Forum OpenACS Development: Response to dotLRN and standards

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Posted by Michael Feldstein on

It's my understanding that these XML specs are a method for exchanging data between systems. How data is stored on a given system is a separate issue. We can be SCORM, ADL-compliant because we have a data model and code that will export/import XML according to these specs to/from our system. Support for these specs are a consideration when designing a data model and determining a feature set. But our system will still use a relational database (PostgreSQL in our case) to store the information.

That's exactly right. The specifications difine (minimum) features and metadata labels, partially define a data model, and in some cases the APIs for putting and calling the relevant data. They do not eliminate the need for application design. But I think they can provide important hints for thinking through hard problems like branching, testing functionality, etc.