The A4L Community releases the next SIF Specification pushing forward with open standards

WASHINGTON - June 29, 2016 - PRLog -- This release strives to make things simpler for the Consumer while minimizing the impacts on the Provider, and including additional functionality to the Specification through 'Functional Services'.  SIF Infrastructure Specification 3.2 continues to focus on getting data as easily as possible. Featured in this release is the introduction of general support for Query by Example and Changes Since. Query by Example allows for finding resources that match a sample object. Changes Since allows for the retrieval of just the objects that have been added, changed, or deleted since the last time the consuming agent requested all the data in the collection. Also in this release is an overhaul of Functional Services, empowering data exchanges needing a beginning, middle, and an end.

The SIF Infrastructure Implementation Specification 3.2 release also consists of updated versions for the following set of components:

• A Read This First document which serves as the introduction to the specification components and which should be the starting point for most developers.
• The Base Architecture, Infrastructure Services, Functional Services and Utility Services documents which together comprise the SIF Infrastructure Specification 3.2.
• Newly incorporated Functional Services documentation to extend infrastructure functionality.
• The set of XML Schemas defining the formats of infrastructure-related payloads.
• New payload documentation generated directly from the XML schemas.

"The A4L Community has, once again, shown great global leadership and technical intelligence with the release of the SIF Infrastructure Implementation Specification 3.2" states Larry Fruth II, PhD, Executive Director/CEO, A4L Community.  "Coming together, the Community has shown great global effectiveness to continue to provide solutions to the education marketplace ensuring that open, community developed interoperable standards guarantee secure access to 'the right data, in the right place, at the right time'."

The SIF Infrastructure Implementation Specification 3.2 can be found on the A4L website at https://www.a4l.org/Specification/Pages/Global-Infrastructure.aspx


About the Access 4 Learning Community
There is no other global community made up of educational policymakers, marketplace product and service providers and the customers they serve, collaborating daily to address real word learning information and resource issues.

The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, previously the SIF Association, is a unique, non-profit collaboration composed of schools, districts, local authorities, states, US and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively address all aspects of learning information management and access to support learning.  The A4L Community is "Powered by SIF" Specifications as its major technical tool to allow for this management and access simply, securely and in a scalable, standard way regardless of the platform hosting those applications. The Access 4 Learning Community has united these education technology end users and providers in an unprecedented effort to give teachers more time to do what they do best: teach. For further information, visit https://www.A4L.org