Between Sakai 2.3 and 2.4, the Message Center application was split into to two tools Kristol Hancock, of Indiana University answers some questions about it.
Kristol Hancock
I've spoken with our development team and provided the answers to your questions below.
1. Since we have been running Message Center as a single tool, what do I have to do in order to keep it running as a single tool in 2.4.x? There
is some talk about adjusting the tool registration file, but I couldn't find any examples. Are there any DB changes?
If you would like to continue running Message Center as a single tool, you will need to make the following changes to the registration files:
Remove the <category> tags from sakai.forums.xml and sakai.messages.xml then add the <category> tags to sakai.messagecenter.xml. The <category>
tag controls whether a tool appears in the list of tools to add to a site when creating a course or project site.
Please note that import from site only supports importing from the same tool from which you are requesting the import. So, if the site you are
in when running import from site has a split tool then you must choose to import from a split tool and vice versa.
2. If we decide to switch from the single tool to the split tool setup, what do I have to do? Are there any DB conversion scripts that I have to
run?
You will need to run the following utility, which will be available by the beginning of next week:
https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/tool-placement-migration
3. Does the single and split tool setup use the same tables?
Yes, the single and split tools share not only the same tables, but the same code base. Whether the user sees a single or split tool is decided
entirely by the registration files. This means that any changes or bug fixes will apply to both the single and split tools.
4. If we choose to run it as a single tool in 2.4.x, can we change it to the split tool setup later on? What's involved in doing that?
Yes. See the answer to #2.
Stephen Marquard adds
Please also note that the Help documentation is structured to reflect two separate tools, viz. Messages and Forums.
If you have Message Center as a single tool, it will invoke the Help category for Forums, but some of the descriptions will be different to what users see (for example references to 'Messages' rather than 'Private Messages').