IMS LTI Resources Search (RS) Service Conformance and Certification Version 1.0

IMS Final Release
Version 1.0

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Document Name: IMS LTI Resources Search (RS) Service Conformance and Certification v1.0

Revision: 10th September, 2018

Abstract

The Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) Resource Search (RS) specification defines how to search digital repositories for a set of resources via a web services API. The standard addresses searching learning object repositories (LORs), and other catalogs of learning resources. The specification supports executing these search from learning tools using various attributes of resources and returning full metadata about the resources to the learning tools. Results can be launched either as URLs or LTI links. The goal of the LTI Resource Search standard is a standard way for students and teachers to be able to search resource providers, such as learning object repositories, from single sources or aggregated from multiple sources, within a learning object consumer such as a learning management system or other educational platform.

This document is the LTI Resource Search Service v1.0 Conformance and Certification document and as such it is used to define how a product can be certified as IMS LTI Resource Search Service 1.0 compliant.

Table of Contents

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. The Conformance Process

3. Service Provider Conformance

4. Service Consumer Conformance

5. LTI Resource Search Service Certification

References

Appendix A Summary of the Conformance Tests for a Service Provider

Appendix B Summary of the Conformance Tests for a Consumer

About this Document

List of Contributors

Revision History

1. Introduction

1.1 Scope and Context

This document is the LTI Resource Search Service v1.0 Conformance and Certification document and as such it is used to define how a product can be certified as IMS LTI Resource Search Service 1.0 compliant. The formal definition of the LTI Resource Search Service 1.0 is supplied in the following documents:

• IMS LTI Resource Search Service Model v1.0 [RS-SM, 18] - the underlying service model definition;
• IMS LTI Resource Search REST/JSON Binding v1.0 [RS-RJ, 18] - the description of the REST/JSON binding of the Service Model;
• IMS LTI Resource Search OpenAPI Definition v1.0 [RS-OA, 18] - the description of the OpenAPI definition of the Service Model.

This document is released for public adoption and implementation of the LTI Resource Search Service 1.0 specification. Public contributions, feedback on adoption of the specification, comments and questions can be posted at: www.imsglobal.org/forums/ims-glc-public-forums-and-resources.

1.2 Conventions

All sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams (with the exception of the UML diagrams), examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119]. This means that from the perspective of conformance:

• IMS considers nonconformant any implementation of this specification that fails to implement a MUST/REQUIRED/SHALL requirement or fails to abide by a MUST NOT/SHALL NOT prohibition;
• SHOULD/SHOULD NOT/RECOMMENDED statements constitute a best practice; ignoring a best practice does not violate conformance but implementers should carefully consdier a decision to disregard such guidance;
• MAY/OPTIONAL statements indicate that implementers are entirely free to choose whether or not to implement the option.

The Conformance and Certification Guide for this specification may introduce greater normative constraints than those defined here for specific service or implementation categories.

The SHOULD/SHOULD NOT/RECOMMENDED statements MUST NOT be used in any document, or section of a document, that is responsible for defining the information model and/or the associated bindings and/or conformance and certification.

1.3 Structure of this Document

The structure of the rest of this document is:

1.4 Nomenclature

2. The Conformance Process

This Section is NOT NORMATIVE.

2.1 Conformance Testing Process

The process for conformance testing implementations of LTI Resource Search Service includes the following:

• Go to the IMS Conformance Test Suite for LTI Resource Search Services. Conformance Test Suite links are available in the IMS LTI Resource Search Service Alliance and the relevant link details are given in Sections 3 and 4 of this document;
• Follow the onscreen instructions to run the tests;
• Once the test has been successfully run, submit a print out of the test results along with the following information to conformance@imsglobal.org:
  1. Your Name
  2. Your Organization
  3. Your Product Name and Version
  4. Date the Product was tested
  5. Whether you are a Service Provider, a Service Consumer or both.

2.1.1 Requirements for Resource Search Service 1.0 Conformance

All of the REQUIRED feature tests MUST be passed successfully to be considered IMS LTI Resource Search Service compliant. If a system is to be certified for any of the OPTIONAL features then the corresponding tests for these MUST ALSO be passed. When using the conformance test systems you are required to identify which optional features are supported by the implementation under test. The conformance test systems will then test ALL of the REQUIRED and identified OPTIONAL features to confirm their correct implementation. The IMS Product Certification directory will then identify the set of optional features that are certified as being compliant.

2.1.2 Resource Search Service Conformance Mark

After you have submitted your successful conformance information to conformance@imsglobal.org, and received confirmation and a registration number from IMS Global you may then apply the appropriate conformance mark. The IMS Global conformance chart will list your conformance details. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at any point.

Membership in the LTI Resource Search Service Alliance is the only way to achieve official conformance to the LTI Resource Search Service standard. Products without a IMS conformance Registration Number are not considered to be compliant by IMS Global.

3. Service Provider Conformance

This Section is NORMATIVE.

In Table 3.1 the following should be noted:

• For a LTI Resource Search Service 1.0 implementation the 'Endpoint' value should be appended to the string '/ims/rs/v1p0/';
• The 'Mode' is used denote whether the system is responsible for issuing the request (Init) or responding to the request (Resp).

3.1 Required Endpoint Support

The set of endpoints that MUST be supported by a Service Provider is listed in Table 3.1.

3.2 Optional Endpoint Support

3.3 Service Provider Compliance

The functional capabilities of such systems are:

• They MUST support ALL of the endpoints;
• They MUST supply all of the required data fields in the JSON payloads;
• They MAY be capable of supplying some or all of the optional data files in the JSON payloads (conformance testing requires all of the data fields supported to be populated);
• They MAY provide extension data fields in the permitted parts of the JSON payloads;
• They MUST support the endpoint payload pagination query parameters and the corresponding response HTTP header extensions MUST be supported;
• They MUST support the endpoint payload filtering query parameters;
• They MUST support the endpoint payload sorting and ordering query parameters;
• They MUST support the endpoint payload field selection query parameter.

The Conformance Test System used to certify an LTI Resource Search 1.0 Service Provider is available at: http://validate.imsglobal.org/RSv1p0_CTS_ServiceProvider/index.html.

A summary of the set of tests that will be used to determine the compliance of an implementation of the service provider functionality is given in Appendix A.

4. Service Consumer Conformance

This Section is NORMATIVE.

In Tables 4.1 and 4.2, the following should be noted:

• For a LTI Resource Search Service 1.0 implementation the 'Endpoint' value should be appended to the string '/ims/rs/v1p0/';
• The 'Mode' is used denote whether the system is responsible for issuing the request (Init) or responding to the request (Resp).

4.1 Required Endpoint Support

The set of endpoints that MUST be supported by a Service Consumer is listed in Table 4.1.

4.2 Optional Endpoint Support

The set of endpoints that MAY be supported by a Service Consumer is listed in Table 4.2.

4.3 Service Consumer Compliance

The functional capabilities of such systems are:

• They MUST support all of the required endpoints;
• They MAY support any of the optional endpoints;
• They MUST 'handle' all of the required data fields in the JSON payloads;
• They MAY 'handle' any of the optional data fields in the JSON payloads;
• The presence of extension data fields in the JSON payloads should not cause the systems to fail but the handling of these messages is implementation dependent;
• They MAY support the endpoint payload pagination query parameters. If supported the corresponding response HTTP header extensions MUST be supported;
• They MUST support the endpoint payload filtering query parameters;
• They MAY support the endpoint payload sorting and ordering query parameters;
• They MAY support the endpoint payload field selection query parameter.

NOTE: From a conformance perspective, 'handle' means that the consumer must store the data in a persistent manner and must demonstrate that storage. Conceptually, if a read request was made to the service consumer for that record then all of the data supplied by the service provider should be recovered.

The Conformance Test System used to certify a LTI Resource Search 1.0 Service Consumer is available at: https://onerostervalidator.imsglobal.org:8443/ltirs-client-cts-webapp/index.

A summary of the set of tests that will be used to determine the compliance of an implementation of the consumer functionality is given in Appendix B.

5. LTI Resource Search Service Certification

This Section is NORMATIVE.

A system that successfully achieves LTI Resource Search Service certification will have a certain set of functional capabilities. LTI Resource Search Service certification does NOT guarantee interoperability for ALL features between ALL other LTI Resource Search Service compliant solutions. The set of functional properties that a LTI Resource Search Service certified product may have is shown in Table 5.1.

The key points to note from Table 5.1 are:

• A system could be certified as a service provider, a service consumer or a service provider/service consumer;
• For a service provider support of ALL operations is REQUIRED;
• For a service consumer support of ONLY the 'searchForResources' operation is REQUIRED;
• ALL systems MUST support the 'searchForResources' operation.

References

Appendix A Summary of the Conformance Tests for a Service Provider

The set of tests that will be used to determine if an implementation of the service provider functionality is compliant are summarised in Table A1. The features supplied Table A1 are:

• ID - the unique identifier assigned to the test;
• Mode - set as either 'Req' to denote that this test MUST be passed and 'Opt' to denote this test MAY be passed;
• Description - a brief summary of the objective of the test.

Appendix B Summary of the Conformance Tests for a Consumer

The set of tests that will be used to determine if an implementation of the consumer functionality is compliant are summarised in Table B1. The features supplied in Table B1 are:

• ID - the unique identifier assigned to the test;
• Mode - set as either 'Req' to denote that this test MUST be passed and 'Opt' to denote this test MAY be passed;
• Description - a brief summary of the objective of the test.

About this Document

List of Contributors

Revision History

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Please refer to Document Name: IMS LTI Resources Search (RS) Service Conformance and Certification v1.0

Date: 10th September, 2018