Error when importing the Sections into the courses

[tholinger]

I received the following error when importing the Sections into the courses.  I have looked at the guides and cross-checked my csv file with the sample and I cannot find the error in the file. Here is the error that I am receiving "no course_id", however I double checked and my course_id matches the SIS Course ID on the course. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Canvas Error:

attachment_24947120150722-427-1b2u94m.csv - No course_id given for a section WGLSQLA315278-13595.Semester 1

Excel File:

section_id                      course_id                              name           status

WGLS95.Semester1     2015-16.SCI101.Smith.S1     RedDay       Active

[John_Lowe]

Traci, if you go to your account Settings > Reports and run a provisioning report for courses, you should see "2015-16.SCI101.Smith.S1" in the Course_ID column of that report.  The course_id of the existing course has to match the course_id column in the sections.csv file that you are loading exactly. 

My other thought is about the space between the word "Semester" and the "1" in the error message.  If your sections.csv file has a space in there, Canvas may not be interpreting that correctly when trying to match the course_id in the sections.csv file with the course_id of the course itself.

My last thought is, if those two suggestions don't help, would you be willing to post a sanitized version of your files somewhere that we can see them?  I'd like to see the courses provisioning report and the sections.csv file that you are loading.

[tholinger]

Thanks John attached are my files for your review… I do appreciate you looking into this as I am at a holt.

Traci Holinger

Data and Software Administrator

303.269.8006

[gtaylor]

You don't need the account_id in sections , although you could leave it in there. Canvas will just ignore it.

Looking at the first 2 lines in notepad.    There is a space after Name       and after Account_ID

section_id,course_id,Name ,Account_ID ,status,

WGLSQLA315278-13595.S1,2015-2016.SCI103B.PetersonDutton.S1,Red Day.Sec1,Science.BD,active,*

WGLSQLA315278-13595.S2,2015-2016.SCI103B.PetersonDutton.S2,Red Day.Sec1,Science.BD,active,*

Secondly I could not fund the first course_id in the courses file.   Although the second one was.

Then I'm not sure why the *'s are there at then end of the first 2 lines.  Unless you put there there as to point to them.

[John_Lowe]

Hi, Traci.  I assume that you are probably having the error with the section_id of WGLSQLA315278-13595.S1 instead of "Semester 1" as it is listed above.  If so, then I am not exactly sure what is going on.  In your sections.csv file, you have the following line:

section_id	course_id	Name	Account_ID	status
WGLSQLA315278-13595.S1	2015-2016.SCI103B.PetersonDutton.S1	Red Day.Sec1	Science.BD	active	*

What this error is usually means is that the course_id "2015-2016.SCI103B.PetersonDutton.S1" doesn't exist in the courses.csv file -- which it doesn't.  That course_id doesn't exist in your courses.csv at all, but it does exist in your provisioning report.  In your provisioning report that you provided, that exact course ID is already there, so that shouldn't be a problem even if that listing isn't in your current courses.csv.

So my next best guess, is related to formatting.  I personally don't know how picky Canvas is about the file formatting, but I also have only used the exact formatting provided by the REST API Documentation.  In your sections.csv file, there are two things that are not described in the provided definitions and example.  First, you include Account_ID in the sections file, but that is not listed in the description or example for sections -- just courses.  Also, you have an asterisk in the last column without a column header.  I have no idea if either of those two items that are different from the documentation are things that will cause problems or not, but if I had to guess, since only this section and one other have the asterisk in a column without a header, I'd lean more on that being a possible issue more than the extra account_id column.

That's my best guess based on what I'm seeing here.  If you get answers from support or figure it out on your own, please share what you found with us here.  I'd be curious to hear your final answer to this mystery.

[stuart_ryan]

Hi  @tholinger ,

I am going through having a look at some of the early days in the Canvas Developers group, and checking in to see if older enquiries have been answered. I also noticed there hasn’t been any discussion on this question in quite some time.

I am wondering, were you ever able to resolve this with the assistance provided? I am hoping I can assume that it is well and truly resolved by now, but if not, please let us know and we can certainly have another look. Alternatively, if have some insights you may be able to share for others that would be awesome too!

I will mark this as assumed answered for the time being, however, by all means please let us know if you still have an outstanding question and we will take a peek!

Cheers,
Stuart