Custom Environment Variables

Creating your own custom Environment Values a way to achieve a lot of useful things within ANGEL, such as creating a list of 'items to be completed' that is updated automatically, or setting due dates in one spot so you can easily update them course wide the next time you offer the course.

To create an Environment Variable and assign it a value follow the steps below.

View Animated Demonstration
(Flash Plug-in Required)

1. Click the Manage tab
2. In the Course Settings section click Environment Variables to open the Environment Variables manager.
3. Be sure that All Users is selected in the 'User' drop down menu
4. Click the Add Variable link above the 'User' drop down menu
5. Enter $TASK_1$ for your Variable Name and not_checked for your Variable Value (see image below)
   (IMPORTANT: the dollar signs tell ANGEL this is a special type of variable, called a "Token", whose value we want to display on the screen)

We have now created a new Environment Variable called Task_1 and set its default value for all users to 'not_checked'.

Print the Environment Variable's value to the screen

Now that our variable has been set, let's try printing it to the screen to be sure that everything is set right. Follow the steps below to perform our simple test.

1. In the Lessons section of you course, create a new page by choosing Add Content then Pagein the Create Items section
2. In the Page Text space, enter the following Task_1 = $TASK_1$ (see image below)

3. Save your page and view the results. The page should display Task_1 = not_checked (see image below). So when we insert and Environment Variable whose name begins and ends with a dollar sign ($) the server sends the variable value instead of the variable name to the browser.

Note: If your screen shows Task_1 = $Task_1$ then you have not succeeded in defining your variable, check to be sure it is set using the Environment Variable Manager.

Limitation: tokens can only be used in course or group content pages (items under the "Lessons" tab). ANGEL does not parse Announcements, the Calendar, the Syllabus or documents in the Associated File Manager for tokens so the token name will be shown and not its value.