xAPI pipeline options

• Introduction
• Recording options
• Querying options
• Exporting options

Introduction

The xAPI specification defines precisely how an LRS should process incoming statements, and how querying statements should work. TRAX LRS extends the standard process by adding its own rules. We call the overall process the xAPI pipeline.

Although complying with the standard process is mandatory to pass the ADL conformance test suite, there are a number of situations where adapting the process may be valuable for your specific use case. So understanding the xAPI pipeline options is important, especially if you want to configure pull jobs and clients.

Recording options

Validate statements

Check that incoming statements are valid against the xAPI spec. Requests with invalid statements are rejected. This behavior is required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, you can disable it in order to avoid unnecessary validations with trusted data sources. Disabling statements validation improves performances. Furthurmore, statements can be validated asynchonously with validation jobs.

Check ID conflicts

Check that there is no conflict between the IDs of incoming statements (when they are defined) and existing statement IDs in the database. Requests with ID conflicts are rejected. This behavior is required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, you can disable it in order to avoid rejections in case of conflicts. In this case, statements with the same ID will be replaced in the database. This may be very useful, for example during an import process. This may also improve performances if most of the incoming statements have defined IDs, for example with CMI5 (e.g. CMI5).

Record attachments

Record attachments embedded with statements into the database. This behavior is required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, you can disable it if, for some reasons, you don't want to store attachments in your LRS.

Void statements

When voiding statements are recorded, record the targeted statements as voided into the database. This behavior is required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, you can disable it if you want to prevent statements from being voided.

Update activity definitions

When statements are recorded, extract activity definitions and update them in the activities database. This behavior is required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, you can disable it if you don't need to explore activity definitions and if you don't use the Activities API in your projects. Disabling activity definitions update improves performances.

Update agent definitions

When statements are recorded, extract agent definitions and update them in the agents database. This behavior is not required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, it may be useful if you want to explore agent definitions, including group members, and if you want to manage persons. Disabling agent definitions update improves performances.

Update vocabulary

When statements are recorded, extract xAPI vocabulary such as verbs, activity types, statement categories and document IDs, and update them in the vocab database. This behavior is not required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, it may be useful if you want to explore the xAPI vocabulary used in your LRS. The vocabulary is also used for auto-completion in some filters. Disabling vocabulary update improves performances.

Update activity IDs registry

When activities are recorded, extract their IDs and record them in the vocab database. This behavior is not required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, it is used for auto-completion in some filters. Disabling IDs update improves performances.

Update agent IDs registry

When agents are recorded, extract their IDs and record them in the vocab database. This behavior is not required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, it is used for auto-completion in some filters. Disabling IDs update improves performances.

Authority

When statements are recorded, give them a specific authority. This behavior is not required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, it may be useful in order to categorize statements depending of their sources.

Querying options

Query targeting statements

When querying statements with the standard statements API, statements which are targeted by the returned statements are also returned. This behavior is required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, you can disable it if you don't use statement references or if you don't need to query targeting statements. Disabling this option improves performances.

Exporting options

Pseudonymize statements

When statements are exported, replace all the agents by their pseudonymized form in order to hide the real agents identity. This behavior is not required to pass the xAPI conformance test. However, you can enable it in order to apply some privacy rules when exporting data from your LRS.