[ARCHIVED] Interesting problem with Google Drive LTI

[mduran5]

Hi there,

I stumbled across an interesting problem with Google Drive LTI and our instance of Canvas and wanted to know if there was a more graceful way of resolving the issue. We rely on this LTI to turn in assignments and in testing I found a way that may prevent a student from submitting assignments successfully. Our instance also logs in through Google accounts with SSO which seems to be a large factor. Steps to reproduce:

• Enroll a student into a course (preferably a test account)
• Create an assignment in the course which requires submitting through the Google Drive LTI
• As the test user, navigate to this assignment and authorize the LTI to access your Google account.
• As the test user, login to https://accounts.google.com and open the Security menu from the menu on the left side of the window
• Once in the Security menu, scroll down to the Third-party apps with account access card and click Manage Third Party access
• Click on the Google Drive LTI by Canvas card and select REMOVE ACCESS, then confirm the removal
• Now, as the the test user, navigate back to the assignment using this LTI and refresh. I needed to refresh without cache occasionally (ctrl + shift + r, cmd + shift + r).
• You should receive a loading screen for the assignment which will never resolve.

Steps I took to attempt to resolve this with no resolution:

1. Clear cache of the test user, logout of Canvas and back in. No resolution
2. Log in from a completely different browser, no resolution
3. Remove the LTI from the test users account (Settings > Approved Integrations > Delete), clear cache again, no resolution
4. Create a new assignment using the LTI to submit to force prompt for re-authorization, no resolution

The only method that I found to successfully get the authorization prompt to come back up was as an Admin, delete the test user's account completely and re-invite them to the course (Admin > Org > People > Test Account profile > Delete from Org). Is this a known issue, and if so, is there a resolution to reauthorize the LTI without deleting the student profile?

[rpsimon]

Hi  @mduran5   and welcome to the Canvas Community!  I know you mentioned using Google Drive LTI, but have you by any chance considered using Google Assignments LTI?  In regards to assigning work and submitting assignments, definitely can streamline the process for both  teachers and students.  

[mduran5]

Hi rpsimon,

Thanks for replying! I think that there might just be a difference in terms of naming for the LTI. Inside the Assignment Settings, the assignments are using the "Google Drive Cloud Assignment LTI" but in the Google Account settings, it's labeled as "Google Drive LTI by Canvas". So I'm not sure which is the correct name for it.

That being said, we do encourage using this LTI for staff since it makes things significantly easier for staff, but staff can choose the way they want to have students submit assignments. 

[rpsimon]

Thanks,  @mduran5 ‌!  Not to confuse you more, but Google developed three separate LTI's.

1) Google Drive

2) Google (Drive) Cloud Assignment LTI - I think that's the one you were referring to above.

3) Google Assignment LTI

Several months ago, Google was planning on combining numbers 2 and 3 together into one LTI.  I don't know whether they have yet or not.  What I can say is that my teachers were getting confused between the two.  I encouraged them to stick with the Assignments LTI (3) because this is the one that features Originality Reports.

[mduran5]

Ah, gotcha -- that makes a bit more sense. I'm wondering if there might be something with the combination of those two if it's already in production that doesn't check for the authorization token on the Google Account side? Who knows! Thank you for clearing that up though, much appreciated!

[rpsimon]

I figured it couldn't hurt to show you what I have installed in my Admin console, in regards to Google.

Under Installed apps:

Under "View App Configurations"

I honestly have not been in contact with Google recently about this at all.  There is no more Google Drive listed and I know that I did not remove it (nor did anyone else from my institution remove it) and there is no more Google Cloud Assignments LTI either.  Google Drive is listed in the course navigation menu.  So it seems to me that Google streamlined what used to be available....it was so confusing anyway.