Assignments API: Create assignment assigned to one student?

[troy-carroll]

Using the assignments API, I can create an assignment with all of the details that I need (name, submission type, points possible, due_at, etc.). But what I need to do is only assign one user to the assignment.

I'm able to create the assignment, then run against the create an assignment override API to add an override for a specific student, but I can't seem to get rid of 'everyone' or 'everyone else'. 

Based on another thread I found here, I should be using overrides instead of assignment_visibility, correct?

SO my main question is...can I generate the override while creating the assignment? If so, what am I missing in the request. I've tried many variations and can't seem to get it to work. This is what I have right now:

https://ourdomain.test.instructure.com/api/v1/courses/:course_id/assignments?assignment[name]=My New Assignment&assignment[submission_types]=none&assignment[points_possible]=1&assignment[grading_type]=points&assignment[due_at]=2020-01-25T00:00:00Z&assignment[description]=This is a test&assignment[published]=true&assignment[has_overrides]=true&assignment_override[student_ids][]=82‍

The response shown below doesn't show overrides. Or, do I have to do this as 2 separate calls, and create the override after? If so...how do I remove 'everyone' or 'everyone else' from the assignment?

{
    "id": 122773,
    "description": "This is a test",
    "due_at": "2020-01-25T00:00:00Z",
    "unlock_at": null,
    "lock_at": null,
    "points_possible": 1.0,
    "grading_type": "points",
    "assignment_group_id": 39003,
    "grading_standard_id": null,
    "created_at": "2020-01-22T18:21:20Z",
    "updated_at": "2020-01-22T18:21:20Z",
    "peer_reviews": false,
    "automatic_peer_reviews": false,
    "position": 33,
    "grade_group_students_individually": false,
    "anonymous_peer_reviews": false,
    "group_category_id": null,
    "post_to_sis": false,
    "moderated_grading": false,
    "omit_from_final_grade": false,
    "intra_group_peer_reviews": false,
    "anonymous_instructor_annotations": false,
    "anonymous_grading": false,
    "graders_anonymous_to_graders": false,
    "grader_count": 0,
    "grader_comments_visible_to_graders": true,
    "final_grader_id": null,
    "grader_names_visible_to_final_grader": true,
    "allowed_attempts": -1,
    "secure_params": "sdfgsgfdsdfg",
    "course_id": 7893,
    "name": "My New Assignment",
    "submission_types": [
        "none"
    ],
    "has_submitted_submissions": false,
    "due_date_required": false,
    "max_name_length": 255,
    "in_closed_grading_period": false,
    "is_quiz_assignment": false,
    "can_duplicate": true,
    "original_course_id": null,
    "original_assignment_id": null,
    "original_assignment_name": null,
    "original_quiz_id": null,
    "workflow_state": "published",
    "muted": true,
    "html_url": "https://ourdomain.test.instructure.com/courses/7893/assignments/122773",
    "has_overrides": false,
    "needs_grading_count": 0,
    "sis_assignment_id": null,
    "integration_id": null,
    "integration_data": {},
    "published": true,
    "unpublishable": true,
    "only_visible_to_overrides": false,
    "locked_for_user": false,
    "submissions_download_url": "https://ourdomain.test.instructure.com/courses/7893/assignments/122773/submissions?zip=1",
    "post_manually": false,
    "anonymize_students": false
}‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

[MattHanes]

Greetings  @troy-carroll ,

Try setting this parameter when you create the assignment:

assignment={'only_visible_to_overrides': True}

[troy-carroll]

Thanks  @MattHanes ‌,

That's what I was missing to not assign to everyone. 

But now I'm still struggling adding the override while creating the assignment. I am able to create the override separately, but I'd prefer to do it all in one action if possible. What else am I missing? 

Along with the normal assignment details, I have:

assignment[only_visible_to_overrides] = True

assignment[has_overrides] = True

But what would be the syntax for assigning the student_ids during assignment creation?

For creating an assignment override API, it is:

assignment_override[student_ids] = integer

But this doesn't seem to work with the create an assignment API.

What would be the correct formatting to add student_ids here?

[MattHanes]

I have used this API to automatically create several assignments at once from a spreadsheet. And then I have a separate script for the overrides because they are different for some of the assignments. So I've always done it as two separate items. That's probably your best bet to get it done fast.

I'm not sure what the proper formatting would be for it in the assignment creation step. I also send things as a JSON object so it's formatted a little differently.

Now, I just want to note that I am not a programmer and I just goof around with the API occasionally. So I haven't had a chance to test this because I'm doing training today, but my best guess is that it would look something like this as a JSON object:

{
  "assignment": {
    "name": "Test",
    "points_possible": 100,
    "grading_type": "points",
    "due_at": "2019-01-20T00:00:00+01:00",
    "published": "false",
    "has_overrides": "true",
    "only_visible_to_overrides":"true",
    "assignment_overrides":{
      "student_ids": [12345]	
    }
  }
}‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

A more experienced programmer might have a better answer for you. I just wanted to give you something to try.

[troy-carroll]

Thanks again  @MattHanes ‌,

Since I know I can do it as separate scripts like you, I'll just go that route. As a non-programmer myself, my preferred tools are Postman and Powershell, so I struggle going from a JSON object like you shared to those. I get the single items, but I'm still not clear on arrays. 

But for anyone else, (thanks to Matt) adding assignment={'only_visible_to_overrides': True} to the create an assignment API will prevent the 'everyone' assignment, then I used list assignments API to retrieve and store each assignment ID in the course, then create an assignment override using the previously mentioned id's to add a specific student_id to each assignment. 

Each course shell will have hundreds of uniquely assigned assignments, so this will be a great time-saver.