[Xerte] Creating custom templates on the basis of Nottingham.rlt

[Julian Tenney]

I have some ideas about this too, but not the time to work them through
at the moment. I'd be interested in following the discussion out there
in the community though, so please continue to discuss this amongst
yourselves - I'm intersted in:

 

Minimising the size of the .rlt files:

-           the main page templates .rlt is getting quite large, and
often the user is only using a few page types; this could be done by
breaking the code out of the .rlt file, holding each page type as a
model (.rlm) and then linking through to load the .rlm files at runtime.
The Xerte page type shows how this is done. I have not tested this, but
it would be the first avenue to try. I have used this technique to reuse
code across projects and it works well.

-          That would give us a project with a .rlt file. In it would be
the pageStore of page types, but they would simply be empty pages, with
the model property pointing to the .rlm file that contains that page
type's code.

-          There would be a folder of .rlm files. It would be easy to
add new models to this folder, and point to them from the .rlt

-          The piece would run. Logic would construct the pages on the
main interface framework, and then those pages would load their models.
Only the models being used would load, minimising the load.

-          You could maintain your own modified folder of models. Even
switch easily between ours and yours.

 

Modularising the main template:

-          Make it easy for folk to add their own page types to support
whatever jigery-pokery you want

-          Do the models thing above.

-          Then you just need to create models for your page types, and
modify the .xwd file, adding in your own wizard instructions

-          Still, that's a bit of a pain, but much easier than at
present. It could be automated. It could lead to a currency in pluggable
models out there in the community, allowing you to more easily customise
things.

 

Developing custom interfaces

-          This keeps coming up as people want to use their own branding
/ interface / language

-          It can be done right now using custom interfaces, but it's a
bit tricky. Trickier than it needs to be I think

-          The possiblility exists for a base interface that handles
accessibility and localisation, with whatever graphics / tools you want
to put in there.

-          Several people have already done this.

 

Opening this up to other runtimes. This is where toolkits really comes
in to it's own, and I'm excited about the possibilities here:

-          Toolkits seperates the xml creation and the runtime that
'plays' it;

-          Currently the runtime is Xerte's engine, an AS2.0 swf. This
is very stable and doesn't change much.

-          XML Sharing allows other applications to use the data...

-          ...so anyone could develop a Flex / AS3.0 / HTML Javascript /
CSS / whatever you like solution that used the xml data built by a
toolkits wizard.

-          This gives us runtime independence and future proofing - this
is extremely cool.

-          The community could start  by developing alternative runtimes
that consume the current Page Templates xml, and could address other
issues which are of a higher priority for the community than for us -
like localisation, more easily customised interfaces and so on.

 

J

 

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of RonM
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 8:47 AM
To: 'Xerte discussion list'
Subject: RE: [Xerte] Creating custom templates on the basis of
Nottingham.rlt

 

Some good points Peter and I've briefly discussed bits of this with
Julian too but less about local customisation and more about us all
being able to add to the Nottingham developed templates (and share with
the community) in a way that is efficient and not overridden by future
releases. For example...

 

Over the last couple of weeks we've been looking at and testing the
differences between different swf and video file formats and how to get
them to work with either the existing page types or where necessary a
custom page type. As a result Julian has added some code to cope with
moletv links and a new page type specifically for Jing movies. But the
team at Notts can't possibly keep up with all the variations out there
and not everyone would need those extra pages either. We can create
customised stuff for local needs which is obviously one of the big
benefits of what is a fantastic tool. However I think we need a way to
build additional templates, to share those with the community and
somehow allow an author to use any of the templates available in the
same LO.

 

I think Julian had some ideas of how this might be achieved but I doubt
that will be in time for the imminent release of toolkits v1. In fact I
don't think we should distract Julian and Pat from getting that finished
or do anything to stop the frequent updates and improvements that have
been added recently or in the future. I think we just need a solution to
prevent duplicated effort.

 

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Peter
Huppertz
Sent: 11 March 2009 21:59
To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: [Xerte] Creating custom templates on the basis of
Nottingham.rlt

 

Dear List, 

the Nottingham-template of the xerte installation includes many nice
features I would like to have in my own template. On the other hand I
want to tailor the design of my learning piece to the ci of my institute
and to the needs of the project I work on. 
So my approach in the past was to take the Nottingham template and
redesign it. For example: 
- change the size of the project to my needs 
- change the interface with custom header, buttons, panels, fonts, etc. 
- change the position of the different items that are
generated/loaded/etc. 
- include custom exercises 

In the last few days literally every hour a new version of the template
arrived. Which is good in terms of development, but which is bad for me,
cause I must either change my template to include the new features, or
tailor the Nottingham-template again. 

So now my question is: is my process the right way to tailor a template
to my needs or is there a completely different approach which is much
simpler? If there is no simpler way, would it be possible to make the
Nottingham-template easier to tailor. Some ideas I have: 

- store all positing data in variables based on the size of the stage 
- use css styles for all text which is displayed 
- create a template for a custom interface (including next/previous
buttons, help button, etc.) 

So, please tell me what you think. If you see some value in my idea I
would be happy to help you! 

Before I forget it: Xerte is really a great tool. The best balance
between userfriendlyness and totally customizable I have ever seen! Good
job. 

Peter

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