Document History

Release 1.0 - Initial release.

Introduction

This document contains the specification for the Questions Markup Language (QML). It is the definitive reference for the language and takes precedence over all other documents, including the DTD.

QML is an XML application created for the purpose of marking up learning assessment items for the Connexions Project. The language is concerned with the semantic content of the information and attempts to enforce separation of content and presentation. It contains few (if any) elements that deal with style or presentation. Decisions about how to display QML should be made elsewhere.

Document Type

QML documents must be well-formed XML documents, meaning that they must conform to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s definition of a valid XML document. In order to be considered valid QML, a document must also declare itself using a Document Type Declaration.

The Document Type Declaration (DTDs) for QML differs depending on whether you are using QML by itself or with other language(s). If you are using QML with other languages, you will also need to use namespaces (discussed in the following section).

Document Type Declarations are provided here for QML by itself, QML with CNXML, and QML with CNXML and MathML. If you are using QML with a language not listed here, you will need to create your own DTD.

In addition, you may need to alter one word in the DTDs below depending on whether you are using a problemset or an item as your base tag. If you are using a problemset as the base tag, you need to replace the word "item" in the second line with the word "problemset".

If you are using QML by itself, put the following three lines at the top of your document:

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
	<!DOCTYPE item PUBLIC "-//CNX//DTD QML 1.0//EN"
	"http://cnx.rice.edu/cnxml/0.5/DTD/qml.dtd">
      

If you are using both QML and CNXML, use the following three lines:

	
	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
	<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//CNX//DTD CNXML 0.5 plus QML//EN"
	"http://cnx.rice.edu/cnxml/0.5/DTD/cnxml_qml.dtd">
      

If you are using MathML as well as CNXML, use the following three lines:

	
	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
	<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//CNX//DTD CNXML 0.5 plus MathML plus QML//EN"
	"http://cnx.rice.edu/cnxml/0.5/DTD/cnxml_mathml_qml.dtd">
      

Namespaces

One of the benefits of using XML is that it allows you to unambiguously combine different XML languages within the same document by the use of namespaces (See the W3C's recommendation, Namespaces in XML).

It is possible to declare a default namespace by including the xmlns attribute in the root node (either problemset or item for QML). The attribute contains a unique identifier (usually a uri). It is important that the proper value of this attribute be used consistently. The namespace identifier for QML is http://cnx.rice.edu/qml/1.0. So for a document that only contains QML, the opening module tag should look like one OF the following, depending on whether your root tag is problemset or item.

	<problemset xmlns="http://cnx.rice.edu/qml/1.0". . . >     

	<item xmlns="http://cnx.rice.edu/qml/1.0". . . >
      

However, if you are using QML with another language, you must also declare a prefix (for example, foo) using the attribute xmlns:foo and the same value that you would use on the default namespace. You can then indicate which tags come from a particular namespace or language by prefixing each tag with a foo:. Thus, an item tag in foo's namespace would be written using <foo:item> and </foo:item>. The default namespace however, allows you to omit the prefix for that particular namespace and continue using <item> as you had previously. However, if you are using more than one language, you will need to use prefixes with all namespaces but your default namespace. For example, if you were using QML, MathML, and CNXML and wanted CNXML to be your default namespace, you would declare as follows in the CNXML root tag, module:

	
      <document xmlns="http://cnx.rice.edu/cnxml"
	xmlns:q="http://cnx.rice.edu/qml/1.0" 
	xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML". . .>     
      

You would then need to preface each QML tag in the document with "q:" and each MathML tag in the document with "m:" but would not need to preface the CNXML tags, because they are the default namespace.

	
      <list>...</list>
      <q:item id='item01'>...</q:item>
      

If you are adding other language(s) to a QML document, you will probably want QML to be the default namespace; if you are adding QML to a document in another language, you will probably want the original language to be a default namespace.

Using QML with CNXML

QML within a CNXML document consists of one QML item tag encased within a CNXML exercise tag.

Tags

The problemset and item tags are the two base tags. Although either may be used as a base tag, the problemset tag is used to contain a set of items and the item tag is used to contain a single item.

	          
	  <problemset id="math_set_1">
	  <item id="item1" type="single-response">
	    .
	    .
	    .
	  </item>
	  <item id="item2" type="single-response"> 
	    .
	    .
	    .
	  </item>

	  </problemset>
	  

	    
	  <item id="item1" type="single-response">

	  <question> . . . </question>

	  <resource uri="http://www.bananas.com" />

	  <answer id="answer1"> . . . </answer>      

	  <answer id="answer2"> . . . </answer>

	  <hint> . . . </hint>

	  <feedback id='general'> . . . </feedback>

	  <key answer="answer2" />

	  </item>
	  

	    
	  <question>
	    How many XML programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?  
	  </question>
	  

	    
	  <resource uri="www.lightbulb.com/dataset.txt" id="res1" />
	  

	    
	  <answer id="vegetable">
	    
	  <response>A vegetable.</response>
	    
	  <feedback>No, don't be silly.</feedback>
	    
	  </answer>
	    
	    
	    
	  <answer>
	    
	  <feedback correct="no">No, don't be silly.</feedback>
	    
	  <feedback correct="yes">Yes, your answer was correct.</feedback>

	  </answer>
	  

	    
	  <response>2.314</response>      
	  

	    
	  <feedback>Incorrect; bananas are not blue.</feedback>      
	  

	    
	  <hint>Bananas are fruit.</hint>      
	  

	    
	  <key answer="a,b" />
	    
	  <key>Bananas are fruit.</key>