Release Notes
- New! Drag-and-drop editor for building CTAT HTML interfaces.
- The CTAT HTML editor is a web-based tool that allows you to quickly build an HTML tutor interface in the browser, then launch the interface to connect to the Authoring Tools running on your desktop to create and edit behavior graphs. See Quick Start for more information.
- Improved support for graph editing with HTML tutor interfaces
- With an HTML interface connected to a graph in the Authoring Tools, switching the tools to "Set Start State" mode caused values that were demonstrated in the interface to not display in the interface, making it difficult to modify the demonstrated values. Now the values are displayed in "Set Start State" mode.
- In previous versions, unnecessary information about the HTML interface was stored in each behavior graph's start state. This extra information caused problems when the HTML interface was modified after the graph was created. For new graphs, only information required for mass producing behavior graphs is stored in a behavior graph's start state.
For existing graphs, you can easily remove the unnecessary information stored in your graphs. In the Authoring Tools:
- Open the graph.
- Open the HTML interface.
- Select Graph > Revise Start State with UI from the menu.
- Reload the HTML interface, verify that the interface still displays correctly, and save the graph.
- A new menu option New Package has been added to the File > New menu in the Authoring Tools. New Package simply creates a new directory with sub folders in your CTAT workspace; this directory structure (which we call a "package") is the recommended layout for HTML interfaces, graphs, and other assets needed by your tutor. Storing all your tutor files in a Package facilitates uploading your tutor to Learner Management Systems, such as TutorShop.
- The HTML5 Project wizard has been moved to the Tools menu. The CTAT HTML Editor is the recommended way to create tutor interfaces, though users who prefer to write their own HTML instead of using a drag-and-drop editor might find the wizard helpful for getting started.
- JavaScript Example Tracer
- Formulas now have access to bug, success, and hint messages. To access the most recent bug message, use <%=buggy_message%>. To access the most recent success message, use <%=success_message%>. For hints, use <%=hints%>; the value will be an array of strings. Note: these variables will only be replaced when the HTML tutor is deployed to a web server and using the JavaScript Example Tracer. They are not replaced when your tutor is connected to the Authoring Tools.
- CTATGroupingComponent: If a group is defined using child elements, setting the group to not be visible hid the child elements but not the div element containing the child elements. Now the div element containing the child elements is also hidden.
- CTATVideo: When an instance of CTATVideo component is set to be graded, an error would occur causing the component to not work properly. This error has been fixed.
- If a CTATVideo HTML component has tutoring enabled, demonstrating a correct step in the graph records three selection values concatenated together: the component id, the url, and the length of the clip. For example, given id=video1, url=Assets\myVideo.mp4, and clip length=00:00:20.000, in the Edit Student Input Matching dialog, the selection in the "Demonstrated Value" column is video1, but the selection in the "Matcher Settings" column is video1http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A11001%2FAssets%2FmyVideo.mp400:00:20.000. When testing the step in Test Tutor mode, the link does not match. The matcher's selection should be only the component id. A workaround for this issue is to change the matcher type on the Selection to an Any Match, though this will only work if there is no more that one tutored video in the interface.
- The Jess Editor plugin is not recognized in newer versions of the Eclipse IDE (Luna or later). To enable the plugin, you need to install an extra module that provides support for older plugins. See Configuring Eclipse for production rule editing for instructions on configuring Eclipse.
- Double-clicking a BRD file does not load the graph on Mac OS X.
- If the text in a CTATTextArea or CTATTextInput is set in the graph’s start state, the text is not displayed when the author mode is changed to ‘Set Start State’.
- Improved support for HTML tutor interfaces
- Many improvments and bug fixes for the HTML components (see HTML changes) below.
- The JQuery JavaScript library required for HTML interfaces is now available from the same location as the CTAT JavaScript libraries and CSS file. Users no longer need to reference a specific version of JQuery from the JQuery web site in their HTML interface files; existing users should update their .html files to replace URLs pointing to
http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.2.4.min.jswithhttps://cdn.ctat.cs.cmu.edu/releases/latest/jquery.min.js. The CTAT examples and the templates for the HTML Project wizard have been updated. Note: The version on the CTAT CDN site is JQuery 2.2.4. CTAT HTML tutors have been tested extensively with this version; we recommend using the version on our CDN as newer versions might not work properly in all browsers. - Better support for mass production. See the section on mass production for HTML components.
- At author time, choosing 'Demonstrate This Link' from a link's popup menu did not allow the user to demonstrate new input for the step. Users can now re-demonstrate steps in an HTML interface.
- At author time, choosing 'Add Blank Step' from a graph state's popup menu would always cause the graph to return to the start state with HTML interfaces. Now the current state in the graph is not changed.
- The goToState() function now works with HTML interfaces.
- Sometimes the scrim was not removed when the interface was loaded, forcing the student to reload the page. This problem has been fixed.
- In CTAT 4.0, text changes made in CTAT components in the HTML interface after the graph's start state was created were overwritten by previous values stored in the graph. For example, if the author changes the label for a CTATCheckBox in the .html file after they've created the start state in their graph, the previous value in the graph was not updated to contain the new value. The old value saved in the graph was always displayed as the label text, forcing authors to re-create the graph with a new start state. In this version, the Authoring Tools allow you to easily update the values saved in the graph. In the Authoring Tools:
- Open the graph.
- Open the modified HTML interface.
- Select Graph > Revise Start State with UI from the menu.
- Reload the HTML interface, verify that the interface now displays the changes as defined in the modified interface, and save the graph.
- The HTML5 Project wizard now creates an Assets directory by default in the project's HTML directory. All .css files, .js files, and other resources (e.g., image files) should now be stored in the Assets folder. For example, the .css file provided by the wizard is stored in the Assets folder:
workspace-dir/MyHTMLTutor/HTML/Assets/tutor.css. - JavaScript Example Tracer
- In formulas, embedded newlines caused failures in JavaScript evaluation, requiring formulas to be defined as a single line. Now formulas can be written on multiple lines in the Edit Student Input Matching dialog.
In formulas, null and undefined are now considered equal. For example, the formula
equals(null,undefined)returns true. - Fixed a bug causing session messages to not be logged from tutors running in TutorShop.
- In formulas, embedded newlines caused failures in JavaScript evaluation, requiring formulas to be defined as a single line. Now formulas can be written on multiple lines in the Edit Student Input Matching dialog.
In formulas, null and undefined are now considered equal. For example, the formula
- Jess
- A new Jess function find-cognitive-model-directory has been added. Sample usage:
(bind ?cog-mod-dir (find-cognitive-model-directory)) (require* module-B-rules (str-cat ?cog-mod-dir "module-B-rules.pr")) - At author time, diagnostics set up with the Jess (watch ...) function are no longer undone by attempts to model trace.
- For production rules that define custom fields, those custom fields are now properly logged when used with HTML interfaces.
- A new Jess function find-cognitive-model-directory has been added. Sample usage:
- The Java-based Tutoring Service (and CTAT for HTML and Flash) now, by default, listens on HTTP port 12022, HTTPS port 12043, WS port 20080, WSS port 20443, and TCP port 1502.
- CTATGroupingComponent
- The 'data-ctat-use-componentlist' attribute is deprecated and should not be used. If the 'data-ctat-componentlist' attribute is set, the grouping component controls the components in the list; otherwise, the child elements of the grouping component make up the group.
- Components defined by the group now respond properly to all of the tutor-performed actions supported for groups (e.g., lock, unlock, move, etc.).
- CTATTable
- It is now easier to configure the height of a table's cells. In the previous release, the default cell height was almost 2 times the font size, which was typically larger than desired; in addition, the default style for table cells made changing the height difficult. In this release, the default cell height is now just 1.2 times the font size, and authors can override the default more easily in style settings, e.g.,
.CTATTable--cell {width: 120px; height: 20px;}. - If table cells have a background color set, the background color now fills the entire cell.
- It is now easier to configure the height of a table's cells. In the previous release, the default cell height was almost 2 times the font size, which was typically larger than desired; in addition, the default style for table cells made changing the height difficult. In this release, the default cell height is now just 1.2 times the font size, and authors can override the default more easily in style settings, e.g.,
- CTATDragAndDrop: The component now supports the actions Add and SetChildren in tutor-performed action links.
- CTATCheckBox: When the check box labels included some special regex characters, it caused UpdateCheckBox action on correct to clear the check marks because they failed to match. Special characters in labels should now be properly handled.
- CTATNumericStepper: The stepper now enforces valid values even when numbers are typed into the component. It will set the value to the closest min or max value if the entered value is outside the given range. If a value not in line with the step size is entered, then the closest valid value less than the entered value will be used. If a non-number is entered, it will go to the minimum value.
- The Jess Editor plugin is not recognized in newer versions of the Eclipse IDE (Luna or later). To enable the plugin, you need to install an extra module that provides support for older plugins. See Configuring Eclipse for production rule editing for instructions on configuring Eclipse.
- Double-clicking a BRD does not load the graph on Mac OS X
- If the text in a CTATTextArea or CTATTextInput is set in the graph’s start state, the text is not displayed when the author mode is changed to ‘Set Start State’.
