[Xerte] The future of Xerte

Tue May 19 14:44:11 BST 2009

I can see your dilemma.

Having been there myself, I suggest that you stick with the immediate needs of the UoN and the key stakeholder for the project. 

By roadmap / themes and priorities I mean that you put what you intend to do first. These in essence become your top priorities, the other elements such as the non-LDAP become secondary and are pushed out to the community to develop  - hopefully with your support and guidance.

As for database abstraction - put it as a 'we will look at if we have time' - its not as easy as you think, each database has its own SQL nuances that need to then be catered for. Stick with what you have and know, but assist some one who wants to go down a different path/database.

Just out of curiosity can you list the next 5-10 developments that you want to make? Also as you have a database for the online tool kits, you need to think how you will support any mods made to it, for those already with an install. I personally went down the line of having scripts - one that is the full database to be used during the install and another that is an update to bring the database in line.

I hope this helps and gives you some more information as to a direction to take. Its so easy to become bogged down into delivering everything for everyone.

Nic

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From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Patrick Lockley
Sent: 19 May 2009 14:15
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: RE: [Xerte] The future of Xerte

I think (ideally) this needs a little reciprocation.

I (for my side of things with PHP/MySQL) am stuck between adding new things that need say database changes, and trying to keep the code stable for the people with installs. Then there is what we develop.

For example

At Nottingham we have no need for non-LDAP authentication, so we've not written it. But I could think of a lot of places which would like this. 

We are happy with MySQL, but a lot of places use SQL server so there is a case for an abstraction layer for the database maybe?

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Nicola Wilkinson
Sent: 19 May 2009 13:55
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: RE: [Xerte] The future of Xerte

Hi,

I think it would be nice to see a roadmap of developments intended for the next 6-12 months. That would give people an idea of what you as the developers at Nottingham are expecting to achieve. Some other open source project use a themes and priorities style document to convey this information to the community surrounding their projects.

I hope it is something you consider putting together as I think it will help potential users 'sell' the Xerte tool to institutions and senior managers.

Nic

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From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Tenney
Sent: 19 May 2009 13:45
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: RE: [Xerte] The future of Xerte

Hi,

The University of Nottingham have sunk a lot of money into this so far and it is a key part of our elearning strategy. The Xpert Project is to develop a repository that will sit alongside Xerte Online Toolkits - it is that project that will complete in September. Beyond that we anticipate at least another year of refinements, and will be doing more to promote the tools to the outside world, and to develop the communiuty of users to the point where the software would be sustainable, even if the UoN went for a ball of chalk. Right now the software is gaining the UoN much i) kudos and ii) funding, so it's unlikely to go anywhere in the near future.

The long term future of the software will lie with the open-source community around it. I imagine key developers from the Xerte project team would remain members of that community and continue to play an active role. There are already a number of key stakeholders from other institutions and organisations. It is hoped that people like yourself, that have a stake in  the project's sutainability, that use and like using the software, will play a part in helping to sustain it into the future.

J

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Johnathan Kemp
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 1:19 PM
To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: [Xerte] The future of Xerte

Hello Xerte Team,

I am in the process of trying to convince the company I work for to use Xerte On-line Toolkits as their preferred solution for developing e-learning modules for posting on a Moodle site.

I have been looking at the Xerte site for details of the project, particularly with respect to the future plans for Xerte - its ongoing development and maintenance. I note that Xerte is a product of the Xpert project which has on its page a headline "Xpert Project, April 1st - September 30th 2009". 

Are there any details available regarding the future plans for Xerte? Any roadmap for its future development? Any indications of what level of resource, if any, will be available to support the longer term viability of Xerte?

Xerte is a very interesting product but I will need to be able to demonstrate to my colleagues that they do not have to worry about Xerte's viability in the longer term.

Kind regards

Johnathan

Johnathan Kemp
IT Dev. Manager
Connexions Staffordshire
 <http://www.cxstaffs.co.uk/> www.cxstaffs.co.uk
01785 355714

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