10.1. HTML Components

10.1.1. Create the HTML Component

To add an HTML component to your course, you can embed the XML for it in the parent XML file, or split it up into either 1 or 2 additional files. You can break up the HTML configuration into an .xml file in the html directory and an additional .html file in the same directory.

Caution

If you are including HTML that is not valid HTML, you must break out HTML content in a separate file.

10.1.2. Example of an HTML Component Embedded in a Vertical

 <vertical display_name="Lesson_1_Unit_1">
    ...
    <html>The above has an error. <b>x</b> should be <b>y</b> in the second equation.</html>
</vertical>

10.1.3. Example of Separate HTML Files

You create an XML file in the html directory for the content that you choose to break out into separate HTML files.

The name of the XML file must match the value of the @url_name attribute of the html element in the vertical XML file.

For example, a vertical XML file contains the following url_name.

 <vertical display_name="Lesson_1_Unit_1">
    <html url_name="Introduction"/>
    . . .
</vertical>

You create the file html/Introduction.xml to define the HTML component.

10.1.4. HTML Component XML File Elements

The root element of the XML file for the HTML component is file is html.

In this case, the html element contains no children.

10.1.5. html Element Attributes

Attribute Meaning
display_name Required. The value that is displayed to students as the name of the HTML component. If you do not supply a display_name value, “html” is supplied for you.
file_name The name of the HTML file that contains the content for the HTML component, without the .HTML extension.

10.1.6. Example HTML Component XML File

The following example shows an XML file for an HTML component.

<html filename="Introduction" display_name="Unit Introduction"/>

10.1.7. Example HTML Component Content

In the component’s HTML file, you add valid HTML to represent the content you want to be displayed to students. For example, the following is from an HTML file for the edX Demo course:

<h3>Lesson 2: Let's Get INTERACTIVE!</h3>
<p>
<img
src="/static/interactive_x250.png" alt="Interactive" width="250"
hspace="12" vspace="12" border="0" align="right" />Now that you know your
way around an edX course let's look at some of the exciting interactive
tools you may encounter. Use the unit navigation bar above to explore.
&nbsp;</p>
<p>Once you have tried the interactive tools in this lesson,
make sure to check out the week 2 homework where we show you several of the
really cool interactive labs we&rsquo;ve created for past courses.
&nbsp;They&rsquo;re fun to play with. &nbsp;Many courses will have tools
and labs that you need to use to complete homework assignments.</p>