Components that Contain Other Components

Components that Contain Other Components#

For specific use cases, you configure course content so that components contain other components. For example, if you want to include conditional components or content experiments, you have to create components inside components. See Manage Content Experiments for more information.

The component that contains other components is referred to as the parent; the contained components are referred to as child components, or children.

On a unit page, a parent component appears with its display name and a View link.

Edit a Parent Component#

A parent component does not directly contain content. Content such as HTML, videos, or problems are in the child components.

A parent component has a display name. When the unit is private or in draft, select Edit in the parent component to change the display name.

Note

Parent components of a specific type, such as content experiments, have additional attributes that you edit.

View Child Components#

When you select View in the parent component, the parent component page opens, showing all child components. In this example, Child Component A contains a Text component and a video.

Select the arrow next to a child component name to collapse it and hide the component’s contents. Select the arrow again to expand the component.

For more information, see the following topics.

Add a Child Component#

If the containing unit is private or in draft, you can add a child component in its parent component.

To add a child component, open and expand the parent component. Then, select the component type that you want under Add New Component within the parent component.

For more information, see the section for the specific component type that you want.

XML for Parent and Child Components#

You develop parent and child components in XML, then import the XML course into Studio to verify that the structure is as you intended.

For more information about working with your course’s XML files, including information about terminology, see OLX.

The following examples show the XML used to create the unit and components shown in Studio above.

The XML for the unit is as follows.

<vertical display_name="Unit 1">
    <html url_name="6a5cf0ea41a54b209e0815147896d1b2"/>
    <vertical url_name="131a499ddaa3474194c1aa2eced34455"/>
</vertical>

The <vertical url_name="131a499ddaa3474194c1aa2eced34455"/> element above references the parent component file that contains the child components.

<vertical display_name="Parent Component">
    <vertical url_name="2758bbc495dd40d59050da15b40bd9a5"/>
    <vertical url_name="c5c8b27c2c5546e784432f3b2b6cf2ea"/>
</vertical>

The two verticals referenced by the parent component refer to the child components, which contain the actual content of your course.

<vertical display_name="Child Component A">
    <html url_name="4471618afafb45bfb86cbe511973e225"/>
    <video url_name="fbd800d0bdbd4cb69ac70c47c9f699e1"/>
</vertical>

<vertical display_name="Child Component B">
    <html url_name="dd6ef295fda74a639842e1a49c66b2c7"/>
    <problem url_name="b40ecbe4ed1b4280ae93e2a158edae6f"/>
</vertical>

Theoretically, there is no limit to the levels of component nesting you can use in your course.

The Learner View of Nested Components#

For learners, all parent and child components appear on the unit page.

Note

The visibility of nested components depends on the visibility of the parent unit. The parent unit must be public for learners to see nested components. For more information, see Unit Publishing Status and Visibility to Learners.

The following example shows the learner view of the unit described above.

The learner's view of nested components.

Review Date	Working Group Reviewer	Release	Test situation