Canvas `self` reference in API calls

[bbennett2]

I'm trying to create a helper application to provide a workaround for students using the Learning Mastery Gradebook. In short, item alignments aren't showing in the Individual View when a student views their grades, so they have no idea what their Outcome progress is. 

If it's a teacher, the user ID is in the URL and can be parsed to make a successful API call to the Outcomes endpoint. In a student account, that ID doesn't exist in the URL. Passing `self` works for some API calls, but it is broken in the Outcome reports endpoint.

So, is there a way to extract the user ID from the `self` keyword if I use some kind of middleman app? The student would be able to launch the page but the work would be done by a worker account. I can't think of a way to get the ID number, though.

Any thoughts?

[robotcars]

Self is available for the current authenticated user.

$.getJSON('/api/v1/users/self/profile', function(r) { console.log(r.id) })

How are students accessing your application? Via LTI or Canvas (themes) you should be able to get the current user id without having to do a lookup.

[bbennett2]

I'm trying to figure out how they're going to connect. 

If it's through LTI and the students are signed in OAuth, then their ID is passed to the outcome_rollups param with the OAuth credentials, which returns empty. If it's looked up through a teacher or admin account, the rollups are returned as expected.

I think I'll need to create a service account and put it into the theme logic to use a higher level API key...this is an unexpected need, so I'm thinking on the fly a little bit.

Thanks for the self endpoint!