Glossary

Key terms used in Chamilo 2.0 administration.

Platform Concepts

Term	Definition
Access URL	In a multi-URL setup, each access URL is a separate virtual portal sharing the same Chamilo installation and database. Each URL can have its own branding, users, courses, and settings.
Course	The fundamental content container in Chamilo. A course holds learning materials, exercises, forums, and other tools. Courses can exist independently or be assigned to sessions.
Session	A time-bound instance of one or more courses. Sessions allow the same course content to be delivered to different groups of learners with separate tracking and independent coaches.
Learning path	A structured sequence of content items (documents, exercises, links, SCORM modules) that guides learners through material in a defined order.
Gradebook	An aggregation tool that combines scores from exercises, assignments, and other activities into a weighted final grade for a course.
Skill	A competency or badge that can be awarded to learners upon completing specific courses, exercises, or achieving gradebook thresholds.
Extra field	A custom data field added by administrators to users, courses, or sessions to capture organization-specific metadata.
Plugin	An extension that adds functionality to Chamilo without modifying core code. Plugins can add pages, tools, or integrations.
Catalog	A browsable listing of available courses where users can view descriptions and self-enroll.

User Roles

Term	Definition
Learner (Student)	The default user role. Can enroll in courses and consume content.
Teacher (Trainer)	Can create and manage courses, add content, and grade learners.
Session administrator	Can create and manage sessions and enrollments.
Human Resources Manager (HRM)	Can view tracking and reporting data for assigned users.
Portal administrator	Full access to all platform administration features.
Global administrator	Portal administrator with access across all access URLs in a multi-URL setup.
Coach/Tutor	A session-level role. Session coaches oversee all courses in a session; course coaches manage a specific course within a session. All coaches references should be renamed to tutors in the long run.

Standards and Protocols

Term	Definition
SCORM	Sharable Content Object Reference Model. An e-learning packaging standard that allows courses to be imported and tracked. Chamilo supports SCORM 1.2 and 2004.
xAPI (Tin Can API)	An e-learning specification for tracking learning experiences. Broader than SCORM, it can record activities that happen outside the LMS. xAPI statements are stored in a Learning Record Store (LRS).
LTI	Learning Tools Interoperability. An IMS Global standard that allows external tools and content to be embedded within an LMS. Chamilo supports LTI 1.1 and 1.3 as both a consumer and provider.
SCIM	System for Cross-domain Identity Management. A standard for automating user provisioning and deprovisioning between identity providers and applications.
OAuth2	An authorization framework that allows third-party applications to access Chamilo on behalf of a user without sharing passwords. Used for API access and SSO integrations.
LDAP	Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. A protocol for accessing directory services (e.g., Active Directory) to authenticate users and synchronize account data.
CAS	Central Authentication Service. A single sign-on protocol that allows users to authenticate once and access multiple applications.
JWT	JSON Web Token. A compact, signed token format used for API authentication and session management.
SAML	Security Assertion Markup Language. An XML-based standard for exchanging authentication data between an identity provider and a service provider.

Technical Terms

Term	Definition
Symfony	The PHP framework on which Chamilo 2.0 is built. Symfony provides routing, dependency injection, ORM (Doctrine), templating (Twig), and other infrastructure.
Doctrine	The object-relational mapper (ORM) used by Chamilo to interact with the database. Doctrine maps PHP objects to database tables.
Twig	The template engine used by Symfony and Chamilo for rendering HTML.
Flysystem	A PHP filesystem abstraction layer. Chamilo uses Flysystem to support local storage, Amazon S3, Azure Blob, and Google Cloud Storage interchangeably.
Composer	The PHP dependency manager. Used to install and update Chamilo's PHP libraries.
Mailer DSN	Data Source Name for the email transport. A connection string that tells Symfony how to send emails (e.g., via SMTP, Amazon SES, or Mailjet).
OPcache	PHP's built-in opcode cache. Compiles PHP scripts into bytecode and caches them in memory, significantly improving performance.
APCu	A PHP extension providing a user-level in-memory cache. Used by Symfony for caching metadata and configuration.

Acronyms

Acronym	Full Form
LMS	Learning Management System
LRS	Learning Record Store (for xAPI statements)
SSO	Single Sign-On
CSV	Comma-Separated Values (used for user/course imports)
API	Application Programming Interface
REST	Representational State Transfer (API architecture style)
GDPR	General Data Protection Regulation (EU data privacy law)
HSTS	HTTP Strict Transport Security
CDN	Content Delivery Network
DNS	Domain Name System
SPF	Sender Policy Framework (email authentication)
DKIM	DomainKeys Identified Mail (email authentication)
DMARC	Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance