Is there a way to get the list of courses sorted in descending order by course id from canvas?

[cph2]

Hi all, 

I am trying to write a script that lets me associate a blueprint course with all new courses - but only new courses. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to find the courses by creation date or course id to allow me to identify the new ones?

Thanks!

[anthony_harris]

Well, it's not the prettiest way to do it, but while I see in the API where we can sort the returned course list with a couple of parameters passed on the request, it looks like you can only sort on a few fields, none of which are the date or the ID.  If someone has more info and shows you can say sort descending in a way that uses the ID, I'd be interested to hear it as well.

In the mean time, here's a Python script that just pulls them all into a hashed array, and sorts the array based on the key, which is the course ID.

#!/usr/bin/python3
###################################################################################
# listcourses.py
# A sample Python script that lists the courses in our Canvas install.
# ajh 2018-08-15
# For this to work you'll need the requests module installed, which isn't part
# of Python Core.  Also, this is written and tested in Python3, I haven't tried
# to see if it works in Python2 and honestly don't much care to.
###################################################################################

# Pull in the module with tools like exit().  (Why is this not in by default?)
import sys

# Pull in the modules that allow the RESTful API access (https), and JSON parsing.
import requests
import json

# Create and initialize a dictionary (hashed array) to hold the courses for sorting
global courselist
courselist = {}

# The token here is the key to accessing things in our Canvas install.  It's a per-user token
# so you'll want to have an admin generate it to get the required access.  To generate one
# you go to Account, Settings, and under Approved Integrations, get a new access token.
# !!Note!! When you generate the token, copy and paste it somewhere!!  You will never see that
# token again, and if you lose it, you'll have to delete it and generate a new one because you
# cannot get the actual token value shown to you ever again.
token = '(fill in you token here)'

# We'll need to pass the token to Canvas using a custom header on the https request, with
# a name of Authorization and a value of the word Bearer, a space, and the token you generated.
headers = {'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + token}

# This is the URL for the API call we want.  You can get the whole list of these, with descriptions
# of the JSON object returned and any parameters you can pass in (also via JSON usually), by logging
# into Canvas and then going to https://(your.canvas.url)/doc/api/live  (there is no link to this
# inside Canvas so you'll have to go directly to that URL).
# Note that we can't just call api/v1/courses, as that only gives the courses for the user whose
# token we're using.  We have to specify accounts plus the main account id (always 1) plus "courses"
# to get all the courses.  If you only want the courses in one of the sub accounts, specify that
# account's id instead of the main account id.
courseurl = 'https://(your.canvas.url)/api/v1/accounts/1/courses'

# Now the meat of the process.  We're going to loop here to get each of the 10-record pages
# the Canvas API will give us in response to our request.
keepgoing = True
while keepgoing:
    #  Make the call to the API URL and pass in our custom header.
    r = requests.get(courseurl, headers=headers)

    # Make sure the call worked, and if not, we want to throw an error.
    if r.status_code != 200:
        print("ERROR: Status code returned={} for {} -- Exiting.\n".format(r.status_code, courseurl))
        sys.exit()

    # Since there are a lot of these, we'll need to paginate.  That means getting the link
    # header to the next page out of the LINK header.  If there isn't one, then this is the
    # last page.
    linkheader = r.headers['Link']
    # The header has an array of links, separated by commas...
    linklist = linkheader.split(",")
    # Loop through.  We're looking for the "next" link, if there is one...
    nexturl = None
    for linkitem in linklist:
        # Each link item is really two things, the actual URL, and a rel= that tells us what the link is to...
        onelink = linkitem.split(";")
        # If we have a next...
        # Otherwise, if no next, empty nexturl so we'll know.
        if "next" in onelink[1]:
            # Get it, strip the first character (a "<") and the last letter (a ">").
            nexturl = onelink[0]
            nexturl = nexturl[1:]
            nexturl = nexturl[:-1]
    # End of for loop
        
    # Now we pull the text of the response we got back, run that through the JSON decoder, and
    # stuff the whole data structure into a variable.
    data = json.loads(r.text)

    # The response will have an array of records each of which is a hash array with a bunch of items.
    # For this example, we'll cycle through the array, and for each one, get the idnumber and the course name
    # and stick them in a dictionary (a Python hashed array)
    for course in data:
        courselist[course['id']] = course['name']

    # Now, if the nexturl is blank, set the keepgoing flag to false so we'll drop out of the loop.
    # Otherwise, set url to nexturl and we'll get the next page worth.
    if nexturl:
        url = nexturl
    else:
        keepgoing = False

    # End of while loop

# Ok, we've got them all now.  Sort them in descending order by the key and print them out.
for crsid in sorted(courselist, reverse=True):
    print("{} - {}".format(crsid, courselist[crsid]))

# End of sample script.

[cph2]

Thanks! I was building a similar php script but I am always appreciative of the support of this community. 

[pklove · Accepted solution]

You can do it with the "List active courses in an account" endpoint.  The sort parameter takes undocumented fields, so you can use id.  For example:

    .../api/v1/accounts/1/courses?sort=id&order=desc

Or with created_at:

   .../api/v1/accounts/1/courses?sort=created_at&order=desc

[cph2]

Thank you! That is exactly what I needed!