LEAP 2.0 requirements

Part of LEAP 2.0

''The idea of this page is to clarify what the real world requirements are of any approach to interoperability, including scenarios and use cases if appropriate. Please feel free (a) to add original material, (b) to link rather than copy stuff here.''

Output of complete information for human reading
E-portfolio information must be able to be output into a format suitable for use by individual users, either on request, or when an account is closed. Files stored should be output intact, in their original form, or equivalent. This requirement does not include the constraint that information must be able to be reloaded into any other portfolio system. Information other than files should be output in a form which is easily readable by common, free tools available to any user. Acceptable formats which would fulfill this include, for instance,
 * HTML
 * Plain text
 * PDF

Output of partial information for human reading
Formats should be as in the previous case. The requirement is that any selected item or items should be able to be output by the system. The requirement applies to reading both by the user, and by other people, where the selection shown is chosen by the user, and where some check is made on the identity of the reader.

Output for reloading / restoring into the same kind of system
The information does not have to be human readable - e.g. it could be compressed. Either the same system, or another instance of the same software, should be able to read in the file or files output, and recreate a state substantially as it was before output. Ideally, any difference between the recreated state and the original state should be clearly reported. This requirement applies both to complete portfolio information and to selections.

Output for use in a different kind of system
The more different the system, the less likely it is that complete and meaningful transfer of information could take place. What is required is for LEAP 2.0 to provide a framework within which as much meaning can be transferred as makes sense in the context of the other system.

Input from diverse existing systems
Existing systems may have their own representations and output formats. The requirement for LEAP 2.0 is to provide a model against which transforms may be defined, to allow output from any other system to be mapped, as far as possible, onto a common LEAP 2.0 interchange format.