Your Content Provider ID & Lesson IDs

Overview

Before you start creating lessons you'll need to understand what "content provider IDs" and "lesson IDs" are, and how to create them. This page explains this.


Your Content Provider ID

Every person or organization that provides lessons for Language Mentor should have a unique "content provider ID". We recommend that you use a reverse domain name for this.

For example, our domain name is "languagecollaborative.com" so we use "com.languagecollaborative" as our content provider ID.

Using your domain name pretty much ensures that your content provider ID will be unique. After all, you own your domain name, and no one else should use it to identify themselves. If you don't currently have a domain name we suggest that you obtain one. Domain name registration is inexpensive. You aren't required to create a website for domains that you own, though you can if you want.

If you're part of a large organization and you want multiple departments to have their own unique content provider IDs, you can create multiple IDs based on your domain name. Simply follow this convention:

• Start each ID with your reverse domain name, e.g. "com.languagecollaborative"
• Append a dot (".") and a department descriptor to the end, e.g. "com.languagecollaborative.klingon_studies"

Lesson IDs

Just as every lesson provider should have their own unique ID, so should each lesson. Here's the naming convention that we suggest:

1. Start with your content provider ID

We recommend that you start each lesson ID with your content provider ID. This identifies you as the lesson's creator, and ensures that no one else will create a lesson with an identical ID.

Example: com.languagecollaborative...

From this point on we'll extend the name in a way that will insure that the name that you use is unique for you, or unique within your organization.

2. Add the Native Language?

If you're creating a dual language lesson, add the native language of your lesson to the name. More specifically, add the ISO 639-3 code for the native language. The SIL website has a list and a search page which will help you to find the correct code.

Example (for English as native language): com.languagecollaborative.eng...

If you're creating a single language lesson, the lesson won't have a native language, so omit this part of the name.

3. Add the Target Language

Add the ISO 639-3 code for the lesson's target language, i.e. the language that the lesson is teaching.

Example (an English to Mandarin Chinese lesson): com.languagecollaborative.eng.cmn...
Example (a Mandarin Chinese single language lesson): com.languagecollaborative.cmn...

4. Add a Lesson Name or Abbreviation

Example: com.languagecollaborative.eng.cmn.getting_a_haircut

Congratulations!

You've now created a "lesson ID" that is unique to your lesson. 


Questions?

If you have questions about the lesson creation process, please contact us on our Creating Lessons forum. We're here to help.


What's Next?

Next we'll explain how to start writing your script.