[ARCHIVED] Error in Course Link Validator

[maguire]

When using the Course Link Validator I get a message:

Links to other courses in this resource may not be accessible by the students in this course:

•  https://canvas.kth.se/courses/11/pages/degree-projects-helpful-hints-for-examiners-and-supervisors-2...

However, course 11 is Public - so how can there be a problem with the link - even though it is from another course to this public course?

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, @maguire ...

So I just tested this out in my own sandbox course, and I got similar results.  You are correct that it does seem a bit odd that the course link validator would kick back a message like that when a link is pointing to a "public" course.  I'm not sure if I would really consider this a bug or not...to be honest.  Sometimes "public" courses have enrollments in them...other times, "public" courses might just house informational content that you want anyone to have access to ... and therefore you don't really need to have enrollments in the course ... as long as they have the link to the "public" course.  (This is what we do with a few of our Canvas course shells where we have a "Faculty Toolkit" course and a "Student Toolkit" course that provides them with all kinds of Canvas-related resources.)  So, even though you and I are both getting this message in the validator, I think it's something that we can ignore for now...knowing that the link is what it needs to be.  But, I do understand why it would be nice not to see it there in the list of potential links with issues.

Hope this helps a bit!  Take care...

[maguire]

I view it as a bug.

[Chris_Hofer]

@maguire ...

Fair enough.  🙂

It might be worth talking with Canvas tech support folks and report it.  They might be able to tell you if it is working "by design" or if there is more they need to do to investigate this odd behavior.  How do I contact Canvas Support? - Canvas Community

It might also be worth submitting this as a Feature Idea here in the Community ... to get the behavior changed.  I would support it if you created the idea.

• How do idea conversations work in the Canvas Commu... - Canvas Community
• What is the feature development process for Instru... - Canvas Community
• How do I create a new idea conversation in the Can... - Canvas Community

Hope this helps.  Enjoy the weekend!

[maguire]

I've submitted it to the university's Canvas support function.

[maguire]

I got some rather useless responses from technical support and posted more details including where in the ruby code the problem lies - see https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Developers-Group/Error-in-link-validator-not-handling-relative-li...