ISO/IEC TR 12785-3:2012

TECHNICAL ISO/IEC
REPORT TR
12785-3
First edition
2012-05-01
Information technology — Learning,
education, and training — Content
packaging —
Part 3:
Best practice and implementation guide
Technologies de l'information — Apprentissage, éducation et
formation — Paquetage du contenu —
Partie 3: Meilleure pratique et guide de mise en application

Reference number
©
ISO/IEC 2012
©  ISO/IEC 2012
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
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ii © ISO/IEC 2012 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword . iv
0. Introduction . v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Abbreviated terms . 4
5 Using content packages — Use cases and practices . 4
5.1 Typical practice . 4
5.2 Keeping control over resources after a package has been published . 5
5.3 Aggregate content at an appropriate level of granularity . 6
5.4 Specialized packages with combination of various specifications . 8
5.5 Working with child-manifests and applying IMS simple sequencing rules using the new
IPointer mechanism . 9
5.6 Packaging METS and other complex object encodings . 10
5.7 Using alternative organization structures, such as topic maps . 12
5.8 Working with alternative resources . 13
5.9 Avoiding repeated lists of the same assets for different resources . 15
5.10 Working with local and global identifiers . 17
5.11 Support for multiple languages in titles . 17
Annex A (informative)  Document provenance . 19
Annex B (informative) Intellectual property acknowledgements . 20
Bibliography . 21

© ISO/IEC 2012 – All rights reserved iii

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of
ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees
established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC
technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental
and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. In the field of information
technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of the joint technical committee is to prepare International Standards. Draft International
Standards adopted by the joint technical committee are circulated to national bodies for voting. Publication as
an International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the national bodies casting a vote.
In exceptional circumstances, when the joint technical committee has collected data of a different kind from
that which is normally published as an International Standard (“state of the art”, for example), it may decide to
publish a Technical Report. A Technical Report is entirely informative in nature and shall be subject to review
every five years in the same manner as an International Standard.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO/IEC TR 12785-3 was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 36, Information technology for learning, education and training.
ISO/IEC 12785 consists of the following parts, under the general title Information technology — Learning,
education, and training — Content packaging:
 Part 1: Information model
 Part 2: XML binding
 Part 3: Best practice and implementation guide [Technical Report]

iv © ISO/IEC 2012 – All rights reserved

0. Introduction
0.1 Purpose and overview
The primary focus of this part of ISO/IEC 12785 is on sharing existing best practice and providing suggested
practice for implementing the functionality included in this part of ISO/IEC 12785. The ISO/IEC 12785 series
has been commonly used in the learning, education, and training (LET) domain and this part of
ISO/IEC 12785 is intended to support this use. It focuses on the construction of instances of manifest
documents and the content packages they define.
0.2 Compatibility
Given the widespread adoption of IMS Content Packaging and the proliferation of hundreds of thousands of
IMS content packages, it is important that existing software components continue to process content
packages they were designed to handle, and that new software components conforming to the ISO/IEC 12785
series also process the older IMS content packages as designed. Newer systems will need the ability to
)
process the new extension objects introduced in the ISO/IEC 12785 series that enable linking and
referencing behaviors. The functionality of these new extension objects are described in Clause 5 of this part
of ISO/IEC 12785, and normative descriptions are contained in ISO/IEC 12785-1.
The new extension objects are defined in a separate namespace that leverages the extension points and
semantics of the ISO/IEC 12785 series without affecting the existing IMS Content Packaging namespace.
ISO/IEC 12785 also separates the lists of vocabulary terms used by certain objects in the information model
(and a dedicated new namespace) from the model itself. These details are contained in the IMS GLC
Specification Development Note 11: Vocabulary Definition, Registration, and Maintenance Procedures.
By taking this approach, we hope that the best of the past is preserved as it provides a strong foundation for
future growth without having to alter the structural integrity of the ISO/IEC 12785-1 information model (a
detailed, normative description of backwards and forwards compatibility is contained in ISO/IEC 12785-1).

1) The extension refers to those elements that have been newly introduced with IMS Content Packaging version 1.2
which is a source of ISO/IEC 12785.
© ISO/IEC 2012 – All rights reserved v

TECHNICAL REPORT ISO/IEC TR 12785-3:2012(E)

Information technology — Learning, education, and training —
Content packaging
Part 3:
Best practice and implementation guide
1 Scope
This part of ISO/IEC 12785 presents use cases and shows how they are satisfied by ISO/IEC 12785-1 which
is derived from the IMS Global Learning Consortium (GLC) Content Packaging version 1.2 (v1.2).
Though not exhaustive, the range of use cases presented in this part of ISO/IEC 12785 illustrate how the most
common issues in the creation, management, and playback of learning material can be addressed by the
ISO/IEC 12785 series. The use cases were contributed by various implementers and users of the IMS
Content Packaging and are based on years of practice.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated reference, the latest edition of the referenced document
(including any amendments) applies.
ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009, Information technology — Learning, education, and training — Content packaging —
Part 1: Information model
IETF RFC 1951 (1996), DEFLATE Compressed Data Format Specification version 1.3
3 Terms and definitions
For purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
3.1
child manifest
complete, subordinate manifest contained in or referenced by the parent manifest
NOTE 1 According to IMS Content Packaging version 1.2 (and ISO/IEC 12785-1), a manifest can contain more than
one child manifest.
NOTE 2 A manifest can include a reference to a child manifest that is external to the interchange package.
NOTE 3 A child manifest describes a complete logical package that is part of the larger logical package defined by its
parent manifest.
NOTE 4 A child manifest can be local or remote.
Adapted from ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009.
© ISO/IEC 2012 – All rights reserved 1

3.2
content
individual file or multiple files usable in learning, education and training
NOTE 1 A logical unit of usable (and reusable) information can be described by a logical package.
NOTE 2 A logical package can contain one or more units of content.
3.3
content file
collection of files, including at least one manifest file, and conforming to the ISO/IEC 12785-1 information
model and the ISO/IEC 12785-2 XML binding
NOTE Content files can be local or remote.
3.4
control file
single computer file that governs the binding of the Content Packaging Information Model (CPIM) to make it
suitable for machine processing
NOTE A software component can refer to a control file when assessing the validity of a bound instance of the
information model or to guide the creation of a bound instance of the information model. For example, a file containing an
XML schema can be used as a control file for an XML binding of a manifest.
[ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009, 3.4]
3.5
interchange package
set of usable (reusable) LET content that is exchanged among computing systems used for information
technology for learning, education and training (ITLET) purposes
NOTE An interchange package can be instantiated in a single compressed binary file (package interchange file) or as
a collection of files on portable media (e.g. CD, DVD, USB memory device).
[ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009, 3.5]
3.6
manifest
description of files and any logical relationships between them, contained or referenced in a content package
3.7
metadata
content packaging descriptive information about logical packages, logical organizations, content, and files
NOTE 1 Metadata can be assigned to any of the components within the logical package including the manifest.
NOTE 2 Any binding of a metadata object is permitted. Each object of metadata can be local or remote.
[ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009, 3.12]
3.8
namespace
XML namespace identified by a URI reference
NOTE Namespace in Content Packaging follows W3C recommendation, Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Second Edition).
[ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009, 3.13]
2 © ISO/IEC 2012 – All rights reserved

3.9
organization
logical relationships, such as a hierarchical tree, among a unit of content
NOTE More than one logical organization can be described in a manifest.
3.10
package
unit of usable (and reusable) LET content
NOTE 1 This can be part of a learning course that has instructional relevance outside of a LET content aggregation
and can be delivered independently, as an entire learning course or as a collection of learning courses.
NOTE 2 A package is able to stand-alone, that is, it contains all the information needed to use the contents for learning,
education, and training when it has been unpacked.
[ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009, 3.14]
3.11
package reader
software that processes an interchange package by checking statements in the manifest against
corresponding contents and organization
NOTE 1 A package reader can process both logical and physical packages.
NOTE 2 The term “process” may include the retrieval and storage of information referenced by the manifest, the
decompression or unpacking of local files from a PIF, and the retrieval and/or logging of addresses of remote files
3.12
package writer
software that creates or modifies an instance of an interchange package and assembles content file(s) and
other files declared local to the interchange package and writes them to the targeted interchange package
binding, or delegates those tasks to another software typed process
[ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009, 3.17]
3.13
package interchange file
PIF
instantiation of an interchange package which is physically encapsulated as a compressed binary file
...