DocsDownload
Menu

Delivery: SCORM 2004

On this page

SCORM 2004 is the second edition of SCORM that LMSs still take. It reports completion and success apart, a scaled score, and keeps 64,000 characters of suspend data (SCORM 1.2: 4,096). Elabora builds the 4th edition, or the 3rd for an LMS that stops there, as one SCO without sequencing beyond the simplest. Delivery formats says when Elabora picks it.

Package

elabora build writes <id>-<version>-scorm2004.zip, its .report.json and its .proof.md, as for SCORM 1.2 (SCORM 1.2): the same files, but imsmanifest.xml is SCORM 2004’s:

imsmanifest.xml   SCORM 2004, schemaversion "2004 4th Edition" (or "2004 3rd Edition"), one SCO,
                  imsss:deliveryControls completionSetByContent and objectiveSetByContent true
  • One SCO, no sequencing. LMSs handle SCORM 2004’s sequencing unevenly (Docebo and LearnUpon not at all). The only sequencing is the item’s delivery controls: the content sets the completion and the success itself, so an LMS does not mark the activity completed when the window closes.
  • The passing score is the player’s. The manifest has no objective with a minNormalizedMeasure: the player reports the success itself, from completion.masteryScore. An LMS cannot recompute the success from the score, as Moodle does in SCORM 1.2.
  • The edition. The 4th by default; the 3rd when an LMS of the module documents the 3rd and not the 4th (Docebo), or prefers the 3rd (Cornerstone). One SCO without sequencing calls the same API in both: only schemaversion changes.
  • Identifiers derive from the course id, as in SCORM 1.2. A package in another format is another course for an LMS.

Runtime behaviour

The player behaves as in SCORM 1.2 (SCORM 1.2): it finds the API in the same windows, initialises once, commits after every change and on visibilitychange and pagehide, never registers unload. The adapter (packages/player/src/scorm2004.ts) translates what it says:

SCORM 1.2 SCORM 2004
API API, LMSInitialize… API API_1484_11, Initialize, Terminate, GetValue, SetValue, Commit
cmi.core.lesson_status passed / failed cmi.completion_status completed and cmi.success_status passed / failed
cmi.core.lesson_status completed / incomplete cmi.completion_status completed / incomplete
cmi.core.lesson_location cmi.location
cmi.core.score.raw, min, max cmi.score.raw, min, max, and cmi.score.scaled (raw over the range, 0 to 1)
cmi.core.exit suspend / “” cmi.exit suspend / normal
cmi.core.session_time HHHH:MM:SS.SS cmi.session_time PT#H#M#S
cmi.core.entry, student_name, student_id cmi.entry, learner_name, learner_id
cmi.interactions.n.time cmi.interactions.n.timestamp (date and time)
cmi.interactions.n.student_response cmi.interactions.n.learner_response
result wrong result incorrect
responses a,b, 1.a,2.c responses a[,]b, 1[.]a[,]2[.]c
numeric pattern 5 numeric pattern 5[:]5
performance (a free object’s free answers) other
cmi.student_preference.language (the learner’s language, read by a package of several languages, D71) cmi.learner_preference.language

The status is read back as SCORM 1.2’s: passed or failed when the success says so, else the completion. It never regresses, as in SCORM 1.2.

Suspend data

SCORM 2004 3rd and 4th editions keep 64,000 characters. The build checks the worst case against the profiles’ suspendDataMax.scorm2004: SAP SuccessFactors documents 4,000 (the 2nd edition’s figure, to be measured), the unknown LMS assumes 4,000 too.

Emulator (elabora test)

The emulator plays scorm-again’s Scorm2004API as API_1484_11, with the profile’s quirks (launch topology, suspend data limit and enforcement), and runs the scenario of SCORM 1.2 (SCORM 1.2): API found, navigation, abrupt close (location, suspend data and cmi.exit = suspend kept), resume, completion with the expected status and a score of 100, Quit calling Terminate, every SetValue accepted (scorm-again checks each value’s format), a review session without regression.

elabora test examples/diagnostic-reseau --profile scorm-cloud
elabora test examples/phishing-by-numbers --format scorm2004 --profile successfactors
elabora test --package course-scorm2004.zip --profile docebo

--package reads the format from imsmanifest.xml (schemaversion 2004 or CAM 1.3).

Beyond the emulator

The emulator plays documented behaviour. Before a delivery: a smoke test in SCORM Cloud (it shows completion and success apart), then a test learner in the client’s LMS. Watch:

  • SAP SuccessFactors: the 4,000 characters of suspend data it documents for SCORM 2004; the 2nd and 4th editions are documented, the 3rd only within the 2nd’s features.
  • Cornerstone: the 4th edition runtime arrived with release 26.2 (September 2026); the package declares the 3rd.
  • Moodle and Totara: they do not take SCORM 2004 (Moodle’s support is partial and closed as won’t fix): Elabora picks SCORM 1.2 for them, and a module that forces SCORM 2004 stops with E_STANDARD_NOT_SUPPORTED.