[Xerte] Editing products of templates?

[Tenney Julian]

The best way to put a series of lessons created by templates is to use a
web page with links to each lesson on it, a kind of table of contents.
You can't include a lesson made with one template in a lesson made with
another. They are standalone.

For more technical info on templates in Xerte, read the templates
document, on the web site, which walks through an example.

Basically a template is three things:

- A xerte piece which is linked to an xml file. The piece uses this xml
file to generate the content.
- The rlo / rlt file. This is the main logic of the piece. It reads in
the xml file and says 'ah - the xml file has  three pages in it. Let's
make three pages, and so on'
- The xwd file. This file tells the Xerte wizard how to allow the xml
file to be edited, and what sort of controls to use for the various
nodes and attributes in the file. It allows new editors to be created
very quickly.

To change properties like streaming, you can edit the icon proeprties
inside the .rlo / .rlt file.

.rlo and .rlt files are identical, just the .rlt extension signals to
Xerte to open the wizard to edit the xml, rather than open the .rlo file
in the main authoring environment. Double click the learning object icon
to open the wizard if the piece is connected to an xml file through the
templateData property on the LO icon.

Models are ways of saving out chunks of an .rlo file. Say you have a
really cool interaction you want to re-use. Save it as a model and you
can import it into another piece. You can also link to models, allowing
one file to be used in many different pieces - then you can change the
one file and your changes are freflected in every piece that uses it
(only top level page models can work this way).

Does that help?


-----Original Message-----
From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
jventola at verizon.net
Sent: 11 July 2008 19:50
To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: [Xerte] Editing products of templates?

Executive Summary: After I make a lesson with a wizard (template?) how
do I edit it in full Xerte and merge it with another lesson?

I finally got around to exploring the Xerte install folder and
discovered Wizard/pageTemplates.xtp.  Wow. Wonderful.  Where has this
been all week?  With this wizard, I can do just about everything I need
including a quiz with individual feedback.  
Brilliant. 

But I do not understand templates in Xerte.  I need an overview.
Usually, you load a template and use it to make and save a new document
(as in Word) and the resulting doc is editable in the application
software.  So  I would have expected to end up with an rlo file that I
could then open in Xerte.  But the template interface can only save
another template. 
(That's bearable since I can just publish it or package it.)  But, say I
want to change a propety like streaming or loop or play on the sound.  I
cannot load the file into Xerte except as a template and that template
may not offer the option.  If I close the template, I see Xerte, but I
do not have my lesson to edit--only the logic of the wizard.

I haven't gotten around to models yet.  Maybe that is how you do it?
And is that how you merge stuff created with one template into a
presentation begun with another?  Suppose I had two templates, each of
which makes doing something I want in one lesson easy.  How do I manage
that?  

Similarly, what are all the filetypes of Xerte?  In the Xerte folder I
see ico files for rlo, rla, rlm, and rlt--not to mention xlm and xwd.
And the pageTemplate is an xtp file.  Is this explained anywhere?  

Thanks again for the help.
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