[Xerte] Re: Xerte 2: MVC approach to displayed text

Thu May 5 18:04:05 BST 2011

On the language front I think that the issue for someone wishing to use
Xerte for foreign students lies with the .rlm file and the xwd and xml
files.

In the .rlm file all text that displays when the page is run should be
definable in a wizard form. I agree about the issue of avoiding a long form.
In the Page Wizard I solve this by adding a separate block e.g.
<learningObject>
    <dialogLang>
      <tryAgain type="TextInput" label="Try Again Prompt"/>
      <continue type="TextInput" label="Continue Prompt"/>
      <showAnswer type="TextInput" label="Reveal Prompt"/>
   </dialogLang>
  <dialog>
     .. all the usual dialog xwd contents
  </dialog>
</learningObject>

This results in the user being presented with a wizard that has two separate
forms, so that no individual form need extend beyond the size of the form
window. The structure of the Page Wizard xwd file concerned me as I was not
sure it would be viable to duplicate this solution in Page Templates.

A further issue with the xwd file is that all combo boxes should have a data
statement so that anyone modifying the file for foreign language use can
then change choices like "left, right, centre" to their foreign language
equivalent without affecting the operation of the page (they would need to
adjust the defaultData statement as well). They could also change the labels
the wizard displayed.

The Page Wizard xml file receives an additional line e.g.

which again I am not sure if this could be implemented in the Page Templates
project template.

With respect to the .rlm file we are talking all displayed text - labels
like question n of m, phrases like "you have scored", labels on buttons e.g.
next, restart.

The above should allow someone to convert Xerte to any language as far as
both student and course designer are concerned.

I would like to achieve a point where we have one set of .rlm files and thus
the Page Wizards and Page Templates project file offer identical
functionality. This would work well then for shared documentation.

This raises some additional issues as

   1. Some of the Page Wizards offer additional features which would have to
   be considered for acceptability in the Xerte official releases.
   2. Some pages will need to offer some optional parameters that will only
   relate to Page Wizards as a Page Wizard based page can be used in projects
   which have or do not have an Entry Frame and also be used either in the
   Interface or a Framework - both issues affect the working of features like
   Restart buttons.
   3. There are some Page Wizards that do not exist in Page Templates and
   On-line Toolkits and there would have to be a decision as to whether these
   would be included. Perhaps we should be considering a formal process by
   which contributors outside of the Xerte team can submit new pages for
   inclusion in Xerte, or to have a set of standard pages that are included
   with Xerte and then have a location on the wiki where new page wizards and
   project templates can be submitted by contributors and downloaded by users.
    (maybe even given a star rating by users similar to amazon book reviews).
   4. What would you want to do with respect to routed pages? At present you
   have no pages that can direct users to other pages, so they may be useful to
   you, but when using them it can make sense to offer a different navigation
   e.g. a queue based back button like you have in a web browser.
   5. Once we have a common set of .rlm files it would make sense to keep
   the files in line which means some means of handling changes to the Page
   Wizards in future. It also begs the question as to whether the Page Wizards
   should be considered for inclusion in the official release.

What are your views?

Kind regards

Johnathan

On 5 May 2011 11:57, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:

> > Unless there is a strong feeling from the Xerte team that they would not
> want the Page Wizards to offer better support for international use then I
> would like to implement this as part of a significant update to the Page
> Wizards.
>
>
>
> No, we’d be up for doing that. What you are saying is that every piece of
> text in the page is editable by the user? All prompts / feedback are
> editable, where some are currently hard coded in there?
>
>
>
> I’m trying to think through them all in my head. What I don’t want is a
> really big wizard form that will intimidate people, but I think most should
> be OK?
>
>
>
> Shouldn’t we be aiming for one set of files, now you’ve got rid of your
> learningObject[0] dependency, or do you still see two sets of files?
>
>
>
>
>
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