Getting a developer key for production

[LangliLand]

I wanted to build something cool during my summer break and decided to make a chrome extension with the Canvas api. 

I spent a couple of weeks on it and spent much time on it each day. After that, I went to apply to be a partner. A week has gone by and no response.

I'm not sure if  I should just give them more time, but I'm worried that they never received it to begin with, so I could be just waiting for nothing. 

This is the form I submitted: https://www.instructure.com/partners/integration-partners/sign-up

I think I have to either

1. Submit the general inquiries form or just call the number given and make sure they got it since this is only instant customer service I could find

2. Wait a week or two more

3. Redo the partner form

4. Something else

What should I do?

This is what I build if anyone's interested: https://canvas-analytics.netlify.app/

Thank you, Langli

[DecoyLex]

Hi @LangliLand,

That's a pretty cool tool you've built!

There's some good news and some bad news. The good news is that you don't need to be an Instructure partner to get developer keys for Canvas. There are some benefits, such as being able to reach out to Instructure's support directly, but partnership isn't required to get your app in schools' Canvas instances. That's where the bad news comes in; each school you want your app to be accessible from needs to set up a developer key for you to access. Typically, this involves the school's Canvas admin following a set of instructions to set up the key on your behalf. Here's an example of what those instructions might look like: https://web.hypothes.is/help/creating-canvas-developer-credentials-for-the-hypothesis-lms-app/.

In terms of actually getting schools to adopt your tool, I can't speak for high schools, but I can say that, regardless of whether you're an Instructure partner or not, most colleges and universities in the United States require third party tools to present a satisfactory HECVAT and VPAT for security and accessibility reviews specifically. The specific forms for K-12 schools may be different, but they're subject to a lot of the same regulations we are, and so are likely to have similar processes in a lot of places.

I hope this helps.

[LangliLand]

Thank you for the response. I thought I had to be a partner so I could avoid needing to get developer keys from multiple schools. https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/785215/pages/getting-started-with-the-api I read, "When that glorious time comes, you'll want to reach out to us to get started as a partner (community partners are no-charge) and get yourself a developer key."

[DecoyLex · Accepted solution]

That looks to be a pretty old resource. Based on this page, it looks like it hasn't been updated in quite a few years (Jul 25, 2017). The information is probably still good, but I'd take it with a grain of salt.

I'm guessing the developer key they're referring to is what Canvas calls an inherited developer key. They're pretty handy, but each school you want to use the tool will still need to manually enable your developer key. Again, this happens after whatever review process the school has in place. The difference is that it's just a toggle switch in their admin area rather than needing to manually provision the key for you. You also get the (possible) benefit of maintaining a single client id for your app rather than one per school.

For what it's worth, the vast majority of tools I've installed in my school's Canvas instance don't use an inherited developer key and just have us do the manual steps. A rare few have us do both for some reason.

[LangliLand]

Man, that's disappointing. I probably should have done more research before making my app. I was inspired by the Canvas task Chrome extension and thought if they made it, then I could too. However, I looked at the source code, and they definitely didn't use the API, so there's no dev key needed. I think they just manipulated the data right on the screen.

I don't know much about making a Chrome extension but I think that was what I was supposed to do instead of using the API. I'm pretty sure I could make it work.