SCORM learning object output

[expatriate]

Hi,
oXygen has good support for the new DITA learning specialisations. But DITA OT 1.5 supports direct transformation to a SCORM-compliant learning object. Will this (soon? ever?) be possible from within oXygen?

[Radu]

Hello,

Oxygen 11 integrates DITA OT 1.5 M19 and Oxygen 11.1 will integrate the DITA OT 1.5 M23.
Can you give us more details about this transformation? What is the build target in DITA OT 1.5 which should accomplish this?

Regards,
Radu

[expatriate]

Hi Radu
Thanks for quick response, apologies for my slow one.

Maybe Oxygen 11.1 has solved part of my problem, but more DITA experience than I have (about zero) might solve the rest.

Basically I'm trying to build the content from
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/do ... EADME.html
into SCORM compliant learning objects of the type in
samples/learningsamples/sampleout
from the oasis dita12learningsamples zip.
Does this make any sense?

[Radu]

Hi,

We will consider integrating the SCORM transformation type in a future version of Oxygen.
In the meantime if you are having trouble integrating the SCORM plugin which comes with the samples in the Oxygen bundled DITA Open Toolkit you can contact us on our support address:
support@oxygenxml.com
and we will try to give you some steps.

Regards,
Radu

[Radu]

Dear Pat,

First of all you should always run ANT transformations with the bundled
Oxygen DITA OT from inside Oxygen as we provide a custom libraries path
for the build files.
Then, I will try to outline a number of steps to integrate the plugin
(maybe you have already accomplished some of them):
0) Backup the "OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/" directory.
If it is too late, you can always extract it again from a fresh Oxygen kit.
1) Expand the plugin in the
"OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/plugins". When this is done
you should have a folder called "org.oasis.learning" in the plugins
directory.
2) Run the equivalent of "ant -f integrator.xml" from Oxygen.
In order to do this, open a DITA Map in the DITA Maps Manager, create a
new transformation scenario (no matter what type) and in the "Advanced"
tab in the "Custom build file" browse for the
"OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/integrator.xml" file.
Then run the transformation.
3) The transformation should modify some files among which the
"OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/build.xml" file.
Unfortunately in my case at least there seemed to be some problems with
the target integration so some fixes needed to be made.
4) Open a Learning DITA Map in the DITA Maps Manager, create a new XHTML
transformation scenario, in the "Parameters" tab add a parameter called
"transtype" with the value "scorm". Then run the scenario. It should
create the scorm structure in the specified output directory.

Regards,
Radu

[expatriate]

Dear Radu
Minor fixes are clearly flagged up in the log; once these are made, all worked perfectly for me.
Thanks for the excellent support.
Pat

[expatriate]

Hi
Has this procedure been broken by subsequent updates in either oXygen or the plugin? The integration process now *appears* to go OK but trying to build a SCORM XHTML object (step 4) now results in "build failed" with console message:

/Applications/oxygen/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/build.xml:93: Cannot find /Users/patrickl/Desktop/DITA-L&T/dita12learningsamples.zip Folder/samples/learningsamples/conductor.xml imported from /Applications/oxygen/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/build.xml

Several attempts to move files around manually don't seem to deliver so I guess there's a more basic problem?

Pat

[Radu]

Hi Pat,

Each new version of Oxygen tries to integrate the newest DITA Open Toolkit available at the release time. In case of Oxygen 11.2 this is DITA OT 1.5.1M1. These DITA OT newer versions probably contain modifications which affect installing older plugins and maybe you should also find a newer version of the SCORM plugin and the integration will perform better.

From the error message you posted, in the oxygen/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/build.xml build file at line 93 the integration process added some kind of import/include to a file which cannot be located. If you correct the path to point to the right location, maybe it will work then.
Also, reading from my previous post even the older integrations had problems (step number 3 from my first reply) which needed to be fixed by modifying the build files.

Regards,
Radu

[expatriate]

Hi Radu
Thanks. Blundering through a fog (never used ant, hardly know UNIX etc.) I patched line 93 by putting in the explicit path to conductor.xml. Next the 'scorm' transtype is not recognised: only 'scormtemp4b'.
Now the transformation works!
Until...
"/Applications/oxygen/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/build_general.xml:116: javax.xml.transform.TransformerConfigurationException: Failed to compile stylesheet. 2 errors detected."

Thanks for all your help but maybe it's worth waiting until they sort this lot out. It's a pity because the idea's an exciting one.

Cheers
Pat

[expatriate]

Oh and if anyone cares, the ant script also wanted the learning samples plugins folder in DITA-OT/samples/learningsamples. Go figure.

Thanks
Pat

[Radu]

Hi Pat,

Maybe it would help if you would post the entire error message.
Maybe you can also ask some details on the DITA Users List:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/

Regards,
Radu

[expatriate]

Good morning Radu
I'll try dita-users, where interestin SCORM has been slight so far.

Yes, 'read the error messages' DOES work. XSLT needs learning2xhtml.xsl in the original location DITA-OT/plugins/org.oasis.learning/xsl. So my working configuration has duplicate copies of the entire plugins/org.oasis.learning directory, the second one being in samples/learningsamples. This makes no sense to me and surely the contents of org.oasis.learning can be shared out between the two locations, but for the time being it works.

Any comment you could make which would clarify the issue for dita-users readers (i.e. experts, I guess, unlike me) would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Pat

[expatriate]

Hi Radu
With Oxygen 12.1 with DITA OT 1.5.2M05, setting up SCORM output is a little easier than it was when I last wrote. For anyone else trying this, here's your original guidance annotated with the path corrections still needed; I hardwired these, but those who know what they're doing can do better.

0) Backup the "OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/" directory.
If it is too late, you can always extract it again from a fresh Oxygen kit.
1) Expand the plugin in the "OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/plugins". When this is done you should have a folder called "org.oasis.learning" in the plugins directory.
2) Run the equivalent of "ant -f integrator.xml" from Oxygen, as follows:
(a) open any DITA Map in the DITA Maps Manager,
(b) create a new transformation scenario (no matter what type) and
(c) in the "Advanced" tab in the "Custom build file" browse for the
"OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/integrator.xml" file.
(d) run the transformation.
3) The transformation should modify some files, among them the "OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/frameworks/dita/DITA-OT/build.xml" file. Two paths in this file need correction: to conductor.xml and to map2scorm.xsl. Just find the files and replace the paths in build.xml (which are in terms of editor variables) with the current paths.
4) Open a Learning DITA Map in the DITA Maps Manager, create a new XHTML
transformation scenario, in the "Parameters" tab add a parameter called
"transtype" with the value "scorm". Then run the scenario. It should
create the scorm structure in the specified output directory.

Thanks again
Pat