Extensions

George will need various extensions whilst preparing his assessment.

The TAO Glossary defines Extensions as "The components, or building blocks, of which TAO is made. Every extension adds a new set of features”.

Extensions, as the word is used in TAO, are software implementations which can be installed in your TAO instance in order to enable a particular feature to be used. The term extension is slightly misleading as the core functionalities in TAO are also called extensions. Extensions form the backbone of how the TAO assessment environment works. Each extension, or feature, represents a possibility of doing something. The terms extension and feature are often used interchangeably but they aren't exactly the same thing. A feature, as used in TAO, gives the user the possibility of doing something on their TAO platform - it provides a functionality. An extension, on the other hand, is the software implementation which provides the feature in question. There isn't always a one-to-one relationship between features and the relevant extensions, however: sometimes you will need to install more than one extension in order to use a particular feature, and other times several features become available just by installing a single extension.

Depending on the content of George’s assessment, he may need to install extra extensions. In practice, probably most of what he needs will already be installed on his TAO instance as part of the core functionalities of TAO.