SCORM - Lesson 5 - XML

XML - eXtensible Markup Language

Rama possibly you are already familiar with XML. If so, you might be tempted to skip this section and go directly to the assessment for this lesson. However, please do not skip the last few pages on the structure and role of the manifest file. First a brief introduction to XML.

XML - What is this?

XML looks similar to HTML. First they are both W3C Standards. If you have ever looked at the source text file for a web pages, you are familiar with HTML. For example the HTML statement creates a new paragraph in your web page, the statement signals your browser to display the font following this statement in red. HTML is a script language that tells your browser how to display text, graphics, etc., on your monitor. Without HTML, the web would be a pretty boring place.

XML uses a similar format because like HTML, it is a special implementation of a more complex scripting language called SGML. That is, HTML and XML share the same roots. An example XML statement would be:

Notice that this looks like HTML. It's no wonder that some people think of XML and HTML as doing the same thing. However, they have very different functions.

XML versus HTML - how are they different?

XML and HTML have very different functions. HTML is used to communicate to your browser how to display information on your monitor. XML, on the other hand, is used on the web to communicate data, which usually is not for display purposes.

XML and HTML are also different in one other respect. If you have every written HTML, you know that your browser is very forgiving of typing errors, or even syntax errors in your HTML. For example, if you type instead of , your browser does not mind. HTML is not case sensitive.

XML on the other hand is not so kind. XML, for example, is case sensitive. Small typing errors can create problems in XML.

How does SCORM use XML?

Recall that one of the three components of SCORM is content packaging. Packaging content requires the course developer to not only package the course resources into a single directory, it also requires that the following information be described in a special XML file:

       Course description,

       Course sequencing (navigation), and

       Course resources (files).

The IMS Content Packaging Specification, and hence SCORM ver 1.2, requires this information to be placed in one XML file with the name imsmanifest.xml . Every SCORM-conformant course must include this file in top level of the course directory. This is an XML file, a file with a particular format. If you are a course developer, you will need to build this file, which means you will be creating a particular xml file for your course.

However, don't worry. XML is not very complicated and this course will give you several examples to work from. You don't need a special application to build an XML file. You can create this file with any text editor.