The CustomDP system as a cross media publishing platform - learning objects, metadata and XML The CustomDP system for managing learning content

This presentation gives an overview of the CustomDP system. CustomDP supports four kinds of learning material: SCOs (Sharable Content Objects), sharable resources, referenced content and aggregations. There are four user groups each with a different set of permissions: learners, content creators, validators and chief editors. Learners have the least permissions, mainly for searching and reading learning material. Metadata makes it possible for the users to find learning material they really need. The CustomDP system has a typical three-tier application architecture. The system is be used with a web browser. The user interfaces are mostly HTML. The tool for creating aggregations is implemented as a Java applet. The HTML user interfaces are generated with Java servlets in co-operation with an open-source presentation framework, Barracuda. A relational database is the major data repository. However, images and XML files are stored in the file system. The system runs in two locations. Most of the servlets and the database run in servers located in Finland. Servlets for displaying content run in Germany.