IMPORTANT: Questionmark recommendeds using the Delivery Odata API (click here for documentation) for new integrations, not the QMWISe API. Although we currently continue to issue maintenance updates to this API to support customers with current QMWISe-based integrations, we are no longer adding new methods/functionality to QMWISe. 
  1. Questionmark QMWISe API Guide
  2. Introduction
  3. What is QMWISe?

What is QMWISe?

Applies to the following products: 
Questionmark OnDemand
Questionmark Perception
Questionmark OnPremise
Applies to the following Perception versions: 
Perception 5.7

The Questionmark Web Integration Services environment (QMWISe) is a system that allows developers to control their usage of Perception from an outside application using web services. A QMWISe developer has a single environment within which to access the Perception shared repository to read, add or manipulate information and use the standard entry points to Perception.

QMWISe could be used to:

  • Integrate Perception with a Learning Management System (LMS)
  • Build a new system using Perception to provide some core functionality
  • Create an addition to Perception to meet local needs

For example, a developer could build an application that obtains details of all the assessments in a Perception shared repository, provide their users with a way to start one or more of these assessments, and receive notification when the assessment has been completed.

QMWISe is a web service that enables applications at one point on the web or intranet to gather information or run other applications from the Perception Server. For further details about how QMWISe web service methods exchange data, please refer to controlling Perception externally using the QMWISe API in the QMWISe API Guide.

A web service has a precise specification within which a set of web service methods are defined. The web service methods are a set of named interfaces that enable specific tasks to be requested of the web service. In this case QMWISe web service methods request or manipulate data from the Perception Server allowing some of the operations that are done by a user in Enterprise Manager to be done programmatically such as:

  • Read from or writing to the database within a Perception shared repository from outside
  • Perception with high-level functions
  • Giving participants access to assessments and reports
  • Providing administrator and authoring access to Enterprise Manager

By using open standards such as XML and SOAP, QMWISe provides services that are cross-platform and compatible with future technologies.

Feedback has shown that customers have used QMWISe to accomplish some of the following tasks:

  • Add components to in-house applications that automatically create participants from details stored
  • Schedule assessments to participants from human resource or university enrollment applications

It is also possible to use QMWISe to achieve the following tasks.

Possible uses of QMWISe Description

Access control

An external system could grant its users access to various elements of Perception without having to go through the Perception security system. This could include:

  • Students taking tests
  • Students viewing reports
  • Instructors trying out tests
  • Instructors viewing reports

Typically, the system will have its own methods of identifying students and instructors and simply requires Perception to let them do what they need to do.

Running tests

An LMS could integrate with Perception and use it as an assessment element. The LMS could:

  • Direct a student to a specific assessment in Perception
  • Receive results for the assessment
  • Use the results in its own grade book or reporting system

Controlling users

An external system could manage the structure of participants, groups and schedules within Perception without using Enterprise Manager. The system could:

  • Add new participants or remove existing ones
  • Add new groups or remove existing ones
  • Populate a group with students from its own database
  • Change group memberships

Scheduling tests

An external system could organize the scheduling of tests for participants within Perception without using Enterprise Manager. The system could:

  • Schedule individual students
  • Schedule groups of students
  • Impose time limits for tests
  • Limit attempts

Generating reports

An external reporting or administrative system could use results data stored in the database within a Perception shared repository. Such a system could:

  • Generate end of term reports
  • Prove compliance with working regulations