Webservices und Webfeeds - Neue Möglichkeiten der systemübergreifenden Kommunikation

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1 Webservices und Webfeeds - Neue Möglichkeiten der systemübergreifenden Kommunikation Präsentation im Rahmen der 5. ILIAS Konferenz 28. September 2006 Universität Göttingen Referent: Alexander Killing ISN, ETH Zürich 1

2 Stand-Alone-LMS IL IAS L M S started as an independent stand-alone system All basic functionalities and services for teaching and learning All administrative functionalities for personalised web application (user administration, permission handling,...) Reasons E-Learning projects often started as pilot studies or for evaluation purposes Fast and easy setup, without need of interface customisation Independence of University departments from central IT Services Unclear role of e-learning in University IT infrastructure 2

3 Processes Supported by Stand-Alone-LMS User Management Learning Content Presentation Cooperation Course Management Test & Assessment Communication Content Authoring Evaluation System Administration Learning Management System 3

4 LMS Requirements Today LMS are becoming more a centrally provided service in educational institutions LMS are increasingly integrated into existing IT infrastructures Functionalities common to multiple applications are provided outside of the LMS (e.g. user administration) Changes in other systems must be reflected in the LMS Information of the LMS must be presented in other applications Integration should be seamless (Single Sign On, Global CI) 4

5 Road of Integration: Standard Compliant Exchange F irst Step: Standard C om pliant Data E xchange HTML and SCORM Exchange for Learning Content IMS-QTI Test & Assessment Exchange XML-based User Exchange Advantages Batch Processing of Large Sets of Data Content and Data is not Locked Into System Disadvantages Import/Export Processes must be invoked manually No Realtime Synchronisation with other Applications 5

6 Road of Integration: Webservices Next Step: Integration with SOAP SOAP is a lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralised, distributed environment Web Services are based on three protocols SOAP (not interpreted as acronym anymore) WSDL (Web Service Description Language) UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) A webservice can be used by another application to send and get data Advantages Processes are invoked automatically by other applications Realtime synchronisation is possible 6

7 ILIAS SOAP operations (3.7.x) Authentication Repository Adm inistration login addobject logincas updateobjects logout addreference getobjectbyreference U seradm inistration getobjectsbytitle adduser searchobjects importusers getobjidbyimportid lookupuser getrefidsbyimportid getuser gettreechilds updateuser getxmltree updatepassword deleteobject deleteuser removefromsystembyimportid 7

8 ILIAS SOAP operations (3.7.x) C ourse Adm inistration Group Adm inistration addcourse addgroup updatecourse groupexists getcoursexml getgroup assigncoursemember assigngroupmember excludecoursemember excludegroupmember isassignedtocourse isassignedtogroup deletecourse (deleteobject) 8

9 ILIAS SOAP operations (3.7.x) P erm ission Adm inistration addrole revokepermissions deleterole getuserroles adduserroleentry addrolefromtemplate deleteuserroleentry getroles getoperations getlocalroles grantpermissions getusersforrole 9

10 Examples SOAP Integration E xam ples Novell Argos Stud.IP HIS-Interface 10

11 Example: Novell Integration of ILIAS in Novell Web Architecture Goal: Using ILIAS for World-Wide Product Training Requirements: Use of global user administration / e-directory Operate distributed ILIAS server Central content deployment 11

12 Example: Novell Implementation Novell-Portal (Login with Novell Account) User Content E-Directory containes all user data (incl. Language, City) User User User ILIAS Master OpenOffice Modules, Tests & Courses ILIAS X ILIAS Y SOAP-Interface ILIAS Z 12

13 Example: ARGOS E-Learning Architecture for Schools in South-West-France Goal: Provide all services in one user environment Requirements: Central User Authentication (CAS) Portal Integration / Portlet Support Interface to document management system 13

14 Example: ARGOS Authentication (CAS) U Portal (esup) Sarapis Sarapis Documents Content SOAP-Interface ILIAS U Informations Schools Classes User WSRP* Content-Infos Learning Content Tests Courses Working Groups * = Web service remote portlet interface 14

15 Centralised User Authenticaton and Administration L DAP ( L ightweight Directory Access P rotocol ) Protocol to access data directories (mostly user related data) ILIAS implementation currently rudimental Plans to extend ILIAS to allow individual mapping / update Radius Authentication Server User and Password are entered in ILIAS and forwarded to the server C AS ( C entral Authentication Server ) Single Sign-On Protocol User and Password are only entered at and send to a trusted central server Shibboleth Adds federated identity managment to Single Sign-On Identity providers supply user information to service providers 15

16 Road of Integration: Bookmarking ILIAS objects A sm all Step: P erm anent L inks All repository objects provide a permanent link with ILIAS 3.7.x The links will be supported in future versions of ILIAS The links can be used for bookmarking... for linking into ILIAS on external websites The links will work for the public section... for non-public section through login procedure... for non-public section through user registration 16

17 Road of Integration: Webfeeds Future Step: W ebfeeds Allow to provide information from ILIAS on external websites... in personal news reader applications Dominant standards: RSS and Atom Introduction planned for ILIAS Advantages Users are notified of new content without accessing ILIAS Users can organise multiple feeds in their personal news aggregator Users subscribing to a news feed do not need to disclose their address (compared to mailing lists) Users do not need so send unsubscribe s, when they want to stop the service 17

18 Road of Integration: Webfeeds P ossible Applications Learning Modules (ILIAS, SCORM, HTML) Announcements of content changes Groups and Courses Notification about new course / group items Notification about new members Announcements of new settings Forums Notificaton of new postings File Objects Notification of new versions Tests Notification of test results Exercise Tutor Feedback Notification of new uploads 18

19 Thank you for your attention! Further Information: Alexander Killing Matthias Kunkel Stefan Meyer 19