Hi David,
First, thank you so much for taking the time to read over the wiki docs. I know it takes some time to digest it all, so it is very much appreciated.
DM1 - OK, we can do that.
DM2 - Sounds good.
DM3 - That's fine, null will be used instead of zero. Please see change here. Let me know if I missed any.
DM4 - I was also trying to stick a contextid into the outcome_areas table, but it wasn't making sense for the associations that we are making. EG: what contextid would you use for a question (remember, questions exist on the site or course)? Same question for a grading form. If you think of a way to include it that would be beneficial, I'm very much interested.
Example for a grading form data would be component=gradingform_rubric, area=criteria, itemid=gradingform_rubric_criteria.id and this would represent an outcome(s) being associated to a rubric criteria. Once the grading form was associated to an activity, then a record in the outcome_used_areas would be added with the cmid of the activity in question and the id of our record from outcome_areas. The outcome_used_areas is important for coverage reports and because some content (like questions) can be used in multiple activities and we want to be able to distinguish between the two.
DM5 - I don't yet know how the API will look, but the idea is, it'll be designed to accomplish the goals I have laid out and more. I assure you it will be flexible and re-usable and it will be developed out in the open for all to review and critique.
What you are expecting is exactly what I was thinking. Since grading forms are loosely defined, meaning the plugin can do whatever it likes, then the integration of the outcomes would not be automatic. So, it is up to the grading form to determine how it would like to use outcomes. For example, what we would like to do for rubric is to be able to associate outcomes on a per criteria level. Another grading form may want to do it on another mechanism or just allow a single association to the grading form as a whole. Please see my response to DM4 for example data. If we are using a grading form template, then the outcome associations would be copied with the rest of the grading form.
Cheers, Mark