IMS Tool Interoperability Guidelines Release (Version 1.0)
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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

2006 (c) IMS Global Learning Consortium Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc. (IMS/GLC) is publishing the information 
contained in this documentation (ÒSpecificationÓ) for purposes of scientific, 
experimental and scholarly collaboration only.  IMS makes no warranty or 
representation regarding the accuracy or completeness of the Specification.  
This material is provided on an ÒAs IsÓ and ÒAs AvailableÓ basis.  The 
Specification is at all times subject to change and revision without notice.  
It is your sole responsibility to evaluate the usefulness, accuracy and 
completeness of the Specification as it relates to you.  IMS/GLC would appreciate 
receiving your comments and suggestions.  Please contact IMS/GLC through our 
website at: http://www.imsglobal.org.


OVERVIEW

The IMS Tools Interoperability (TI) approach addresses the growing demand for a 
reusable mechanism for integrating third-party tools with core LMS platforms. 
Tools can add specialist functionality to the LMS such as assessment or 
discipline-specific teaching aids. The approach recommended greatly simplifies 
this task whilst also offering a Web Services solution equally applicable to 
Java and .Net implementers. The reuse of a commonly understood approach across 
tools will eliminate the need for bilateral solutions, thus focusing investment 
on adding real value to the learner experience.

Whilst working on this approach in the IMS Global Learning Consortium, the 
participants also implemented a demonstrator for alt-i-lab 2005. Their 
implementations made use of the WSDL auto-generation tool developed by the 
IMS General Web Services group. The use of this tool has allowed the TI approach 
to be specified in UML, from which the tool produces a WSDL file which can be used 
with a variety of Web Services development environments. The fact that there exist 
working systems that have been publicly demonstrated prior to the release of this 
document will hopefully instill confidence in the approach for other adopters 
and implementers.


TI WSDL & XSD CREATION

The TI WSDL and XSD files have been created using the IMS Binding Auto-generation
Toolkit (I-BAT) v0.7.  The I-BAT was applied to the '.xmi' files created from the
Poseidon v3.2 UML authoring tool.  The validity of these files was checked by the 
Oxygen v7.0 tool.

The WSDL files conform to the IMS General Web Services (GWS) v1.0 specification.
The IMS GWS Base Profile is based upon SOAPv1.1, WSDLv1.1, HTTPv1.1 and XSDv1.0.
None of the other IMS GWS profiles are used in the TI.


FILE SET

The set of files supplied in this tool-kit are listed below.

Directory: Deployment Profile

* imsti_ptdd_v1p0.xsl - this is the TI Deployment data model file. 

Directory: LaunchService

* TIRLaunchSyncSIngle.wsdl - this is the TI Launch Service WSDL file.

Directory: OutcomeService

* TIROutcomeSyncSIngle.wsdl - this is the TI Outcome Service WSDL file.


AMENDMENTS HISTORY

First formal release.



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All comments should be sent to: Colin Smythe - csmythe@imsglobal.org


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Colin Smythe
28th February, 2006