Rev 1111 | Rev 5766 | Go to most recent revision | Details | Compare with Previous | Last modification | View Log | RSS feed
| Rev | Author | Line No. | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | bpr | 1 | !read tabletheme |
| 32 | reyssat | 2 | The central piece of a wims server is a cgi program, usually in the name of |
| 3 | wims.cgi. It takes all the http calls to the server, then does the following |
||
| 4 | work: |
||
| 5 | <ol> |
||
| 6 | <li>Call the module asked by the user, and process parameters and variables |
||
| 7 | according to what is defined in the module. |
||
| 8 | <li>Session management. |
||
| 9 | <li>Send the result of the process to the user. |
||
| 10 | <li>Write to different log files. |
||
| 11 | </ol> |
||
| 12 | |||
| 1091 | bpr | 13 | <h4> Modules of wims</h4> |
| 32 | reyssat | 14 | |
| 15 | A wims server is a modular system, with different applications as modules. |
||
| 16 | At each new call to wims, the user has to specify which module he want to |
||
| 17 | access. <p> |
||
| 18 | |||
| 19 | A wims module may be an interactive course or interactive exercise (of any |
||
| 20 | level), a computational tool, a dictionary, a mathematical game, a database, |
||
| 21 | or a mixture of the above. <p> |
||
| 22 | |||
| 23 | Wims modules are independent from each other. Each module has its own |
||
| 24 | directory, which serves as its address, and contains all the files of this |
||
| 25 | module. Different modules have different authors and different maintainers, |
||
| 26 | and may follow different copyright policies. <p> |
||
| 27 | |||
| 28 | There is no relation between modules in a same wims site, except hypertext |
||
| 29 | links which allows one module to access another in various ways. |
||
| 30 | |||
| 31 | <H4>How to access a wims server</H4> |
||
| 32 | |||
| 33 | Wims is accessed by a request to the main cgi program, for example |
||
| 34 | <pre> |
||
| 1111 | bpr | 35 | http://wims.unice.fr/wims/wims.cgi |
| 32 | reyssat | 36 | </pre> |
| 37 | which usually should be followed by parameters. A call to the main wims.cgi |
||
| 38 | program without parameter will bring up the wims homepage of the site. <p> |
||
| 39 | |||
| 40 | Parameters of wims.cgi is a usual http $emph name=value$emphend pair, where the |
||
| 41 | $emph name$emphend field may be one of the following: |
||
| 42 | <ul> |
||
| 43 | <li><font color=green>cmd</font>: the value is the command of the call. |
||
| 44 | Valid commands: |
||
| 1978 | bpr | 45 | $table_header |
| 46 | $table_tr<th>Parameter string<th>Meaning |
||
| 47 | $table_tr<td>cmd=intro<td>get introduction page of the module |
||
| 48 | $table_tr<td>cmd=new<td>open new working session |
||
| 49 | $table_tr<td>cmd=renew<td>restart working session |
||
| 50 | $table_tr<td>cmd=reply<td>send reply to the module |
||
| 51 | $table_tr<td>cmd=next<td>get next exercise (in a working session) |
||
| 52 | $table_tr<td>cmd=config<td>set preferences |
||
| 53 | $table_tr<td>cmd=help<td>get contextual help |
||
| 54 | $table_tr<td>cmd=hint<td>get contextual hint |
||
| 55 | $table_tr<td>cmd=resume<td>resume work (e.g. after help) |
||
| 56 | $table_tr<td>cmd=getins<td>get dynamic insertions: internal use<br> |
||
| 32 | reyssat | 57 | by the server. Not to be used by modules. |
| 1978 | bpr | 58 | </table></center> |
| 32 | reyssat | 59 | <li><font color=green>module</font>. the value is the name of the module |
| 60 | which the user wants to access. <br> |
||
| 61 | <li><font color=green>session</font>: the value is the number of the current |
||
| 62 | session of the user. <br> |
||
| 63 | The session number is automatically generated by wims.cgi, and is usually |
||
| 64 | automatically contained in the pages sent by the server. Tampering with this |
||
| 65 | parameter by the user (e.g. in order to spy into others' work) is not |
||
| 66 | allowed and has practically no chance to get through. |
||
| 67 | <li><font color=green>lang</font>: the value defines the prefered language |
||
| 68 | of the user. |
||
| 69 | <li><font color=green>user</font>: the value is the user name (for |
||
| 70 | registered users; reserved for internal use). |
||
| 71 | <li><font color=green>useropts</font>: the value contains user options for the |
||
| 72 | server. The format is coded and may varie from version to version. |
||
| 73 | <li><font color=green>worksheet</font>: reserved for internal use, for |
||
| 74 | determining user works assigned by worksheets. |
||
| 75 | <li><font color=green>special_parm</font>: this parameter is reserved for |
||
| 76 | special requests (help, etc). |
||
| 77 | <li>Any variables accepted by the module on which the user is working on (or |
||
| 78 | wants to work on). |
||
| 79 | </ul> |
||
| 80 | |||
| 81 | Example: |
||
| 82 | <pre> |
||
| 1111 | bpr | 83 | http://wims.unice.fr/~wims/wims.cgi?cmd=new&+module=tool/algebra/factor.en |
| 32 | reyssat | 84 | </pre> |
| 85 | calls the wims server at wims.unice.fr, with `new' as the value of `cmd', |
||
| 86 | `tool/algebra/factor.en' as the module name. |
||
| 87 | |||
| 88 | |||
| 89 | <H4>How to use the supervisor-side interface</H4> |
||
| 90 | |||
| 91 | Supervisors of registered classes can maintain their classes and consult |
||
| 92 | results of students via the same web address (the main cgi program), just |
||
| 93 | by logging in as supervisor. All the options are then available via html |
||
| 94 | links and buttons. |
||
| 95 | |||
| 96 |