Resource discovery/OpenLearn

From Bjoern Hassler

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[edit] 1 Overview

As far as I can make out, the OU structure is like this

Open University feed structure.png

[edit] 2 Web page trail

The home page: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/ doesnt seem to have an rss feed via auto discovery, but links to an opml feed: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/file.php/1/full_opml.xml that gives a range of other feeds. 

<opml version="1.1">
   <head>
       <title>OpenLearn RSS Feeds</title>
       <ownerName>The Open University</ownerName>
       <dateCreated>Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:11:42 GMT</dateCreated>
   </head>
   <body>
       <outline text="Science and Nature">
           <outline type="rss" text="Science and Nature" url="http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/blocks/formats/logrequest.php?url=/file.php/1/science_and_nature.xml"/>
           <outline type="rss" text="Unit Content for The incredible shrinking chip" url="http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/blocks/formats/logrequest.php?url=/file.php/3759/formats/4RAIL_1_rss.xml"/>
           <outline type="rss" text="Unit Content for Studying Darwin" url="http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/blocks/formats/logrequest.php?url=/file.php/3832/formats/Darwin_1_rss.xml"/>

The "all courses" page http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/index.php is using autodiscovery, both to the master xml feed (learnignspace.xml) as well as the subject feeds: 

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS: All Units" href="learningspace.xml" /> 
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS: Arts and History" href="arts and history.xml" /> 
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS: Business and Management" href="business and management.xml" />
...

Similarly, the arts ad history page: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/filter.php?grouping=topic&detail=3&order=level does auto discovery both to the master feed, and the relevant feed for that category: 

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS: All Units" href="learningspace.xml" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS: Arts and History" href="arts_and_history.xml" />

[edit] 3 Feed trail

Let's look at the feeds: The master "all courses" feed (http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/rss/file.php/stdfeed/1/learningspace.xml) is also linked from the OCWC opml and it reads: 

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:cc="http://web.resource.org/cc/">
 <channel>
   <title>The OpenLearn LearningSpace RSS Feed</title>
   <link>http://openlearn.open.ac.uk</link>
   <description>This RSS feed contains a list of all the public units in The OpenLearn LearningSpace</description>
   <generator>Moodle</generator>
   <language>en-gb</language>
   <copyright>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/</copyright>
   <lastBuildDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:41:40 GMT</lastBuildDate>
   <pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:41:40 GMT</pubDate>
   <dc:date>2009-02-13T15:41:40Z</dc:date>
   <dc:publisher>The Open University</dc:publisher>
   <dc:language>en-gb</dc:language>
   <dc:rights>Licensed under a Creative Commons .../</dc:rights>
   <cc:license>Licensed under a Creative Commons ...</cc:license>
   <item>
     <category>Science and Nature</category>
     <title>The incredible shrinking chip</title>
     <link>http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?name=4RAIL_1</link>
     <pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:41:40 GMT</pubDate>
     <description>One of the most ... </description>
     <guid isPermaLink="true">http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?name=4RAIL_1</guid>
     <dc:contributor>The Open University</dc:contributor>
     <dc:creator>The Open University</dc:creator>
     <dc:date>2008-08-04T16:41:03Z</dc:date>
     <dc:description>One of the most important ...</dc:description>
     <dc:format>text/html</dc:format>
     <dc:language>en-gb</dc:language>
     <dc:relation>http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3773</dc:relation>
     <dc:relation>http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01S207</dc:relation>
     <dc:relation>http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/classifications/science.shtm</dc:relation>
     <dc:relation>http://www.open2.net/sciencetechnologynature/</dc:relation>
     <dc:publisher>The Open University</dc:publisher>
     <dc:rights>Licensed under a Creative Commons ...</dc:rights>
     <dc:source>The physical world - S207</dc:source>
     <dc:subject>computer</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>microchip</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>physics</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>scotland</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>transistor</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>Science and Nature</dc:subject>
     <dc:title>The incredible shrinking chip</dc:title>
     <dc:type>Course</dc:type>
     <cc:license>Licensed under a Creative Commons ... </cc:license>
   </item>

Unfortuntately, this master feed only links to the various html pages (including classifications), but not to further rss feeds.

Similarly the subject feed: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/rss/file.php/stdfeed/1/arts_and_history.xml (linked from the subject page), only links to the relevant html pages, but not further rss feeds. 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:cc="http://web.resource.org/cc/">
 <channel>
   <title>RSS Feed for category Arts and History on The OpenLearn LearningSpace</title>
   <link>http://openlearn.open.ac.uk</link>
   <description>This RSS feed contains a list of all 
                the public units in the category Arts and History on The OpenLearn LearningSpace</description>
   <generator>Moodle</generator>
   <language>en-gb</language>
   <copyright>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/</copyright>
   <lastBuildDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:21:42 GMT</lastBuildDate>
   <pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:21:42 GMT</pubDate>
   <dc:date>2009-02-12T12:21:42Z</dc:date>
   <dc:publisher>The Open University</dc:publisher>
   <dc:language>en-gb</dc:language>
   <dc:rights>Licensed under a Creative Commons ...</dc:rights>
   <cc:license>Licensed under a Creative Commons ...</cc:license>
   <item>
     <category>Arts and History</category>
     <title>Studying the arts and humanities</title>
     <link>http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?name=A103_1</link>
     <pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:21:42 GMT</pubDate>
     <description>This unit is an introduction to studying ....</description>
     <guid isPermaLink="true">http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?name=A103_1</guid>
     <dc:contributor>The Open University</dc:contributor>
     <dc:creator>The Open University</dc:creator>
     <dc:date>2008-11-06T15:58:08Z</dc:date>
     <dc:description>This unit is an introduction ...</dc:description>
     <dc:format>text/html</dc:format>
     <dc:language>en-gb</dc:language>
     <dc:relation>http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01A103&XonEML=OLNL06&MEDIA=OLN626</dc:relation>
     <dc:relation>http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/classifications/humanities__arts__languages__history.shtm</dc:relation>
     <dc:relation>http://www.open2.net/historyandthearts/index.html</dc:relation>
     <dc:publisher>The Open University</dc:publisher>
     <dc:rights>Licensed under a Creative Commons ...</dc:rights>
     <dc:source>An Introduction to the Humanities - A103</dc:source>
     <dc:subject>arts</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>getting_started</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>history</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>humanities</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>study_skills</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>Arts and History</dc:subject>
     <dc:title>Studying the arts and humanities</dc:title>
     <dc:type>Course</dc:type>
     <cc:license>Licensed under a Creative Commons ...</cc:license>
   </item>

However, the subject page (for arts and history) does not just link to the relevant course page (here, but also to an rss feed, containing the course information: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/rss/file.php/stdfeed/1632/formats/A103_3_rss.xml . This xml feed has the same information as the relevant course web page itself: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" 
   xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" 
   xmlns:cc="http://web.resource.org/cc/" 
   xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/">
 <channel>
   <title>RSS Feed for the unit Commemoration: visual texts</title>
   <link>http://openlearn.open.ac.uk</link>
   <description>This RSS feed contains a list of all sections in the unit Commemoration: visual texts</description>
   <generator>Moodle</generator>
   <language>en-gb</language>
   <copyright>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/</copyright>
   <lastBuildDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:15:17 GMT</lastBuildDate>
   <pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:15:17 GMT</pubDate>
   <dc:date>2008-12-16T13:15:17Z</dc:date>
   <dc:publisher>The Open University</dc:publisher>
   <dc:language>en-gb</dc:language>
   <dc:rights>Licensed under a Creative Commons ...</dc:rights>
   <cc:license>Licensed under a Creative Commons ...</cc:license>
   <item>
     <title>Introduction</title>
     <link>http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=352491</link>
     <description><div id="content">
                       <h2>Introduction</h2>
                       ...
                       </description>
     <guid isPermaLink="true">http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=352491</guid>
     <dc:description><div id="content">
                       <h2>Introduction</h2>
                       ...
                       </dc:description>
     <dc:title>Introduction</dc:title>
     <cc:license>Licensed under a Creative Commons...</cc:license>
   </item>
   ...

However, the course page itself, does not actually link to that rss feed.

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?name=A103_2

The above rss feed has enclosures, that link to images.

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