Wikisoba project/JSON specification for version 2

This page is still a draft. Feel free to edit it, and use the talk page to discuss ideas and changes. Remember to add categories and tell people where the page is so others can find it and chip in.

This is the working page for designing the JSON specification for Wikisoba Mark II.

Working assumption

The JSON for any one "slide" (adopting the term in Mark I) reads as

{"configuration":configuration object, "data":data array]

The configuration object includes giving the "slide type", which would be 1 for questions, out of about five types in all, the other types being ways of including supporting material. The array will have about a dozen items, including some the legacy of Moodle export as in the JSON-GIFT sample.

Overall structure

This should be as:

{"intro": , "sections":section array, "outro": }

with the section array as:

[section(1), section(2), ..., section(K)]

and a section as

{"nav1": , "slides":slide array, "nav2": }

Here a slide array is like

[slide(1), slide(2), ..., slide(K)]

and the slides are expected to be of about five types, type #1 being the question type.

Choice-cloze type

This is to be a versatile question type, including a number of typical multiple choice and missing text (cloze) formats. Its data array will look like

[S-array, T-array]

Here the S-array will be

[S(1), S(2), ..., S(N + 1)]

and the S(i) will be strings, possibly null, subject to JSON constraints and the constraint that S(N + 1) is either null or ends in a terminating punctuation mark.

The T-array will be

[T(1), T(2), ..., T(M)]

Example would be the case M = N, each T(j) is a single word, and the piece of text to reconstruct reads S(1) T(1) S(2) T(2) ... S(N) T(N) S(N + 1). Then the software should display boxes between the S(i), and display the words T(j) below in a random order. The user is supposed to drag the words into the boxes.

In general T(j) will be an object

{"string":acceptable answer1, "string":acceptable answer2, ..., "annotations": }

Here the first component consists of strings each of which is an acceptable answer in the place between S(j) and S(j + 1). The annotations have to carry the other information in the question, namely any dummy answers and set responses, custom hints, special reset information, special scoring information. The dummy answers need to contain pairs like [input_string, response]; where response can be set to null as the default.

Five examples

Going beyond simply matching phrases into boxes (type A question), there are two types of added complexity, namely multiple choice, and colour coding. Colours can identify which answers relate to which box (i.e. calibrate the missing phrases a bit).

Type	Plain	Coloured
Matching	A	n/a
Check box	B	C
Complex	D	E

The colouring option clearly should be operated by the question subtype field, but may also be a custom hint. The dummy answers should be listed in the annotations.

Traditional multiple choice

There is only one box, so N = 1 for multiple choice, and S(2) is null. Also M = 1. Only types B and D are relevant, and correspond to ...

"Checkbox handling": to give credit for partial correct choices where there are multiple correct answers, "fraction" fields should be filled in with precentages of full credit. (Numerical variable.)

Configuration object

This is a provisional listing of some "fields" that should occur in the configuration object, mostly with default values.

Working content:

1. (Slide type) 1
2. (question name)
3. (question type) choice/cloze
4. (question subtype) A to E
5. (equality test) non-case sensitive equality of Unicode strings
6. (display type) graphical
7. (wikidata item) Use as a tag for topic area
8. (response type) enabled
9. (hint type) i.e. go back | wikidata | custom
10. (reset type) back to question start
11. (scoring type) none
12. (timing type) none

Also:

1. Legacy fields: allow for some carried forward from Moodle
2. Metadata to track provenance and attribution of question

In other words the working content is like:

{"slide type": , "question name": , "question type": , "question subtype": , "equality test": , "display type": , "wikidata item": , "response type": , "hint type": , "reset type": , "scoring type": , "timing type": }

Legacy fields to include "usecase", "hidden", "old type", "description". Provenance fields to include "quizencodingversion", "old name", "description", also license and attribution information