Architectural Experiences Managing Semantic Content

The Connexions System provides the creation, storage and navigation functionality for semantically marked-up educational materials as part of the Connexions Project. Its modular design is based on open standards and is implemented using many Open Source technologies.

In this talk we will present the software architecture for the Connexions System, explaining the interactions between the various components. In particular, we will discuss our experiences:

• Building a versioned content repository using CVS and PostgreSQL, with Zope as a front end for collaborative content creation
• Storing semantic content modules in XML (including MathML) and transforming them for display in multiple browsers and formats
• Using XUL/XPCOM/RDF to build a navigation plugin for Mozilla/Netscape, and alternatives for other browsers

We will conclude by previewing new technologies being integrated into Connexions for the near future, including browser-based editing, annotations, and user highlighting.

Brent Hendricks
Systems Architect
The Connexions Project
Rice University