This conversion tool is a complete ground up rewrite from LSU's Java cct (cover your eyes!). The software desperately needed a face-lift, so I gave it one. The conversion process is entirely handled through Scala (the xml parsing and what not). I found Scala to be a perfect fit for this type of problem.
The tool is now complete with a test suite and an extension API (which I will go into later).
Note: Development on this project has pretty much stopped for now (though I've taken the opportunity to upgrade build software). People can do whatever they want with it.
Some ideas if I ever get back into the swing of things:
- Split up the project into library and conscript projects
- Add more conversion pieces
- Provide a better extension API (I had some ideas on this)
- Make the default conversion page prettier ... It's pretty horrible as is.
One app, two functions. You can now convert courses on the command-line, convert entire directories of courses, or launch a web site and takes in an archive and spits out a converted course.
I recommend looking at the for the converter to see how it works.
The conversion process is defined by command-line options through --knowledge and --transformer
A knowledge is simply the bit of Intelligence the converter uses to "understand" how to interpret its input. This converter has two knowledges built into it: A blackboard 6.5 < 8.0 archive understanding, and some internal archive called a course dump.
Any programmer can easily extend the converter's functionality by
implementing a Knowledge. The converter scans the classpath for known
Knowledges, and gives the user the ability to use it.
A knowledge takes a given archive, or whatever (it could be anything really, a database, a document, a tarball, a webpage), turn that into sets of objects for conversion. This object model is important to the transformer.
Not the robot in disguise, though that is a perfectly valid definition.
A transformer takes an object model, and transforms it into something real, (a database, a document, an archive, a web page, etc). This converter comes with two: A moodle 1.8 < 2.0 archive, and a course dump.
Like a knowledge, a programmer can extend the converter's functionality by
simply implementing a Transformer.
Note: the converter comes with a knowledge and transformer of its
own format called dumps. This is important for users who don't have a
corresponding transformer for their system, or just want the data from
a knowledge.
The test suite for the Converter is very expansive and also extensible.
Any programmer writing a Knowledge or a Transformer can extend a
knowledge or transformer test cases, respectively.
It is my recommendation to any developer working on a new knowledge or transformer, to first start with a test case. Once a test case is fully implemented, it will work with the main converter.
cct [--web] [--port=80] [--knowledge=blackboard[:package]] [-r] [--input=path]
[--transformer=moodle[:package]] [--output=directory]
Options:
-h, --help | prints out this help
-w, --web | starts a web interface
-p, --port | runs web server on specified port: default 80
-k, --knowledge | uses knowledge from KnowledgeTag
-t, --transformer | uses transformer from TransformerTag
-r, --recursive | uses files in recursive as input (ignored in web mode)
-i, --input | uses this input path (ignored in web mode)
-o, --output | dumps converted to this directory