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Text in the VTBE Unintentionally Substituted with Greek Characters

Date Published: Apr 11,2025


CategoryPlanned First Fix Release:3900.65.0 Release; Product:Blackboard Learn SaaS
Article No.: 000076816
Product:
Learn SaaS
Release:
9.1;SaaS
Description:
The "Symbols" font does not display correctly on some browsers or operating systems during editing resulting in a situation where it is unintentionally enabled and text is converted into pseudo-Greek. In tests or other attempts this can be irreversible.
Steps to Repeat:
The issue can be reproduced in Firefox on several Operating Systems and Chrome on Macintosh. Other combinations of Browsers and Operating Systems may be affected.
  1. Open Firefox
  2. Go to an Original Experience Course
  3. Create an Item, or any other thing where the VTBE is used
  4. Type some text, such as We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
  5. Select the text and change the font to "Symbol" Observe that the font appearance does not change to non-Latin characters.
  6. Save and Submit

Observed Behavior:
The text was transliterated into pseudo-Greek.

Ωε ηολδ τηεσε τρυτησ το βε σελφ−εϖιδεντ, τηατ αλλ μεν αρε χρεατεδ εθυαλ, τηατ τηεψ αρε ενδοωεδ βψ τηειρ Χρεατορ ωιτη χερταιν υναλιεναβλε Ριγητσ, τηατ αμονγ τηεσε αρε Λιφε, Λιβερτψ ανδ τηε πυρσυιτ οφ Ηαππινεσσ.
 

Expected Behavior:
Since no change in the VTBE was apparent, the Latin text was "transliterated" to Greek.
 

Symptoms:

Inspecting the HTML of the page will show that the characters were actually replaced by Greek characters and not merely a font that emulates the appearance of Greek. This is due to special handling by the Server.

No actual linguistic translation is taking place. The output is a transliteration and is not real words in Greek.

Cause:

The characters are mapped to the closest Greek equivalent character. For instance "A" is mapped to alpha, "T" to tau and so on.
 
Example: Mappings A-F
Latin Greek
a↔︎α
b↔︎β
c↔︎χ
d↔︎δ
e↔︎ε
f↔︎φ
g↔︎γ
h↔︎η

Resolution/Workaround:

There are several workarounds.
  • The data is actually stored in the database in Latin: it's only transliterated on readout to the front-end. ​​​​​​If the item is editable:
    1. Edit the item
    2. Select the text
    3. Select another Font such as "Arial" or "Times New Roman"
    4. And save and submit
  • If you have access to the database or to BBData: the data will appear in Latin and can be viewed by database queries. (Blackboard Support does not provide assistance with the design of SQL Queries)
  • If you do not have access to the database and the item is not editable and/or the item has been permanently modified due to copying-and-pasting Blackboard Support has an internal tool that can reverse the transcription.


Target Release:

Learn 9.1, 3900.65.0 Release

SaaS - Fixed (v3900.65.0)


Patch Available:

No





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