Programme Description

The user interacts with a tool bar button to create questions in simple text called QText. The user then interacts with a tool bar button to select the type of quiz required (QML/QTI at the moment) and to signal the request to the system. In response the browser passes the popultaed FORM to the servlet. The servlet extracts the type of question output required and the QText string.

The QText gets split up into individual questions until we reach the end of the quiz. The type of each question (order, multiple choice etc) is determined and used to decide which type of object to create. The question string is passed to the constructor of the class and added at the end of a queue object derived from a linked list.Once all the questions have been added to the list the servlet calls the questionList GetQuizXML method.

This creates an instance of an XML document and adds the root node and namespace declarations. The GetXML method of each object in turn is called which converts the string passed in to XML elements. Each element gets appended to the document in turn to create the complete BQL quiz XML. BQL is an xml language we have created which represents in XML form the question in as basic a form as possible (it stands for Basic Question Language).

Once the BQL document is complete the servlet calls the questionList GetOutput method, passing in the OutputType (QML/QTI) as a parameter. The xsl file name is determined and the BQL document is transformed into QML or QTI using the relevant xsl file. The result is passed back and the document returned to the servlet which is then returned in the HTTP response.