JISC

This project has now completed. See the project website and the final report available at the foot of this page.

As the number of web service tools in the JISC e-Learning Framework (ELF) increases steadily, there is a need for generic software resources that can deploy these tools seamlessly into Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and manage access to them.

Aims and Objectives

The aim of the project is to assemble a toolkit that, given a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) document, will automatically generate consumer software for the associated Web service together with an interface that makes it available as a resource in a VLE. This Service-Oriented Consumer Kit for ELF Tools, or SOCKET, will be an invaluable resource for both the tool developer and teaching communities.

The VLE will obtain information about the proxy services available to it by interrogating the toolkit’s service registry.  Access to the security domains to which the Web services belong will be controlled by the Guanxi security system.

The resultant hybrid VLE (monolith + Web services) will represent an intermediate species on the evolutionary path to a VLE that can be fully integrated into a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).  Although the project will use the Bodington Open Source VLE, SOCKET’s interfaces will be produced in such a way that it should be straightforward to adapt the toolkit for use with any VLE capable of communicating with a Java application server.

The objectives are as follows:

• Create a toolkit software module that acts as an automated factory that manufactures Web service client software from a WSDL file and places the software in a suitable location for use by the VLE.
• Create a toolkit software module that publishes information to the service registry using a suitable data model for the VLE to be able to add the service to its list of available resources.
• Create a software module for the VLE that will enable it to interrogate SOCKET’s service registry to find information on the services available and how to access them.
• Create a toolkit software module that will use the client software to design and render an appropriate web-based interface to the service.
• Test SOCKET using a range of different services.  This will include creating a client for the commercial product Questionmark Perception via its Web services interface.

Dissemination

The SOCKET project team are all members of the Bodington Developers Group which has close links with the SAKAI, IMS, CETIS and LAMS communities. The project team also includes members of the Guanxi project with links to the Shibboleth development and deployment communities. These links will be used to keep other developers and practitioners aware of the progress of the SOCKET project.  The project members will present at JISC events as well as related events organised by ALT, CETIS and related organizations. Dissemination will also be carried out using the project’s website and Sourceforge presence as well as those of Bodington and Guanxi.

Deliverables

• A project website with a description of the project and its products, giving links to the project’s area on the Sourceforge CVS site.
• A version of the Bodington VLE with a range of SOCKET-accessible services will be made available at the project Web site along with instructions for use. 
• A downloadable version (.war file) will be available from the Sourceforge CVS site.
• A “quickstart” version will also be downloadable from Sourceforge: this uses an embedded database so that Bodington will load and run with no setup procedure required.
• Project source code will also be available from Sourceforge.
• Full documentation will be included in the downloads, or this can be downloaded separately from Sourceforge or the project web site.

Stakeholders

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