[Xerte] Re: Interface/authoring options for Xerte?

[Ron Mitchell]

Hi
a few quick responses...

Xerte desktop is the orginal developer tool and yes is Windows only in terms
of authoring and Flash only in terms of output. The official name of the
online tool is Xerte Online Toolkits (XOT) but many users just refer to this
as Xerte and as there isn't any new development or HTML 5 output from the
desktop tool XOT is where all new development resides. It's old now but for
more details on tools and terminology view that Tools and Terminology
screencast on my site via http://mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte 

If you want to get involved in developing and contributing additional
functionality for XOT join the dev list
http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte-dev 

Yes the reference to HTML 5 at the moment refers to the playback of LO's
rather than creation. With all versions up to 2.1 Flash is used as part of
the XOT workspace for authoring. However developments on a non-flash
authoring environment are well under way and should be part of the next
release which includes a wysiwyg editor based on http://ckeditor.com/ 

HTH
Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Smith, Bradley
Sent: 29 August 2014 18:31
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Interface/authoring options for Xerte?

Hello all, 

I have a few questions I haven't been able to answer by poking around on the
site and in the docs I've found, so I'm hoping that someone here can help.

First, I mentioned (off-topically) in another thread that I've been finding
the templates for lesson objects in XOT a bit limiting, and asked about ways
to develop my own. Shortly thereafter I noticed the link to "Xerte Desktop"
on the downloads page, which sounds like it could be what I'm looking for.
However, the only download option is for a Windows installed. Am I correct
in inferring that if you're on a Mac or Linux you're limited to the XOT
interface, which is limited to simplified templates? Is there any other way
to develop more complex xerte-compatible learning objects if you're not
using Windows? 

Second, on the website it says that Xerte is now available in HTML5. Does
this only refer to the ability to export HTML5 content, or is there a
non-flash version of the XOT interface somewhere I'm missing. I think my
confusion here is because I'd been thinking that "Xerte" and XOT are the
same thing. Is it more accurate to say that "Xerte" refers to the content
that XOT outputs?

Finally, one thing I mind myself missing a lot on XOT is a WYSIWYG editor
for formatting text with html. Especially if there is a non-Flash version of
the tool that I could hack on, I'd be interested in seeing what would be
involved in adding one (e.g. a js-based editor like TinyMCE). Has any work
been done on that that I should know about, or is there a reason why this
wouldn't be worth trying?

Thanks to anyone who can help!
-Brad

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