Batch create users with local passwords they can change?

[mzimmerman]

We create most of our users via feeds from our SIS system, and authenticate them via an external SSO linked to Active Director.  However, we do sometimes need to create batches of guest users who will not be in AD and who need to set their own passwords.

Initially we tried just creating them with another SIS integration feed and no pre-assigned password and directed them to the Canvas local login page, assuming they could just use the "Forgot Password" to set their passwords, but that does not seem to work.  They either get a message that they must use the SSO to log in, or they get an email saying that they should have been given their password by the system administrators and Instructure doesn't have access to the password.

If I set a local password through the GUI, the user can log in, but there's no option for them to change their password.

What are our options for creating users in bulk who need to set/change their own local passwords?  And what are our options for fixing these existing guest users so they can set/change their local passwords?

[mzimmerman · Accepted solution]

Hmm, after some additional testing, it looks like if I add a "authentication_provider_id" field set to "canvas", then the users behave the way I want...

[garth]

 @mzimmerman  thanks for posting your solution, this is good to know.

[mkelsey]

Worked for us, too. Thanks for sharing.

[elarin]

Just had this scenario pop up for us for our Continuing Education users who are external to our system. Can this field be updated for an existing user via API? We have some users we'd rather not have to delete and re-create again. I'm thinking no as I can't find any reference to it in any update/modify method.

Erick

[elarin]

I found an article that states it's possible to change a person's authentication provider via the users.csv SIS file import as opposed to an API call. Going to test this out tomorrow.

[jk224]

Was it possible to put these bulk users through a users.csv SIS Import? If so, which fields were used? With guest users, I'm guessing this includes the user_id, the login_id, the email, status, and authentication_provider_id. I just want to confirm with outside users having various different emails.