Service Definition for Get e-Portfolio Items Service

NameService Definition for Get e-Portfolio Items Service
Projecte-Portfolio for Lifelong Learning Reference Model Project
AuthorAlan Paull
Creation date4 July 2006
Last update date16 July 2006
Version0.1



Introduction
Seamless transition requires a unified approach to learner data and systems across sectors and Government services, including the devolved administrations. There are many complex challenges and sensitive issues to address, such as privacy, authentication, data protection, and legacy systems.
“Towards a Unified e-Learning Strategy”, DfES consultation document, July 2006

1. This document describes a service for fetching a learner’s e-Portfolio Items relevant to a specified Personal Statement. It should be read alongside the Populate Personal Statement Service Definition other project material relating to the “Narrative for a learner making an application to a higher education institution”, part of the e-Portfolio for Lifelong Learning Reference Model Project.

2. This Service Definition defines a generic system-to-system interface, data elements and data flows to permit an e-Portfolio engine to get items of e-Portfolio data from an e-Portfolio enabled repository. The data items are refer to UKLeaP Assertions

3. No usability requirements have been included in this Service Definition, which is limited to system-to-system requirements.


System Definition

4. This service enables an e-Portfolio engine to get all e-Portfolio Items previously constructed by a learner for a single Personal Statement. It forms part of a wider function to populate a structured Personal Statement.


Interface Definition

5. The service would be available as a method of accessing a repository containing the e-Portfolio data items. Access would be instigated by the local e-Portfolio engine, which might be a local complete e-Portfolio system. The service is invoked by the e-Portfolio engine when the learner seeks to view an existing Personal Statement. The Personal Statement data held locally permits the local system to identify and fetch the relevant e-Portfolio Items, which may be stored locally or remotely.

6. This service is initiated by the e-Portfolio engine on receipt of a Learner ID and a set of e-Portfolio Item IDs relevant to a single Personal Statement for that learner.

7. It is assumed that e-Portfolio items data either local or remote e-Portfolio enabled repositories.

Defining the service

8. This service encompasses the following processes:

9. Connection: This will involve appropriate authentication, which is an implementation detail and not covered further in this specification.

10. Verification: This will depend on login and security protocols not covered further in this specification.

11. The formal definition of the getEportfolioItemRequest and getEportfolioItemResponse services is contained in an operational WSDL file.

WSDL

12. See GetEportfolioItems.wsdl file.

13. This is a light-weight Web Service, so no attempt has been made to combine it with others within this domain.

14. Transport protocol: SOAP, as defined in the SOAP v1.1 encoding schema at http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/, has been assumed.

15. No error-handling is included in this service definition.


Data Dictionary

Data Elements
UKLeaPGenericNotes
RequestUKLeaP sourcedid in LearnerInformation / ContentType / ReferentialLearner IDIdentifies learner; this should be a unique identifier, so would use sourcedid in the learnerInformation structure in UKLeaP; could be a Unique Learner Number (ULN) if established.UKLeaP Assertion / ContentType / indexidePortfolio Item IDIdentifies a specific ePortfolio Item; Request would be for all the relevant items for a specific Personal StatementResponseUKLeaP sourcedid in LearnerInformation / ContentType / ReferentialLearner IDIdentifies learner; this should be a unique identifier, so would use sourcedid in the learnerInformation structure in UKLeaP; could be a Unique Learner Number (ULN) if established.UKLeaP AssertionePortfolio ItemHolding element for ePortfolio item components. Multiple ePortfolio items are expected.UKLeaP Assertion / ContentType / indexidePortfolio Item IDIdentifies a specific ePortfolio Item; Request would be for all the relevant items for a specific Personal StatementUKLeap Assertion / DescriptionePortfolio Item TextLearner’s text. This could be any media, using the Full.Media linking element in UKLeaP. For simplicity this specification refers to text only.

UML Use Case diagram
     Get e-Portfolio Item Use Case diagram
UML Class diagram
     Get e-Portfolio Item Class diagram
16. This UML Class diagram shows the Personal Statement class as well as the two classes directly involved in this service, because the Personal Statement class provides the Personal Statement Item identifiers that determine the ePortfolio Item IDs used for fetching. This process is covered within the Populate Personal Statement specification.

Data Flow
     Get e-Portfolio Item data flow diagram