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

[Kemp Johnathan]

As a PS to my previous post.

If you would like to post a new release of Xerte with the latest updates to
Page Templates in it, I will then use this to create a new batch of Page
Wizards containing the mods we have been discussing and a version of the
Page Templates project wide template for testing. This would leave the
original Page Templates files unchanged and give the Xerte Team / Community
something to look at and try out without in any way compromising the current
templates.

The one thing I can think of at present that I would not be sure how to
implement in Page Templates ( there could turn out to be more later ) is the
language bit as I am not sure that the structure of the Page Templates file
will allow for a page definition to contain a data block outside of the
pages opening and closing tags e.g.
<dialogLang>
  data statements
</dialogLang>
<dialog>
  data statements
</dialog>

How would the wizard form know to include both blocks?

Whereas in Page Wizards the xwd is discrete to a single page and the wizard
displays everything between the opening and closing <learningObject> tags.

These mods would take me a while to do, but it may help to move things
forwards whilst leaving you with time to focus on Xerte 3

Kind regards

Johnathan


On 5 May 2011 18:04, Kemp Johnathan <johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com> wrote:

> 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.
>
> <learningObject>
> <dialogLang tryAgain="Try Again" continue="Press Enter to continue"
> showAnswer="The correct answer has been revealed" />
> <dialog linkID="" text="Enter text for the page here" attempts="2">
> <dialogStep name="question" question="Write your question here. 1"
> answer="Enter Answer 1" hint="Enter a hint 1" />
> <dialogStep name="question" question="Write your question here. 2"
> answer="Enter Answer 2" hint="Enter a hint 2" />
> </dialog>
> </learningObject>
>
> 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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