When Apple created your initial iTunes U site, your site settings were also defined with default values. As the site administrator, you can change these default values to use your institution’s actual values, including your site name, login URL, logout message, signin URL, technical contact information, primary administrator, access controls, transfer script information, and so on.
To change your site settings:
Log in to iTunes U as an administrator.
Click Edit Site Settings in the Tools area.
Type an official organizational name for your site. This should be your organization’s full formal name. For example: Cupertino University.
Type a display name for your site. This should be a short name identifying your site to your users. For example: CU or Cupertino U. Depending on your iTunes version, iTunes U displays this name in your site’s navigation bar, page path, institution playlists, track information fields, and so on. If your site is included in iTunes U in the iTunes Store, iTunes U uses your “Site display name” when adding your site to the alphabetical list of providers in the iTunes U provider pages.
Type a login URL for your site, if applicable. You need to specify a Site login URL if you are using advanced access and a transfer script, or you switched to basic access but users had previously created bookmarks to pages, groups, and tracks while you were using advanced access. The Site login URL specifies your institution’s launch page or web authentication and authorization server using your transfer script.
In order to display an exact page, group, or track, you append a destination variable, ${DESTINATION}, to the end of the Site login URL. If your transfer script is designed to accept the variable through an HTTP POST or GET request, the script can also generate a URL with the destination information and authorization token to pass to iTunes U and display a specific iTunes U page, group, or track.
The destination=${DESTINATION} portion of the URL uses an HTTP system for passing the destination variable into your transfer script, along with the actual destination value. iTunes U does the variable substitution when it redirects a user to your Site login URL.
For example, if a Course page has an iTunes U destination value of 123456 and a user clicks a track in the Course page after a session timeout, iTunes U redirects the user to the Site login URL with the destination value appended to the end: https://www.example.edu/cgi-bin/itunesu?destination=123456.
If the user logs in and is re-authenticated successfully, and your transfer script is designed to handle the destination variable, iTunes U can display the exact Course page when it receives the URL from the transfer script: https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Browse.woa/example.edu.123456
Note: If you are using basic access, users do not need to log in to your iTunes U site. Instead, they access your site using a browse URL. For example: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/example.edu.
Type a logout message for your site. iTunes U displays this message when users log out of your site. For example: “You have logged out. Type the information requested below when you want to log in again.”
View the “Administrator signin URL”. This is the URL iTunes U sent in your welcome email. Use this URL to sign in to your iTunes U site as an administrator, using your Apple ID and password.
Note: To use this URL to sign in to your iTunes U site, you must first assign a primary administrator for your site. You assign a primary administrator at activation time.
Type an email address and full name for your site’s policy contact. This contact information should be for the person responsible for making policy, legal, and marketing decisions for your iTunes U site.
Type an email address and full name for your site’s administrative contact. This contact information should be for the person responsible for receiving administrative task notifications such as scheduled maintenance, system upgrades, and site usage. If you have multiple contacts that should receive this type of information, type the primary contact’s full name and a group email address.
View the Apple ID for your site’s current primary administrator in the Primary Administrator box.
Your site’s primary administrator is the person responsible for adding and removing site administrators, as well as viewing and editing specific site settings. To access the privileges of the primary administrator, the primary administrator must access iTunes U using the site’s signin URL. The primary administrator can use the Edit Apple ID Administrator Access page to transfer primary administrator access to another user. For more information, see “Defining Administrative Users for Your iTunes U Site.”
Note: For legacy sites, iTunes U displays the Primary Administrator Account fields for you to provide the Apple ID account information for your site’s primary administrator.
Specify whether you want to use basic or advanced access controls for your site, if applicable:
Choose basic access controls when your content is for public use, you only need a small group of one or more administrators, and you do not rely on a transfer script to access your site. iTunes U will display the Page Access option in the Tools area so you can specify on a per-page basis whether you want your content to be public or private. By default, Apple uses basic access controls when setting up your iTunes U site.
Choose advanced access controls when you have both public and private content, define custom credentials for your users, and use a transfer script to access your site. iTunes U will display the Edit Access link in the Tools area so you can assign access levels to credentials to control the actions users can perform within your iTunes U site.
Note: Site Access Control is only available for primary administrators.
View the transfer script information for your site, if applicable.
If you use advanced access controls and a transfer script to access your site, you’ll need the information displayed in Transfer Script Information: Site URL, Debug Suffix, Shared Secret, and Administrator Credential.
Note: Transfer Script Information is only available for primary administrators.
Specify copyright information for your site, including a title and link to your copyright policy. iTunes U displays copyright information at the bottom of every Welcome page and Public Feature page in your site.
Click “Consider this site for inclusion within iTunes U in the iTunes Store” to specify that you want Apple to consider your institution’s iTunes U site for inclusion in the iTunes U area in the iTunes Store. Apple will review your site and email the status to you, the site administrator, and your site’s policy contact, if specified.
To withdraw your request, return to the Edit Site Settings page and click “Cancel my request for inclusion within iTunes U in the iTunes Store.”
To remove your site after approval, return to the Edit Site Settings page, click “Remove my site from iTunes U in the iTunes Store,” and type a reason in the “Provide a reason for your removal request” field.
To be considered for inclusion, be sure your site design follows the guidelines outlined in Creating Your iTunes U Site (PDF) located at http://images.apple.com/support/itunes_u/docs/iTunes_Create_U_Guide.pdf.
When your site status displays Preapproved, you can begin assigning categories to your content. Preapproved is an intermediate stage. Apple includes your site in the iTunes U area in the iTunes Store only after the site is fully approved. For more information, see “Categorizing Content.”
If your site is accepted for inclusion, users can use the Tell A Friend link in the Tools area of a course to share content they discover with friends. For more information, see “Sharing Content with Friends.”
Click Save to save all your site settings.
Click Logout.
© 2009 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Last updated: 2009-11-04)