Re: course <-> topic, take 3

["Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh" <ilya@total-knowledge.com>]

Alexey Parshin wrote:
> From what you're saying, the course isn't necessary for the topic. In
> real life, the topic always belongs to some course.
1. Don't forget about object repository.
2. When topic is subtopic of some other topic, it belongs to that topic,
not the course.

> I do understand the situation when topic belongs to more than one
> course - that totally makes sense.
> I don't see much difference so far between the top-level topic and the
> course. 
This is exactly what I'm trying to get across all this time.
> The only difference I can see so far is the connection to the students.
Yeap. Or, more precisely, administrative connection. It is through
actions on the course object,
that students get basic access to other course objects.
> In that case top-level topic is the course.
TLT is _course content_. It's not same thing.
> However, the topic may also have connection to the persons such as
> access level and status, for instance.
Different kind of relationship.
>
> So, my original schema was correct, and topic relates to course as
> many to many.
No.
>
> 2006/10/13, Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh <ilya@total-knowledge.com
> <mailto:ilya@total-knowledge.com>>:
>
>     I guess I didn't say everything that needs to be said on this subject
>     in coherent manner. Let's try to clear out some of this confusion, so
>     that we don't get stuck on this (fairly minor) detail of design.
>     (Some of things I will say here will be changes to functional
>     spec, that
>     are still not reflected in our wiki. I'll get around to that
>     eventually)
>
>     Definitions.
>
>     Topic:
>     Unit of content organization. It is umbrella under which sub-topics,
>     problems,
>     explanations, texts, tests, etc. are gathered.
>
>     Course:
>     Administrative entity that encompasses certain content structure
>     for purposes of linking it with students.
>
>     What this means to end user.
>
>     A. Course is non-shareable entity (this is a change from original
>     spec).
>     This does _not_ mean its content is not shareable. Just the
>     administrative
>     aspects.
>
>     B. When user creates course, interface is such, that he sets up
>     administrative
>     features separately from content.
>
>     C. Interface to creating content of course can be organized in
>     exactly same
>     way as interface to creation of any topic, as it really has all
>     the same
>     features
>     as normal topic.
>
>     What this means for logical organization of functionality (Model
>     layer).
>
>     Course becomes a direct derivative of topic: it basically has same
>     functionality
>     as normal topic (has problems, tests, subtopics, etc). Plus it has
>     some
>     extra
>     functionality: it takes care of students signing up for it, getting
>     grades (if we
>     ever implement this kind of thing), etc.
>
>     What this means on data layer:
>
>     Course becomes an additional set of data pieces that is associated
>     with some
>     topics. In other words: each course has a TLT (top level topic),
>     that it
>     is associated
>     with. More then one course can have same TLT - this is how course
>     sharing/copying
>     is implemented. Topic doesn't have to have direct relationship
>     with course
>     (could be just a stand-alone object not yet used anywhere, could
>     be subtopic
>     of some other topics).
>
>     This is still not quite complete write out of my vision, but I can't
>     think of the way
>     to make it both concise and complete. If you have
>     questions/comments, please
>     try to keep all three layers in mind. This should give us a good
>     basis.
>
>     --
>     Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh
>     Total Knowledge. CTO
>     http://www.total-knowledge.com
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Alexey Parshin,
> http://www.sptk.net 

-- 
Ilya A. Volynets-Evenbakh
Total Knowledge. CTO
http://www.total-knowledge.com