ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
STANDARD 12785-1
First edition
2009-12-15
Information technology — Learning,
education, and training — Content
packaging
Part 1:
Information model
Technologies de l'information — Apprentissage, éducation et
formation — Paquetage du contenu
Partie 1: Modèle de l'information

Reference number
©
ISO/IEC 2009
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ii © ISO/IEC 2009 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
0 Introduction.v
1 Scope.1
2 Normative references.1
3 Terms and definitions .2
4 Acronyms and abbreviations .6
5 The Content Packaging conceptual model (CPCM).7
6 Class description and relationship requirements.8
7 Conformance .53
Bibliography.59

© ISO/IEC 2009 – All rights reserved iii

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of
ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees
established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC
technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental
and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. In the field of information
technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of the joint technical committee is to prepare International Standards. Draft International
Standards adopted by the joint technical committee are circulated to national bodies for voting. Publication as
an International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the national bodies casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO/IEC 12785-1 was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 36, Information technology for learning, education and training.
ISO/IEC 12785 consists of the following parts, under the general title Information technology — Learning,
education and training — Content packaging:
⎯ Part 1: Information model
The Extensible Markup Language (XML) Schema binding for Content Packaging Information Model and
associated namespace identifiers will be declared in Part 2. Practices related to the interpretation and
implementation of the Information Model will be addressed in Part 3.
iv © ISO/IEC 2009 – All rights reserved

0 Introduction
0.1 Purpose and overview
ISO/IEC 12785 is derived from the IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC) Content Packaging version
1.2 Specification. IMS Content Packaging is probably the most widely used specification in support of learning
technology around the world. IMS Content Packaging has been an integral foundation of Sharable Content
Object Reference Model (SCORM) from its inception to the current version. But, most importantly, IMS
Content Packaging has also been used widely outside of SCORM on a standalone basis. IMS Content
Packaging is also used in many other high profile educational uses, such as archiving for MIT
OpenCourseWare, distributing content packages that exclude runtime and metadata for the Learning
Federation of Australia, and nationwide e-learning services for the Cyber Home Learning System in Korea.
The IMS Content Packaging Information Model that is the source and base specification for this part of
ISO/IEC 12785 describes data structures that can be used to exchange data between systems that wish to
import, export, aggregate, and disaggregate packages of learning, education and training (LET) content.
The IMS Content Packaging specification was initially conceived for the packaging of instructional content.
The specification supports the description of content associated with a given learning activity, location of the
content, and how these pieces of content can be organized for best instructional effect. As a result of wide
adoption of the specification, millions of IMS content packages of instructional content are used in a variety of
software applications.
Adopters of IMS Content Packaging have extended its use beyond just the packaging of instructional content.
IMS Content Packaging is now referenced by other IMS Specifications to package and exchange other types
of data.
Requests for major functional additions were not included in the IMS Content Packaging version 1.1.x series
and were accumulated as practice matured around implementing IMS Content Packaging. Evaluation of these
requests in 2006, combined with feedback from the wider adopter community, led to the decision to make a
significant update and definitive release for this specification as an International Standard series.
The new functionality and clarifications incorporated in this Content Packaging specification are as follows.
a) The meanings of terms used within the specification have been clarified.
b) The use of (sub)manifests, now termed child-manifests, has been clarified and enhanced:
1) Interpretation of an item pointing to a child-manifest has been clarified.
2) New functionality allowing components of child-manifests to be precisely referenced and interpreted
has been added.
3) Support for external child-manifests has been added.
c) Support for external referenced metadata files has been added.
d) All internal vocabularies have been removed and are now maintained through the IMS vocabularies
registration process (see http://www.imsglobal.org/vdex/index.html).
e) A new resource type of “stand-alone resource” has been added that allows another package to be used
as a piece of LET content.
© ISO/IEC 2009 – All rights reserved v

f) The syntax and usage of the Base, Parameter, 'IsVisible', and 'Href' Information Model classes has been
clarified.
g) Support for variant resources has been added. This includes support for alternative resources for
accessible LET content.
h) Support for Organization and Item titles in multiple languages has been added.
i) Support for interchange packages that contain only content and interchange packages that have no local
content files has been clarified.
0.2 Compatibility
This part of ISO/IEC 12785 arises in an active implementation environment of ever increasing adoption of IMS
Content Packaging. A primary goal of this part of ISO/IEC 12785 is to enable future growth while regularizing
current practice. To that end, the following definition of backwards compatibility has guided the development
of this Content Packaging Information Model:
a) From the perspective of the IMS Content Packaging Information Model, the IMS Content Packaging
Information Model v1.1.4 is a proper subset of this Content Packaging Information Model.
b) The semantics of the Content Packaging Information Model components persists between versions,
except where necessary to ensure disambiguation.
vi © ISO/IEC 2009 – All rights reserved

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 12785-1:2009(E)

Information technology — Learning, education, and training —
Content packaging
Part 1:
Information model
1 Scope
This part of ISO/IEC 12785 defines the data structures that can be used to exchange language, education and
training (LET) content among systems that wish to import, export, aggregate, and disaggregate packages of
LET content.
It illustrates the conceptual structure of the Content Packaging Information Model and defines the structural
relationships, data-type, value-space, and number of occurrences permitted for each kind of information
object.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 639-2:1998, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code
ISO 3166-1:1997, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 1:
Country codes
ISO/IEC 10646:2003, Information technology — Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS)
IEEE 1484.12.1-2002, Draft Standard for Learning Object Metadata
IETF RFC 1951 (1996), DEFLATE Compressed Data Format Specification version 1.3
IETF RFC 2119 (1997), Keywords for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels
IETF RFC 2234 (1997), Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF
IETF RFC 2732 (1999), Format for Literal IPv6 Addresses in URL’s
IETF RFC 3986 (2005), Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax
© ISO/IEC 2009 – All rights reserved 1

3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
3.1
child manifest
complete, subordinate manifest contained in parent manifest
NOTE 1 A manifest can contain one or more child manifests.
NOTE 2 A manifest can include a reference to a child manifest that is external to the interchange package.
NOTE 3 A child manifest describes a complete logical package that is part of the larger logical package defined by its
parent manifest.
NOTE 4 A child manifest can be local or remote.
cf. interchange package, local, logical package, manifest, remote
3.2
content file
computer file(s) that embodies the LET content described by the manifest
NOTE 1 Content files can be local or remote.
NOTE 2 Content will often contain more than one content file. For example, web content is often instantiated by HTML,
JPEG, and CSS files. Content files can be local or remote.
cf. local, logical package, remote
3.3
content organization
organization
logical relationships, such as a hierarchical tree, among units of LET content
NOTE 1 More than one logical organization can be described in a manifest.
NOTE 2 An organization is bound to files through the relationship among item components and their referenced
resource components of a manifest.
NOTE 3 The rules governing the structuring and ordering of a hierarchical tree need to be specified.
cf. resource
3.4
control file
single computer file that governs the binding of the Content Packaging Information Model (CPIM) to make it
suitable for machine processing
NOTE A software component can refer to a control file when assessing the validity of a bound instance of the
information model or to guide the creation of a bound instance of the information model. For example, a file containing an
XML schema can be used as a control file for an XML binding of a manifest.
3.5
interchange package
set of usable (reusable) LET content that is exchanged among computing systems used for information
technology for learning, education and training (ITLET) purposes
NOTE An interchange package can be instantiated in a single compressed binary file (package interchange file) or as
a collection of files on portable media (e.g., CD, DVD, USB memory device).
cf. logical package, package interchange file
2 © ISO/IEC 2009 – All rights reserved

3.6
launchable URI
representation of a Universal Resource Locator (URL) that may be included in a resource description and that
is used to locate and access the content described by the resource
NOTE The launchable Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is not meant to be resolved by a package reader.
cf. interchange package, package reader
3.7
LET
...