Series 11 Technical Specifications and Technical Guide Template

Series 11 Technical Specifications and Technical Guide Template

Optimake Toolbox – Technical guide

Technical guide

MSA07 Manufacturing Services Training Package

Optimake

Optimising manufacturing processes

Series 11.07 Flexible Learning Toolbox

Supporting resources for MSA30107

Certificate III in Process Manufacturing

7/11/2008: Version 1.0


© Commonwealth of Australia 2008

The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth of Australia. This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to Training Copyright, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, GPO Box 9880 Canberra City ACT 2601 or email .

Australian Flexible Learning Framework

Optimake Toolbox – Technical guide

Contents

Introduction......

System requirements......

Client hardware and software (for learners)......

Server hardware and software (for RTO)......

Developer hardware and software (for customising)......

Toolbox Help Desk and support services......

Customising Toolbox content......

What features can be customised?......

Basic editing......

Customising images on the workplace project overview page......

Customising the ‘contact you trainer’ button to open an email client......

Customising a Toolbox for single unit delivery......

Keeping to the standards......

Visual design......

Navigation......

File structure......

Accessibility......

Technical support......

Installation on a web server......

Installing into a SCORM-compliant LMS......

Producing CD-ROMs for distribution......

Known issues......

Troubleshooting......

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)......

The Toolbox Help Desk......

List of tables and figures

Table 1: Customisable elements......

Australian Flexible Learning Framework1

Optimake Toolbox – Technical guide

Introduction

This technical guide has been developed to support you in delivering the Optimake Series 11.07 Toolbox. This guide explains the technical features and file structure of the Toolbox to assist technical staff in the installation and customisation of the Toolbox. (For information on how to use the Toolbox to deliver training, please see the accompanying trainer guide.)

This technical guide is divided into three sections:

  • system requirements
  • customising Toolbox content
  • technical support (FAQs, troubleshooting, Help Desk).

System requirements

Client hardware and software (for learners)

Hardware

To use the learning material in this unit, learners will need a computer with the following features:

  • IBM® compatible with a 1000 MHz processor running Windows 2000, XP, Vista

or

  • Apple Macintosh® with a 500 MHz processor running OSX v10.3.0 with

–256 Mb of RAM

–1024 x 768 pixel display

–CD-ROM drive

–Internet access

–Sound card.

Software

Learners will also need the following software/plugins installed on their computer:

  • Internet Explorer 6.0 or above (

or

  • Firefox 2.0 or above (

or

  • Safari 1.3 or above (
  • Microsoft® Word 97 or a similar word processing program to open and use downloadable forms, checklists and worksheets.
  • Adobe®Flash Player 9. If you do not have this plugin, you can download and install the latest free version from
  • Adobe® PDF Reader 6.0 or above. If you do not have this plugin, you can download and install the latest free version from

Incorrect versions of these applications could result in information being shown in an unreadable form or not shown at all.

Server hardware and software (for RTO)

  • IBM compatible computer with a 1000 MHz processor (or UNIX equivalent)
  • 256 Mb of RAM
  • 4 Gb hard disk space free
  • CD-ROM drive
  • 2xISDN (128k), T1 preferred
  • Internet server software

Developer hardware and software (for customising)

Same as client hardware and software above, with the addition of:

  • an HTML text editor such as Homesite®, BBEdit® or Macromedia® Dreamweaver
  • a word processor such as Microsoft® Word to edit documents.

If customisation of multimedia interactions is required, then the following applications may be necessary:

  • Flash CS3
  • XML SPY or equivalent XML editing tool
  • Photoshop/Fireworks (or equivalent)for editing still images
  • SoundEdit16 (or equivalent) for editing sound content

Toolbox Help Desk and support services

The Toolbox website provides support at This site offers Help Desk details, frequently asked questions, installation and configuration advice and patches for any products that are found to have minor errors or discrepancies. If you are unable to find what you are looking for on this site, please email the Toolbox Help Desk at phone 1300 736 710.

Customising Toolboxcontent

In most cases Toolboxes are able to be modified and redistributed with minimal licensing or copyright encumbrance. However, before commencing any modifications we recommend that you check the license details of the Toolbox to ensure that any customisation undertaken does not contravene the conditions of that license.

For licensing conditions visit:

Remember to retain the original files in their CD-ROM format so that you always have an original copy of the Toolbox as a backup.

What features can be customised?

Toolboxes can be customised by users under the flexible licensing arrangements, as long as they are not on-sold. You are therefore encouraged to customise the Toolboxes. However, before embarking on any modifications or customisation, we suggest that you:

  • check the licensing details of the Toolboxes to ensure that any customisation does not contravene the conditions of the licence
  • have the required trained personnel
  • remember to retain the original files in the CD-ROM format as a backup (should you require them at a later stage).

Some design aspects of the Toolboxes can be easily customisable. However, there are other aspects of the Toolboxes that are more difficult. For this complex customisation we recommend that you proceed only if you have the relevant trained technical personnel.

Table 1: Customisable elements

Element / To customise
Description / Location
Acknowledgements page / Formatted entirely in XHTML – edit with Dreamweaver / acknowledgements.htm
Welcome screen / Formatted entirely in HTML – edit with Dreamweaver / welcome.htm
HTML pages
(eg introductory text) / Introductory text to the various tasks and activities is contained in standard XHTML. Browse to the location in the Optimake Toolbox, take note of the URL and use that to find the appropriate file in the Optimake Toolbox’s directory/file structure
Open the file in Dreamweaver (or a text editor) and make the changes
Changes to styles should be made via the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) / Example:
content\02_msapmsup292a\02_sampling\01_introduction\page_001.htm
Flash text / Flash interactions in the Optimake Toolbox often pull in external data (eg text) from an XML file.
Text located within Flash can be customised by locating the corresponding .xml file in the ‘xml’ directory and editing the appropriate content. This can be achieved using a simple editing tool such as MS Notepad. / Examples:
page_001.htm page_001.xml
Flash interactions / Flash interactions can be customised by anyone with the required Macromedia Flash skills. Some interactions are more complex and require Flash ActionScript knowledge.
To customise, open the page in Dreamweaver and select the Flash object that you wish to change. Under the properties of the object, you will see a filename such as page_001.swf. You cannot change this directly, but must rebuild it from the source code.
Using CS3 authoring software, browse to the location of the source_files folder and locate the corresponding folder. Within this folder you will find the .fla source file(s) for the .swf. This is the file you will need to edit. / Examples:
page_001.swf
and
source\flash\02_msapmsup292a\1_sampling\01_introduction\page_001.fla

Basic editing

There are numerous ways of editing the content of thisToolbox. The approach is similar to editing pages that might be found on any website.

The two simplest ways are:

  1. Using a web development package (MS FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver).
  2. Using a straight text editor (MS Notepad or your favourite text editor).

A basic understanding of HTML and the software package is useful.

Web development software package

  • Download the complete Toolbox contents onto your machine
  • Identify the pages you would like to edit (theseare displayed in the address bar at the top of the browser page when viewing)
  • Locate these files in the downloaded files, following the paths displayed in the browser
  • Open each file in your web editing software package (ie MS FrontPage or Macromedia/Adobe Dreamweaver) and make appropriate changes
  • Save each file
  • Check your edits in a web browser to see if they display properly

Text editor (ie MS Notepad)

  • Download the complete Toolbox contents onto your machine
  • Locate the file you wish to edit, following the paths displayed in the browser
  • Open the file using a text editor (ie MS Notepad)
  • Make appropriate changes, following the CSS styles, some of which are:

–<h1> (main headings) – larger blue font in capitals

–<h2> (sub headings) – green font

–<p> (main content, ie paragraphs) – black font

  • Save each file
  • Check your edits in a web browser to see if they display properly

Customising images on the workplace project overview page

The workplace project overview page can be customised to show a different image or multiple images.

To customise the images that appear in a workplace project overview page follow the steps below.

  1. Find the folder that contains the workplace project page that you wish to customise, eg content/01_msapmup303a/99_workplace_project/. The browser address bar can help you determine the location of the file.
  2. Copy the images that you wish to display to the images folder. For best results images should be 340 x 200 pixels in size.
  3. Open the xml/image_container.xml file in your preferred HTML text editor such as Dreamweaver or BBEdit.
  4. Notice that the file contains an image ‘node’ that has information about the location of the image file (imageUrl) and the image label (imageLabel)

Example of XML code

  1. Create a duplicate image ‘node’ in the file by copying the existing node and pasting it directly underneath.
  2. Modify the new node by changing the filename to that of an image you copied to the images folder and changing the image label text.

Example of XML code

  1. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each image that you added to the images folder.
  2. Delete any image nodes that are not required and save the file. Delete any images from the images folder that are not required.
  3. Open the workplace project overview page to check your work. If multiple images have been added you should see back/next buttons that allow you to move from image to image.

Customising the ‘contact you trainer’ button to open an email client

The Toolbox encourages collaboration and discussion from learners and provides a ‘contact your trainer’ button. This button can be modified to open an email client for learners to communicate with their trainer.

To modify the button to open an email client follow the steps below.

  1. Open the HTML file that contains the button in your preferred HTML text editor such as Dreamweaver or BBEdit.
  2. On the page find the HTML code that refers to ‘Have a chat with your trainer about what you think would happen.’
  1. Replace the link information so that it provides the email address of the trainer and the subject of the email, eg mailto:?subject=Optimake Toolbox
  1. Save the file and open the page to review your work. Check that when the button is selected an email client opens and the correct email information is shown.
  2. You will need to make this change in a number of files. The files that contain the button are listed below.

content/01_msapmup303a/03_check_for_faults/03_what_if/page_001.htm

content//01_msapmup303a/04_repairs_records/03_what_if/page_001.htm

content//03_msapmsup230a/02_getting_ready/03_what_if/page_001.htm

content//03_msapmsup230a/03_check_process/03_what_if/page_001.htm

content//03_msapmsup230a/04_monitor/03_what_if/page_001.htm

content//04_msapmsup240a/02_getting_ready/03_what_if/page_002.htm

content//04_msapmsup240a/03_doing_maintenance/03_what_if/page_001.htm

content//04_msapmsup240a/04_recording/03_what_if/page_001.htm

content//06_msapmsup300a/02_maxmise_prod/02_case_study/page_002.htm

content//06_msapmsup300a/02_maxmise_prod/03_what_if/page_001.htm

Customising a Toolbox for single unit delivery

You may only want to offer one or two units from the Toolbox, or limit access to certain units and/or streams.

To disable access to a unit, open the shared/xml/00_homescreen.xmlfile in a text editor, edit the 'href' node of the unitby removing all the information from the node so that it appears as <href</href> and save. The item will appear disabled on content/home.htm. You will also need to update the text menu (content\home_text_menu.htm) by deleting the link to the unit.

In addition, delete the appropriate folders in the content directory, eg content/02_msapmsup292a/.

Each competency/topic conforms to a standard naming convention of xx_title where xx is a number referring to that section’s position on the menu, and title is the name of the competency/topic, eg02_sampling.

Keeping to the standards

This Toolbox has been developed in accordance with a number of internal conventions and international standards. These standards may be related to accessibility, cross-browser compatibility, or just to enable the easy location and customisation of content.

Keep this in mind when you are customising, as whatever you produce will need to be accessible, cross-browser compatible, and able to be further customised.

Try to ensure that any changes you make conform with the following standards:

  • WCAG 1.0, Priority 1 –
  • XHTML 1.0 Transitional –
  • CSS2 –

Visual design

This Toolbox uses:

  • Cascading Style Sheets (CSS1 and CSS2) for visual layout
  • only relative font sizes compatible with the user specified ‘text size’ option have been specified.

If your browser or browsing device does not support style sheets at all, the content and menu structure of each page is still readable.

Global formatting with CSS

This Toolbox has been created with CSS which will enable you to make global changes to the ‘look and feel’. If you donot have a good understanding of HTML or CSS you should get somebody with this knowledge to help you.

The main CSS filesare located at shared\css\.

You can find out more about CSS at

Navigation

Flash-based navigation is provided to access the unit of competency which is supplied data via the file shared/xml/00_homescreen.xml. Navigation within a competency is embedded in every page of the competency. Modification of navigation within a unit is best undertaken (by experienced Dreamweaver users) using the Dreamweaver library files located in the Library folder. Otherwise each page in a competency will need to be modified to adjust the navigation consistently.

File structure

The files and directories have been organised in a logical directory structure to make it easier to extract, modify and deliver individual components of the OptimakeToolbox. The file structure reflects the structure of the Toolbox itself in that it consists of Competencies > Topics > Sub-topics, eg 02_msapmsup292a\02_sampling\03_what_if.

The file naming convention used for content pages is page_xxx.htm within a sub-topic to designate a content page’s order in a content sequence, eg page_005.htm.

The following table outlines the directory structure and explains the main folders and files.

Root directory / Description
index.htm / Entry page for the entire Optimake Toolbox. This page includes links to the acknowledgements page, the system requirements page, unit information, disclaimer and copyright, the trainer guide, the technical guide.
content / The ‘content’ folder contains all the learning content.
content\02_msapmsup292a / The competency folder contains the topic folders for the specific competency.
content\02_msapmsup292a\02_sampling / The topic folder contains the sub-topics for the specific topic.
content\02_msapmsup292a\02_sampling\03_what_if / The sub-topic folder contains the pages for the specific
sub-topic.
content\00_induction / This folder contains the pages for the Optimake induction.
shared / This folder contains global files such as scripts, CSS, images, Flash and XML.
shared\images / This folder contains all the graphical content.
Library / The ‘Library’ and ‘Templates’ folders contain Dreamweaver templates and library items used in customisation. These items do not need to be deployed.
Templates

Accessibility

The Optimake Toolbox has been designed to meet the requirements of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Priority 1 Guidelines. Measures employed to facilitate equitable use include the following:

  • Relevant images have the appropriate ALT arguments, meaning they have an equivalent when read by speech synthesisers such as JAWS.
  • Navigation elements have been included as text without ALT arguments to facilitate faster reading in speech synthesisers.
  • Where JavaScripted popups appear, an alternative mechanism has been provided. This may mean that a popup will appear as a new window if JavaScript is turned off.
  • Rich media assets such as Flash elements are supported by text equivalents (in RTF format) for use by magnification or speech synthesis software.
  • Text and paragraph elements within HTML pages have been deployed in a way that supports both text size change within the supported browser and local CSS.

If you modify any of this Flash content, remember to modify the content in the alternative version as well. The alternative version name follows the name of the HTML on which it is embedded. If the HTML file is called page_001.htm,the alternative would be found in page_001a_ta.doc.

Text equivalents of rich elements

All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Complex images include LONGDESC attributes or inline descriptions to explain the significance of each image to non-visual readers. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.

Text alternatives to Flash movies are also provided. If you replace any image with another, it is important that you update the ALT tag or LONGDESC tag appropriately.

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