This guide outlines how to prototype an integration with SCORM Cloud as an embedded eLearning player for your Learning Management System (LMS) or custom application.
Using SCORM Cloud allows your platform to deliver standards-compliant content (SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, AICC, xAPI, cmi5, PDF, and media files) while keeping user management, course catalogs, and business logic inside your own application.
Prototyping for Rustici Engine? Read This First
If you are using SCORM Cloud as a sandbox environment to prototype an integration that will ultimately deploy on Rustici Engine (our self-hosted or managed hosted product), you should keep your implementation focused strictly on importing content, creating and launching registrations and tracking progress covered in steps 3 through 5.
To ensure your code transitions seamlessly to Rustici Engine without rework, do not use the following SCORM Cloud-only features or web services:
- Application Management Service: Used in SCORM Cloud to programmatically provision and manage applications. Rustici Engine handles multi-tenancy differently, meaning these app management endpoints do not apply.
- Dispatch Service: Designed for hosted content distribution to third-party LMSs; not a native service in Rustici Engine.
- Invitations Service: Standalone SaaS functionality for sending public or private email invitations without an LMS.
- Reporting Service: Cloud-specific reporting endpoints not present in the Rustici Engine API.
- Reportage: SCORM Cloud’s built-in visual analytics tool; not available in or applicable to Rustici Engine.
- Tags: Rustici Engine does not have the concept of Tags for categorizing courses or registrations.
- SCORM Cloud Client Libraries: Avoid using the official SCORM Cloud client libraries. These libraries are hardcoded to SCORM Cloud's API endpoints and authentication flow. Instead, write your prototype using a generic HTTP client to make raw API requests. This ensures you can switch to Rustici Engine later simply by changing your base URL and credentials.
Step 1: Create Your SCORM Cloud Trial Account
Sign up for a free developer account at cloud.scorm.com.
The Trial plan is tailored specifically for evaluation and prototyping:
- No Expiration Date: There is no time limit on Trial accounts. You can prototype at your own pace without incurring costs until you are ready for production.
- Prototyping Limits: Includes up to 10 active registrations, 3 active courses, and 5 GB of storage.
- Resetting Registrations: When you reach the 10-registration limit during testing, navigate to the Account tab in the web console and select Clear Existing Registrations to reset your active count back to zero.
Step 2: Retrieve Your API Credentials
API operations in SCORM Cloud are scoped to an Application container and authenticated via HTTP Basic Auth or OAuth 2.0.
- Log in to the SCORM Cloud console.
- Select the Apps (or Apps / API) tab from the main menu.
- Click Details next to your default application.
- Note your credentials:
- App ID: Your unique application identifier.
- Secret Key: Located under Authorization Keys (ensure it is toggled on, or click Add Key to generate one).
Step 3: Import Your Content
SCORM Cloud handles course parsing, manifest extraction, and asset storage asynchronously. You can upload local package archives directly or instruct SCORM Cloud to fetch them from cloud storage.
For detailed request parameters, code examples, and job polling instructions, follow the tutorial here:
Step 4: Register Learners and Launch Content
A Registration maps a learner from your application to an imported course. Once created, your application requests a dynamic, short-lived launch URL to load the player within an <iframe> or popup window.
For details on creating registrations and generating launch links:
Step 5: Track Progress and Receive Results
To track completion status, success, time spent, and scores, you can fetch registration results on demand via the API.
To learn how to inspect and handle learner tracking data:
Conclusion
This was just a quick overview of the core features of SCORM Cloud for importing, launching and tracking content.
To recap, in this guide we covered:
- Uploading and importing a course with CreateUploadAndImportCourseJob
- Checking the status of the course import job with GetImportJobStatus
- Registering a learner to that course by calling CreateRegistration
- Getting a short lived launch link for that registration with BuildRegistrationLaunchLink
- Viewing the results of a registration launch with GetRegistrationProgress