1 / 8

Certification Exam Processes

Certification Exam Processes. How to create XML files to import to Prometric and reports. Training Services February 2010. The Process. Author creates itembase/frame/*.fm images/visio/*.vsd images/gif-images/*.gif images/tiff-images/*.tiff Save FrameMaker files “as XML” to

blaise
Download Presentation

Certification Exam Processes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Certification Exam Processes How to create XML files to import to Prometric and reports Training ServicesFebruary 2010

  2. The Process • Author creates • itembase/frame/*.fm • images/visio/*.vsd • images/gif-images/*.gif • images/tiff-images/*.tiff • Save FrameMaker files “as XML” to • itembase/frame-xml/*.xml • Convert with XSLT to Prometric-style XML under bccpa\prometric-xml\exam.xml • Upload GIF images to a public Web server (or just create a ZIP file containing all images) • Import exam.xml to Prometric (plus upload ZIP with images) • Visit items, configure images manually; randomize distractor order

  3. Directory Structure • Subversion -- proxysg/trunk/v341/exams; packetshaper/v321/exams • itembase/frame – Exam item source files; named as chapters (e.g. product-family-a4.fm) • images/visio – Visio diagrams. One file per chapter. • images/gif-images – Web-ready GIFs (screenshots and exports from Visio; 96 DPI) • images/tiff-images – Printable TIFF (screenshots and exports from Visio; 150 DPI) • Itembase/frame-xml – saved from frame-working as XML • build/*.xml – which exams contain which chapters. Sections. Descriptions • build/*.dtd – XML structure for Prometric import (for validation) • build/xslt ; build/java; build/lib – infrastructure to manipulate XML

  4. Preparing Environment Exam/Item import can be done Prometric administrators/authors only (perhaps not every test author) Necessary software • Java – JDK or JRE 1.6 • JAVA_HOME environment variable (e.g. c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_10 ) • Apache Ant; set ANT_HOME env. variable • Run Ant scripts

  5. Convert with XSLT • Check out the contents from proxysg/v341/exams • Verify that files “index-full.xml” and “bccp-v341.xlm” have the expected content – all chapters are referenced and all belong to their sections. Transform exam XML file to Prometric. Go to directory exams/bccpa. • ant -projecthelp • ant create-full • ant create-exam • ant transform-exam • Find result – e.g.releases/bcsg_waiver-v341-r0911-exam_BETA.xml

  6. Upload GIF files to a Web Server • Each exam item contains no more than one GIF image. It’s name is written as item’s serial # in lowercase. • For example, item PROD-027 (chapter “Blue Coat Products) has image “prod-027.gif”. • All images refered by exam creation can be found under exams/working directory (e.g. bcsg_waiver-v341-r0911-pictures.zip ) • Upload this ZIP during Step 2 of your exam creation. Then configure your exam items with these images (Step 3)

  7. Import Exam to Prometric • Live Demo. Menu “Author Tests”, pick “Import test via XML” from select box; browse to exams/releases/bccpa/bccpa-v303r02.xml; upload. • Look for error messages. If there are any, correct mistakes in your source files and generate the exam’s XML anew. (Errors are most likely in index-structured-v321.xml or in some XML created from a FrameMaker). You may need to find a location of error by its line number. • Configure the exam – set its serial number, price, etc. – as shown in the first presentation. • Make the exam public, and move it to Production folder.

  8. Printable Sample Exams or Production Exams • Install Apache FOP. Configure custom fonts (http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/0.94/fonts.html ) • Go to exams/formatting-objects • Edit sample_exam.xsl as appropriate • Open DOS window in “formatting-objects” • Run • ant –projecthelp • ant create-fo • Run command-line FOP transformation. E.g. • fop sample-exam.fo sample-exam.pdf • Open PDF and correct mistakes if any. Repeat “ant” and “fop” commands as many times as necessary.

More Related