Month: October 2005

Make other extensions besides “.shtml” process for Server Side includes

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The default extensions which IIS reads for Server Side Includes are .shtm, .shtml and .stm.

Suppose you want server-side includes to be processed in .htm files also? For example you may have file with the .htm extension which has been on the web for some time and has numerous links pointing at it. You could replace it with a file with one of the allowed extensions, and put a redirect in its place, pointing to the new file. Or, if you have access to the IIS server settings, you could add the .htm extension to the list of files processed for SSI.

Click on thumbnail images to see larger version.

  1. Open IIS Manager and right-click the Default Web Site. Select Properties from the popup menu. The Properties dialog appears.

  2. Select the Home Directory Tab and click Configuration under the Application Settings area.

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Make a directory on a server part of another server’s domain

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Sometimes it is necessary to have files or an application on one IIS web server (Server B) appear as if they were in the same domain as another server (Server A). For example, you may want 

http://serverB.com/content

to be accessible via the URL 

http://serverA.com/content

This is useful in cases where you need to avoid cross-doman scripting issues, or simply want to make everything appear to be hosted under one umbrella domain name.

On an IIS server, this can be accomplished by creating a virtual directory on Server A which points to a directory on Server B.

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Getting Questionmark Perception to work with Docent 6.5

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Making Questionmark Perception quizzes SCORM-compliant, AND compatible with Docent 6.5 LMS was a big piece of our recent Docent implementation project, since we had many legacy quizzes.

Here are the steps involved:

  1. Install QMWise (available from Questionmark.com) on the Perception server.
  2. Install Content packager (available from Questionmark.com) on your workstation
    ( tip, do NOT have SSL enabled on the server – it blocks QMWise communication if the certificate is slightly misnamed).
  3. Read the Knowledgebase article “How can I call Perception from a SCORM-compliant Learning Management System?”
  4. Get the files scorm.pip and perceptionSCO.htm from Questionmark.com.
    5. Continue reading

Docent, SCORM and cross-browser issues

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During our recent Docent LMS implementation, one of the most difficult tasks I was faced with was to ensure SCORM activities work if browsers other than IE were used.

The specific cross-platform issues fell into several categories:

Definitions of terms used in this article:

  • LMS – Learning Management System – a system of launching and tracking online learning content. In this article I am mainly referring to the “Docent 6.5” LMS
  • SCORM – Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model – a communication standard used by online learning modules to communicate scoring and interaction data to a Learning Management System and vice-versa.
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    How to publish Powerpoint files for the web

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    This procedure which will leave you with an original PowerPoint-format (to use in lectures) document, and a web-enabled version:

    1. Create a standard powerpoint presentation. Save it as ProjectName.ppt in the folder you are using for the project. Make sure every slide has a Title. These titles will be used as the titles of the buttons on the left navigation column in your web page. It helps to use a powerpoint template so that you are definitely creating a title with each new slide.
    2. When you are done editing, and ready to make a web version of the presentation, select Save as Webpage from the File menu.
      The Save As dialog comes up.
    3. Navigate to your project folder in the file list area. Double-click on the folder so that it opens and you are working inside it.
    4. Click the CreateNewFolder icon just to the right of the Save in: box. (the icon looks like a folder with a spark on it.)
      A New Folder dialog will pop up. Type learningmodule in the Name box.
    5. Hit OK. You will now be “inside” the learningmodule folder.
      6. Continue reading