Learning Information Services



The Learning Information Services (LIS) specification is the definition of how systems manage the exchange of information that describes people, groups, memberships, courses and outcomes within the context of learning. The LIS v2.0 specification supersedes the IMS GLC Enterprise Services v1.0 specification. The LIS specification is based upon the aggregation of the Person Management, Group Management, Membership Management, Course Management, Outcomes Management and the Bulk Data Exchange Management Services specifications. The LIS v2.0 can be implemented using both a Web Services infrastructure (based upon a SOAP http transport mechanism) and the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). An implementation is not required to support each and every service. Neither is an implementation required to support each and every operation. Interoperability is best defined through the use of a Domain Profile. This specification includes such a profile for Higher Education. Interoperability is supported between systems that implement the same profile. The LIS documentation consists of:

  • The LIS Specification - describes how the LIS is composed using its six component services;
  • Information Models - these documents contain the normative description of the various service definitions, data structures and their relationships. Each of the six services has its own Information Model;
  • Binding documents - each of the Information models has an associated WSDL binding document. Some of the services also have an LDAP binding document;
  • Best Practice & Implementation Guide - this is intended to provide vendors with an overall understanding of the IMS GLC LIS Specification, the relationship of the specification with other IMS GLC specifications, and a best practices guide derived from experiences of those using the specification. The guide also includes a several actual examples that describe how vendors can make the best use of the IMS LIS Specification;
  • Core Profiles & Conformance Specification - a set of profiles of the LIS specification has been created. The Core Profiles identify the minimal subset of the functionality that must be supported by systems developed for deployment in HE. These Profiles (there is a Core plus several Additions) define the set of operations and data models that must be supported by the systems supporting the set of services within the LIS. Each profile contains its Conformance Specification against which compliant systems are tested;
  • The Binding Files - one of the outputs of the LIS specification is the set of Web Services Description Language/XML Schema Definition (WSDL/XSD) binding files. Each service has its own set of WSDL/XSD files. It is these files that are used by code-generation tools to create the source code that handles the SOAP messages and XML data structures. Some small changes are required to the WSDL files to map the SOAP messages to the actual server-based implementation of the Web Service. Each of the services has a set of vocabulary files that contain the set of default vocabularies defined in the Information Model. The vocabulary files are instances of the IMS GLC Vocabulary Data Exchange (VDEX) specification.

Public comments and questions may be posted at http://www.imsglobal.org/community/forum/categories.cfm?catid=59

 

Conformance:

Information on Conformance is posted in the LIS Alliance

 

IMS Learning Information Services Specification - Version 2.0 Public Draft Specification - HTML - Updated 15 March 2010

The Learning Information Services (LIS) v2.0 specification is being released for public review and comment. The specification document set contains information models, binding documents, best practice and implementation guidance, profile and conformance specification, and supporting files. Because of the large set of documents, the specification is being released in a phased approach as the project group completes each document. To see a list of the set of expected LIS documents, see below.

IMS Learning Information Services Primer
IMS Learning Information Services Specification
Learning Information Services Core Profile

IMS Person Management Service Information Model
IMS Course Management Service Information Model
IMS Outcomes Management Service Information Model
IMS Group Management Service Information Model
IMS Membership Management Service Information Model
IMS Bulk Data Exchange Management Service Information Model

IMS Person Management Service WSDL/XSD Binding
IMS Course Management Service WSDL/XSD Binding
IMS Outcomes Management Service WSDL/XSD Binding
IMS Group Management Service WSDL/XSD Binding
IMS Membership Management Service WSDL/XSD Binding
IMS Bulk Data Exchange Management Service WSDL/XSD Binding

IMS Learning Information Services Specification - Version 2.0 Public Draft Specification - - Schemas

WSDLs:
The WSDL bindings are for a Synchronous SOAP implementation only. The WSDL files, expressed using WSDLv1.1, are combined WSDL/XSD file (this contains the WSDL and XSD descriptions in a single file):

XSDs:
The stand-alone XSDs are avaiable to LIS Alliance members. Click here to join the Alliance.

Vocabularies:

The PMS vocabularies are:

The CMS vocabularies are:

The OMS vocabularies are:

The GMS vocabularies are:

The MMS vocabularies are:

The BDEMS vocabularies are:

When complete, the full set of expected LIS documents are as follows:

* Learning Information Services Primer
* Learning Information Services Specification
* Learning Information Services Core Profile Adoption Overview
* Learning Information Services Core Profile
* Learning Information Services Best Practice and Implementation Guide

* Person Management Service Info Model
* Course Management Service Info Model
* Outcomes Management Service Info Model
* Group Management Service Info Model
* Membership Management Service Info Model
* Bulk Data Exchange Management Service Info Model

* Person Management Service WSDL Binding
* Course Management Service WSDL Binding
* Group Management Service WSDL Binding
* Outcomes Management Service WSDL Binding;
* Membership Management Service WSDL Binding
* Bulk Data Exchange Management Service WSDL Binding

* Person Management Service LDAP Binding