[Xerte-dev] Re: Connector pages

[Ron Mitchell]

Rather than just what Toolkits is intended to be I'd say it's also about
what users would like it to be and also sometimes they don't appreciate the
latter until they see it. 

In my experience of supporting a wide range of XOT users (who aren't Xerte
Desktop users) they do want and would value some of the functionality the
connectors provide. This isn't just about navigation to other pages and
hiding linear navigation. For instance I think the hotspot image connector
will be extremely popular and can be put to good use without any navigation
to other pages although it obviously provides that if required.

Also in terms of FWS lots of people (especially in FE) have often created a
similar kind of non linear navigation in PowerPoint e.g. disabling the usual
slideshow navigation and adding hyperlinks and action buttons etc. 

Like other and long standing page types in XOT a lot comes down to the
learning design and how it's conceived and applied and many of those
existing page types can be used badly as well as effectively - I'm sure
we've also seen examples of each. Likewise there are desired solutions that
haven't previously been available and in my experience users who want a bit
more than FWS - e.g. experienced XOT user simple! ;-)

Following the two days in October what I'd be keen to do is to document and
demonstrate how those responsible for an XOT installation can choose what
page types to enable/disable rather than removing that choice from the
download. There are other long standing page types that are rarely used by
some individuals/organisations and despite being FWS still cause confusion
and support requirements.

HTH
Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Fay Cross
Sent: 13 September 2012 11:25
To: For Xerte technical developers
Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: Connector pages

I think the connector pages (except scenario) pretty much are FWS to set up
but I'd agree that from the end user point of view it could be confusing to
have sections hidden. I know that when learning stuff myself I would prefer
to be able to have all the information available to me and to choose myself
whether to skip sections rather than have it forced on me because of a
question I answered at some point. Maybe it does just come down to whether
this is what Toolkits is intended to be and what people expect from a
Toolkits project they're viewing.
________________________________________
From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Tenney
[Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk]
Sent: 13 September 2012 10:58
To: For Xerte technical developers
Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: Connector pages

OK. Or we get some sort of documentation produced pronto.

I am quite worried about connectors in general. I do understand the point of
them. I just don't think toolkits is the right place for them, and I think
we are trying to force a linear piece of content to do something it was
never intended to do by hiding pages from menus, and creating new navigation
systems, and allowing people to create bad stuff, and I don't want to be
forced to do this bad stuff in the HTML5 version to achieve parity with the
existing set of models, as the alternative is that existing content won't
automatically port over to the new runtime.

Personally I'd rather scrap them, put it down to experience, and later, when
we have the HTML5 stuff working properly, we can look again at the problem.

The FWS principle has got us a long way, I'm very wary of losing that, and I
feel like a lone voice in keeping on speaking up for it.

-----Original Message-----
From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Fay Cross
Sent: 13 September 2012 10:44
To: For Xerte technical developers
Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: Connector pages

If it helps, it was specifically the Scenario Connector that she (and I) was
confused about. She had tried the other connectors and understood how they
worked ________________________________________
From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Tenney
[Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk]
Sent: 13 September 2012 10:39
To: For Xerte technical developers
Subject: [Xerte-dev] FW: Connector pages

See below from Fay, who is manning a stand at ALT-C.

I'm proposing we take the connectors out of the current released version,
before any more of the genie gets out of the bottle. We have unresolved
issues with the navigation system to figure out, and there is insufficient
documentation regarding them to enable users to have a good time with them.

If people want to build more complex things, they can use the standalone
version. I don't know if connectors make sense in the new HTML5 stuff.

-----Original Message-----
From: Cross Fay
Sent: 13 September 2012 10:30
To: Tenney Julian
Subject: Connector pages

Hello

Just had an embarrassing moment on the stand... Someone came over to say
that they have just installed toolkits and she had been looking at the
Scenario Connector page and wanted help trying to understand it. I said I
hadn't used it myself but would try to work it out - it turns out I have no
idea what the hell goes on in it, how do you get the scores to link to the
actions? It desperately needs more instructions as if I can't make sense of
it, being pretty familiar with Toolkits, then not many pople will! I did say
that it was developed by someone in the Xerte Community so that's why I
wasn't too sure about it.

See you in a couple of weeks
Fay

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