Library Folder Setup

Overview

This page explains how to create library folders for your lessons on the Internet. Later Creating Lessons pages will explain how to finish setting up your library by creating library XML files, and how to publish lessons to libraries.

This page is more technical than previous pages. If you aren't comfortable dealing with things like "servers" and "FTP" we suggest that you get assistance. Your organization's IT department and/or your web hosting service's tech support people are probably a good place to start.


Prerequisites

• Access to a web hosting server. In most cases this will be provided by your organization or by a web hosting service.
• An FTP client. This is software that allows you to transfer files from your computer to the server. FileZilla is both excellent and free.

Workflow, Logistics & the "Publish Staging" Folder

The purpose of this page, and the pages that follow, is to help you set up "content" on your server - folders, XML files, and lesson files. In order to make this process easy and efficient, we suggest that you consider using a workflow in which you maintain two copies of your content:

• A local copy on your computer. On the Folder Setup page we suggested that you create a Publish Staging folder within your main Language Mentor folder. We suggest that you keep a local copy of your "server content" in this folder.
• A copy on the server that mirrors the contents of the Publish Staging folder.

In other words, we're suggesting a workflow that consists of setting up content in the Publish Staging folder, then copying it to the server via FTP.

The approach that we're suggesting here makes sense in many, but not all, situations. So we also suggest that you use your judgment and either use this approach, or some other, based on your specific circumstances. The instructions that follow assume that you'll be using the workflow that we're suggesting. If you're using a different workflow you'll need to do some mental translation as you read them.


One Target Language Per Library

All lessons within a given library should teach the same language. If you are creating lessons that teach multiple languages, create separate libraries for each target language.

On the other hand, the reverse isn't true. You can create multiple libraries that contain lessons for the same language. For example, a teacher can create a separate library for each of their classes, or even each of their students.


The Main Library Folder

Each Language Mentor library has a main folder which contains a "library XML file" and one or more subfolders. The main folder can have any name and can be placed in any location within your domain or subdomain. For example, if your domain is our_domain.com, you could locate your library in any of these places:

• our_domain.com/LanguageLessonLibrary
• our_domain.com/libraries/mandarin_chinese
• libraries.our_domain.com/mandarin_chinese

Multiple Libary Folders

If there's any chance that you'll be creating libraries for more than one target language, we suggest that you use language names for your folder names, like this:

• our_domain.com/libraries/mandarin_chinese
• our_domain.com/libraries/english
• our_domain.com/libraries/spanish

or like this:

• libraries.our_domain.com/chinese_mandarin
• libraries.our_domain.com/english
• libraries.our_domain.com/spanish

Another alternative is to use ISO 639-3 codes for your folder names, like this:

• libraries.our_domain.com/cmn
• libraries.our_domain.com/eng
• libraries.our_domain.com/esp

If you'll be creating multiple libraries for a single language - e.g. separate libraries for different classes - you could create a folder hierarchy like this:

• libraries.our_domain/english/beginner
• libraries.our_domain/english/intermediate
• libraries.our_domain/english/advanced
• etc.

But these are all just suggestions, intended to illustrate various approaches to library folder organization. We leave it to you to devise the folder hierarchy that works best for you.


Subfolders

Each library folder will contain one or more subfolders. These subfolders will contain your lesson files. Subfolder names indicate what languages are used by the lessons they contain.

For example, if you are creating lessons that teach English and your main folder is located at our_domain.com/libraries/english, you might have these subfolders:

1. our_domain.com/libraries/english/eng
2. our_domain.com/libraries/english/eng_cmn
3. our_domain.com/libraries/english/eng_esp

In order to decide which subfolders you'll need, ask yourself these questions:

• Will you be creating single-language lessons (lessons that teach the target language but don't provide any native language translations)? If so, see Subfolders For Single-Language Lessons below.
• Will you be creating dual-language lessons (lessons that present both native and target language content)? If so, see Subfolders For Dual-Language Lessons below.

Subfolders For Single-Language Lessons

If you'll be creating single language lessons for your library, create a subfolder and name it with the ISO 639-3 code for your library's target language. Example #1 above is such a folder - it will contain single language lessons that teach English.


Subfolders For Dual-Language Lessons

If you'll be creating dual-language lessons for your library, first decide what native languages you'll be supporting. In other words, what languages will your lessons translate the target language content into? 

Next, create a separate subfolder for each of the native languages that you plan to support. Name the subfolders using this convention:

• Start the name with the ISO 639-3 code for your library's target language.
• Add an underscore and the ISO 639-3 code for the subfolder's native language.

Examples:

• In the examples above, folder #2 will contain lessons with a target language of English and a native language of Mandarin Chinese.
• Folder #3 will contain lessons with a target language of English and a native language of Spanish.

If you're not sure what languages you'll be supporting in the future, don't worry - you can create more subfolders later. For now, just create the subfolders that you think you'll need.


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 show you how to create your library's XML file.




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