actions of the replacement service is by manually undoing the changes.
Starting the Replacement Service
The service:
- Can only be started from the Custom Hosted Widgets page.
- Is started by clicking the Replace button next to a widget on the Custom Hosted Widgets page.
- Can only process one custom hosted widget at a time.
- Can only be applied to custom hosted widgets in the HWEP that are designated as end-of-life.
- Runs as a background task on the Brightspace site. You can navigate away from the Custom Hosted Widgets page without interrupting the replacement service.
What the Replacement Service Will Do
The replacement service will:
- Confirm entitlement and tool status.
- Catalog all affected homepages and courses.
- Migrate configuration files.
- Migrate role configurations.
- Replace the custom hosted widget.
- Uninstall the custom hosted widget.
For additional details about each workflow the replacement service runs, refer to Homepage Widget Expansion Pack.
How Will I Know that the Replacement Service is Done?
Upon completion, the replacement service sends a notification to the Update Alerts section (represented by the bell icon) of the Brightspace main navigation bar.
- If the replacement service runs successfully, the notification indicates success.
- If the replacement service is unsuccessful, the notification provides an error code and a link to the definition of that error.
For a complete list of error codes and what to do about them, refer to Homepage Widget Expansion Pack.