pipwerks SCORM API Wrapper vs. ADL vs. Rustici SCORM driver

[Nicolas Reibnitz]

Hey Philip, hey everybody,

I'm an eLearning developer with a strong focus on Captivate and other authoring tools. I recently started thinking about developing WBTs without the aid of any authoring solutions (freedom!). Going into that direction would - of course - require to implement the SCORM interface on my own.

While researching SCORM APIs I found the very expensive Rustici SCORM driver, the official ADL specifications and your (free!) API wrapper. I'm now a bit confused about when to use what solution. Can you give me an overview about the different possibilities to talk to an LMS via SCORM these days?

I tried the Rustici Software solution and it worked very well and I'm going to try the pipwerks wrapper now. Still... I mean... $15.000 vs free let's me think I missed something. :)

I'm very grateful for all input I can get regarding that topic!

Thanks in advance!

And Philip: great work with pipwerks.com! Very interesting articles there! Thanks a lot for that as well.

Nicolas

[Philip Hutchison]

Hi Nicolas

Glad you find the resources helpful.

Here's a timeline of wrappers:

ADL (v1)

Rustici

pipwerks

ADL (v2)

When I wrote mine, it was because there weren't many options out there, and I found the ADL's wrapper (v1) very lacking. To be fair, even the ADL didn't consider their wrapper a finished product -- it was meant to be a proof of concept, to be fleshed out by others. But somehow it became the norm.

Rustici's wrapper was very powerful, but was not free at the time, and required licensing. Non-starter for me and my employer. (Rustici now offers a free tier for certain situations)

As I explained on my blog, I didn't care for the ADL wrapper's looseness with global variables, and I felt it didn't incorporate enough (or any) error-checking. I also noticed I found myself rewriting the same code over and over, so I figured it would be nice to have a wrapper that incorporated certain convenience features, such as auto-setting exit status. The ADL wrapper didn't do this, so I wrote my own wrapper. While I was at it, I made my wrapper SCORM version-agnostic, supporting both 1.2 and 2004.

I will be the first to say my wrapper is a little long in the tooth these days, but it still works.

Since then, others have also written their own wrappers, and ADL has completely re-written theirs. The ADL wrapper now includes a few of the features I wanted back in 2008, though I think it still suffers from too many global variables and a few other issues. I don't know enough about other 3rd-party SCORM wrappers to have an opinion.

So for me, I still use my wrapper, if only because I find it easy to use, enjoy the convenience and error-checking features, and know it won't gum up my global namespace. 

<self-serving plug> 

I'm currently writing an ebook explaining my take on all of this, including how to write SCORM code that is as bulletproof as possible (hint: keep it simple). If anyone reading this is interested in the book, please sign up for the mailing list (no spam, no sharing email addresses) to stay up to date. List members will get a discount and hopefully some other goodies (TBD). 

</self-serving plug>

- philip

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[Nicolas Reibnitz]

Hey!

Thank you so much for your quick and thorough reply. I'm going through your SCORM blog posts right now and I think I already have a way better understanding of how everything works.
I'll try and work with your wrapper for a while and I promise to give feedback whenever I successfully use it in an LMS as well as let you know if I get into troubles.

I'm looking forward to your book. Especially because I think there are not enough plain explanations and best practice guides out there.
If I'm wrong about that I'm glad to hear about any resources dealing with DIY SCORM implementation.

Thanks again!