Notification preferences - GUI versus API

[stelpstra]

As we want to change a specific notification setting of all our 400+ admins (with only read rights) in our sub-account, I have been trying to make sense how the notification preferences in the interface (canvas.instructure.com/profile/communication) relate to the Notification Preferences API parameters. Sources I have used are:

• How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as an instructor?

• https://s3.amazonaws.com/tr-learncanvas/docs/CanvasNotifications.pdf

• Notification Preferences - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation
• Canvas Live API (on our own instance)

The documentation is missing a lot of information at the moment. E.g. the NotificationPreference object is described with only 4 items instead of the structure of the whole object. Using the Live API a retrieved the full (I hope) object which were 93 items.

To make sense of how these 93 items are related to the notification preferences in the interface I extracted the following details:

Course activities
    Due Date
        Assignment due date change
    Grading policies
        Course grading policy change
    Course Content
        Change to course content:
        Page content
        Quiz content
        Assignment content
    Files
        New file added to your course
    Announcement
        New Announcement in your course
    Announcement created by you
        Announcement created by you
        Replies to announcements you've created
    Grading
        Includes:
        Assignment/submission grade entered/changed
        Un-muted assignment grade
        Grade weight changed
        Option: Include scores when alerting about grades. If your email is not an institution email, this means sensitive content will be sent outside of the institution.
    Invitation
        Invitation for:
        Web conference
        Group
        Collaboration
        Peer review & reminder
    All submissions
        Instructor and Admin only:
        Assignment (except quizzes) submission/resubmission
    Late grading
        Instructor and admin only:
        Late assignment submission
    Submission comment
        Assignment submission comment
    Blueprint Sync
        Instructor and Admin only:
        Content was synced from a blueprint course to associated courses
Discussions
Discussions notification events and settings
    Discussion
        New discussion topic in your course
    Discussion post
        New discussion post in a topic you're subscribed to
Conversations
Conversations notification events and settings
    Added to conversation
        You are added to a conversation
    Conversation message
        New Inbox messages
    Conversations created by me
        You created a conversation
Scheduling
Scheduling notification events and settings
    Student appointment signups
        Instructor and admin only:
        Student appointment sign-up
    Appointment signups
        New appointment on your calendar
    Appointment Cancellations
        Appointment cancellation
    Appointment availability
        New appointment time slots are available for signup
    Calendar
        New and changed items on your course calendar
Groups
Groups notification events and settings
    Membership update
        Admin only: pending enrolment activated
        Group enrolment
        accepted/rejected
Alerts
Alerts notification events and settings
    Administrative Notifications
        Instructor and Admin only:
        Course enrolment
        Report generated
        Content export
        Migration report
        New account user
        New student group
Conferences
Conferences notification events and settings
    Recording ready
        A conference recording is ready

The NotificationPreference object, returned by the Live API has the following items (sorted by category):

category	notification
added_to_conversation	added_to_conversation
alert	alert
all_submissions	assignment_submitted
all_submissions	assignment_resubmitted
all_submissions	submission_needs_grading
announcement	new_announcement
announcement_created_by_you	announcement_created_by_you
announcement_created_by_you	announcement_reply
appointment_availability	appointment_group_published
appointment_availability	appointment_group_updated
appointment_cancelations	appointment_deleted_for_user
appointment_cancelations	appointment_group_deleted
appointment_signups	appointment_reserved_for_user
blueprint	blueprint_content_added
blueprint	blueprint_sync_complete
calendar	new_event_created
calendar	event_date_changed
conversation_created	conversation_created
conversation_message	conversation_message
course_content	assignment_changed
course_content	new_wiki_page
course_content	updated_wiki_page
discussion	new_discussion_topic
discussion_entry	new_discussion_entry
due_date	assignment_due_date_changed
due_date	assignment_created
due_date	assignment_due_date_override_changed
files	new_file_added
files	new_files_added
grading	assignment_graded
grading	submission_graded
grading	submission_grade_changed
grading	assignment_unmuted
grading	quiz_regrade_finished
grading_policies	grade_weight_changed
invitation	collaboration_invitation
invitation	web_conference_invitation
invitation	rubric_assessment_submission_reminder
invitation	rubric_assessment_invitation
invitation	rubric_association_created
invitation	new_context_group_membership_invitation
invitation	peer_review_invitation
late_grading	assignment_submitted_late
late_grading	group_assignment_submitted_late
membership_update	new_context_group_membership
membership_update	group_membership_accepted
membership_update	group_membership_rejected
migration	migration_export_ready
migration	migration_import_finished
migration	migration_import_failed
migration	content_export_finished
migration	content_export_failed
other	new_account_user
other	teacher_context_message
other	enrollment_accepted
other	new_student_organized_group
other	new_course
other	new_user
other	new_teacher_registration
other	new_teacher_registration_immediate
other	report_generated
other	report_generation_failed
recording_ready	web_conference_recording_ready
registration	confirm_email_communication_channel
registration	confirm_sms_communication_channel
registration	confirm_registration
registration	forgot_password
registration	enrollment_invitation
registration	enrollment_notification
registration	enrollment_registration
registration	merge_email_communication_channel
registration	account_user_registration
registration	account_user_notification
registration	pseudonym_registration
registration	canvasnet_migration
registration	course_started
registration	course_starts_in_week
registration	course_required_materials
registration	course_already_started
registration	self_enrollment_registration
registration	twd_migration_new
registration	twd_migration_existing
registration	twd_migration_new_late
registration	twd_migration_existing_late
registration	pseudonym_registration_done
reminder	assignment_publishing_reminder
reminder	assignment_grading_reminder
reminder	assignment_due_date_reminder
student_appointment_signups	appointment_canceled_by_user
student_appointment_signups	appointment_reserved_by_user
submission_comment	submission_comment
submission_comment	submission_comment_for_teacher
summaries	summaries

In Excel I tried to match them, but it appeared to become a matter of guessing.

Question: Is there detailed and complete information available about how the notification preferences from the interface relate to the items in the API NotificationPreference object?

Additionally, the Notification Preferences API documentation describes the list all preferences an uses and the example shows how to get it from another user. But the documentation about updating notification preferences only uses an example of updating own preferences, not of other users.

Question: Is it possible to update a preference (as an admin) of another user (many users in our case) using the API? If not, why not? (Canvas Helpdesk suggested this approach)

[kona]

 @stelpstra , greetings! Due to the technical nature of this question I am sharing it with the Canvas Developers group in the Community. You might consider joining this group so you get access to their resources and information. 

Kona

[pklove]

For your second question, yes, an admin can update a user's preference.

You can do it using masquerading (Masquerading - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation).  Simply add ?as_user_id=$user to the endpoint..

[stelpstra]

Hi pklove‌, thank you for this suggestion. Unfortunately Act as user is disabled in our institution due to the GDPR act.

Are there any other methods without masquerading to change these notification of other users?

[am_jagusztyn]

Hello. How would one get  

Late grading
        Instructor and admin only:
        Late assignment submission

I don't see these options in the Canvas data portal. We are trying to get a report of late submissions. Or at least of submission due date and student submission time. The provisioning report in Canvas data shows submission date and graded date, but not when the assignment was due.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[stelpstra]

Hi  @am_jagusztyn ‌, the original question was not about the Canvas Data portal features and as our institution does not yet use Canvas Data I can't advise you on that. But maybe the Submissions - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation can be helpful to you.

[am_jagusztyn]

Thank you.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there,  @stelpstra ...

I am reviewing older questions here in the Canvas Community, and I stumbled upon your question.  While I don't have an answer for you myself, I wanted to at least check in with you.  There hasn't been any new activity in this topic since March 11, 2019.  Did any of the above feedback help to answer your question?  If so, please feel free to mark someone's answer as "Correct".  However, if you are still looking for some help with your original question, please let us know that as well so that someone from the Community might be able to help you out.  For the time being, I am going to mark your question as "Assumed Answered" mainly because there hasn't been any new activity in this topic for over six months.  However, that will not prevent you or others from posting additional questions and/or comments below that are related to this topic.  I hope that is okay with you, Jaap.  Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

[stelpstra]

Hi  @Chris_Hofer ‌, my initial question "Is there detailed and complete information available about how the notification preferences from the interface relate to the items in the API NotificationPreference object?" stays unanswered. So technically, assuming it is answered (meaning it is useful and correct) is an incorrect assumption.

[petern]

I would appreciate learning more about this.  It's caused a bit of a problem at our school:  

Parents generally want one weekly digest email about homework and don't want lots of other emails.  So we use the API to reset all notifications to never except for a few like due date.

The "forgot_password" one also got switched to never.  Even when trying to switch it back, it doesn't seem to work, leading me to think that we need to have other notification preferences switched on as well to enable the forgot_password one to work.  No documentation so I'm just guessing at the moment.

[skeesler]

I came across the thread when asked to set the "Include scores when alerting about grades." option for new users created by the API.
The docs aren't helpful and I don't see any communication channel preference values change via the API when I toggle this via the UI.
Maybe it doesn't have an API analog? Maybe it isn't part of the communication channel preferences? Where is it?