What Is a SCORM API Adapter?
The Shared Content Object Reference Model is a set of technical standards for displaying content in learning management systems. A learning management system is a software or Web-based application that automates the administration, tracking and reporting of learning events. To conform to the SCORM specification, an LMS must implement its application program interface using what is known as an API adapter.
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JavaScript Object
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A SCORM API adapter is, in fact, a JavaScript object -- a special kind of data in the Java programming language -- that is called “API” and can be accessed through the Document Object Model. The DOM is a standard, defined by the World Wide Web Consortium, for application program interfaces for accessing Web documents. An API adapter object must be part of the source or parent window that contains the content, so that the LMS can launch the content in a new window.
Run-Time Environment
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A SCORM API adapter is implemented as a Java applet, or a small application program that can be called up for use while working in another application. The API adapter forms part of the SCORM Run-Time Environment, which specifies how content should behave once launched by an LMS and is downloaded to a client computer when a user loads the RTE landing page into his Web browser.
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Java Components
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Several Java components are downloaded to the client computer, including a file called “APIAdapterApplet.java,” which contains the functions the content uses to communicate with the LMS, and a page called “LMSFrame.jsp,” which contains the SCORM API adapter as an applet and provides a means for Shared Content Objects to communicate with the RTE. Note that the SCORM API adapter has no visual display elements and is invisible to the user.
Communication
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A SCORM API adapter is the only method by which content can communicate with an LMS. Other methods of communication, such as Web services, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol requests -- HTTP is a standard protocol for transferring documents on the Web -- are not supported by the SCORM. This simplifies communication from the point of view of the content author, who only needs only to locate the SCORM API adapter and make the appropriate JavaScript calls to it. To conform to the SCORM specification, an LMS must implement a total of eight functions, any of which the content may call to communicate with the LMS.
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References
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