[Building Sakai] predictable url for placed Sakai tool

[Altgilbers, Ian M]

Hello list,

I am looking for a way to get a predictable URL for the Sakai MOTD.  We want to AJAX that information into another page outside of the normal Sakai structure (and want to have that same code work on our dev/test systems as well).

I have added the sakai.motd tool to a page in the gateway site, but I cannot specify a custom tool id, so I end up with a URL that is instance-specific (with the long random IDs).  I also tried using the alias too, but I don't think it allows for such deep links to specific tool instances.

Am I missing a more obvious solution?  How are predictable page and tool ids like this generated?:  

site/!gateway/page/!gateway-700
/tool/!gateway-710

Thanks,


Ian Altgilbers
Academic Systems Administrator
Educational & Scholarly Technology Services
University Information Technology
Tufts University

Phone: 617.627.0388