[ARCHIVED] Custom data

[rcarlos1]

Hello,

NJIT would like to send student related data ( major and program) to canvas. We currently use sftp to send data from our SIS to canvas. Please let me know if we can place the student data as a csv file on the sftp for canvas to consume.

Thanks

Roweena

Roweena T. Carlos
Executive Director
Academic Information Systems
roweena.t.carlos@njit.edu • (973) 596-3305
• (732) 766-4338
A Top 100 National University
U.S. News & World Report

[robotcars]

Hi  @rcarlos1 ,

Canvas takes CSV Import through the API, the format for SIS Imports can be found at

 SIS Import Format Documentation - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation 

CSV or Zip can be sent to Canvas via SIS Imports - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation 

cc: Canvas Admins‌ Canvas Developers‌

[James]

 @rcarlos1 ,

Custom data cannot be sent through a SIS import.

You can send custom data through the Custom Gradebook Columns API or the Custom Data endpoints of the Users API.

[robotcars]

It wasn't really clear to me what data is being sent or for what purpose, aside from major and program, but the request was about SIS data. I was wondering if they are trying to use the groups|categories|memberships?

[James]

You're right that Major and Program might be used as groups and those could be sent through SIS imports.

The reason I interpreted it as I did was because the title was "custom data" and the items mentioned were definitely not things that Canvas uses directly.

[rcarlos1]

Thanks all for the responses. If we were to go the route of sending groups, how would I send the majors and programs to canvas? Is someone already doing something similar - sending as a csv file?

Again, thanks for your information.

Roweena

[jsavage2]

We do this for various things. The formats for the groups.csv and group_membership.csv files are documented at SIS Import Format Documentation - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation 

The basic gist, though, is that you send a file that defines the groups, and then another file that lists the members and which group they belong to. It's very similar to the courses.csv and enrollments.csv files for courses.

[jsavage2]

Hi  @rcarlos1 ,

The first question is really "why do want to put that information in Canvas"?

As Robert and  @James  have hinted, the question for Canvas data is often business process more than capability. There are many ways for Canvas to consume and use data depending on what Canvas functionality you want to enable for the populations you identify in the dataset.

If you want to create groups, or terms, or courses, or sections, or subaccounts based on those program memberships, you can certainly do that via the SIS import.

If you want to store that data to feed some other process, that's probably the custom data API...although you could certainly get creative with the SIS import to do things like create "courses" that you never intend to publish, etc.