New in the CampusSource Software Exchange: openFuXML

openFuXML is offered in the CampusSource pool and is a further development of parts of the content management framework FuXML which is in use at the FernUniversität in Hagen for the production of printed and electronic course materials. With openFuXML scientific documents and courses can be created, and, using the rule based production engine rendered in diverse output formats.

The software consists of a document schema (XML Schema), based on which documents are created with the use of an XML editor as well as a rendering framework for the creation of both PDF and HTML outputs. An extensive user manual consisting of installation guidelines, a user handbook and design guidelines is attached.

The main focus of development is currently placed on an optimal format for printing (PDF) as well as on HTML for viewing course materials on screen. Both PDF and HTML are of a high quality standard. The output is configurable and no expert knowledge is needed for content creation. Thus, an economic realisation of the learning and teaching production process can be achieved.

The first version of openFuXML was submitted to CampusSource for an expert opinion. The developer team has since grown resulting from the collaboration of the Centre of Media and IT (ZMI) of the FernUniversität in Hagen. The stimuli and feedback recorded during system operation at the FernUniversity in Hagen have been taken into consideration and incorporated in the further development of openFuXML. The website www.FuXML.org is currently being expanded in order to answer user questions and provide answers to those questions which can not be found in the user manuals. In the near future users will be provided with the possibility to request new features or to report bugs.

The following milestones and future prospects of the developers are worth noting with regard to the further development of the system by the end of 2007 and justify the expectation that the developer community will grow:

Currently courses, course units and laboratory instructions can be created using openFuXML; these templates will be complemented by further templates e.g. thesis, dissertation, book publication, etc. In addition an extension towards novel didactical models and related templates is currently being discussed.
For the second quarter of 2007, a commercial enterprise edition based on a J2EE application server (JBoss), which offers high reliability and an intelligent load balancing will be available. Hereby production requests are shared among many servers, which can dynamically be added or removed during system operation. Furthermore, according to individual rights a user is offered the possibility to access production processes or the cluster configuration using an extended user interface.
Word 2007 filter: With Office 2007, Microsoft will support the XML format. In the zip compressed file format "dox" embedded media objects will also be stored along with XML files. Our goal is to use Word 2007 as an editor and to use the word file directly as the source file for further processing.

The CampusSource experts are very pleased about the fact that the system can be universally used by institutions offering e-learning content on either a single or several platforms with professional quality and certify the software to be of a high quality standard.

Further Information

http://www.campussource.de/org/software/openfuxml

and

http://www.FuXML.org

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