API to get sections information doesn't return enrollments

[VicKovacs]

Hi,
I am trying to get a list of enrollments (all participants including faculty and students) in a section.  The token should be privileged to do this, do I doubt that's the problem.

When listing students in a section, everything looks fine:

curl --location
--request GET 'https://ouruniv.instructure.com/api/v1/sections/1642107?include=students' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer TokenGoesHere' \
--header 'Cookie: CookiesGoHere'

{

    "id": 1656207,

    "course_id": 7814027,

    "name": "SU-22-BIOL-350-RN7A PATHOPHYSIOLOGY",

    "start_at": null,

    "end_at": null,

    "created_at": "2022-03-30T21:20:51Z",

    "restrict_enrollments_to_section_dates": null,

    "nonxlist_course_id": null,

    "sis_section_id": null,

    "sis_course_id": "SU-22-BIOL-350-RN7A-OnL",

    "integration_id": null,

    "sis_import_id": null,

    "students": [

        {

            "id": 4172720,

            "name": "XXXXXXXX",

            "created_at": "2022-04-21T20:58:00-04:00",

            "sortable_name": "XXXXXXXX",

            "short_name": "XXXXXXXX",

            "sis_user_id": "XXXXXXXX",

            "integration_id": null,

            "sis_import_id": XXXXXXXX

        },

. . .

    ]

}

But when I run enrollments (I need faculty listed as well as students), nothing shows up:

curl --location
--request GET 'https://ouruniv.instructure.com/api/v1/sections/1642107?include=enrollments' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer TokenGoesHere' \
--header 'Cookie: CookiesGoHere'

{
"id": 1642107,
"course_id": 1402774,
"name": "SU-22-BIOL-350-RN7A PATHOPHYSIOLOGY",
"start_at": null,
"end_at": null,
"created_at": "2022-03-30T21:20:51Z",
"restrict_enrollments_to_section_dates": null,
"nonxlist_course_id": null,
"sis_section_id": null,
"sis_course_id": "SU-22-BIOL-350-RN7A-OnL",
"integration_id": null,
"sis_import_id": null
}

Any idea what could be causing this?  I tried "enrollment" and "enrollments" and hopefully won't have an embarrassing petition for help with a misspelled word.

TIA.

[mzimmerman]

Hi @VicKovacs 

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like you need to be using the Enrollments API, not the Sections API, i.e.:

GET /api/v1/sections/:section_id/enrollments

as shown in https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/enrollments.html#method.enrollments_api.index 

The Sections API (https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/sections.html ) does not show "enrollments" as one of the "include" options.

[JeffW · Accepted solution]

Hi @VicKovacs!

When returning section enrollments via API, teacher enrollments are not going to be included.

It seems that what you are going to want is the enrollment API, where you can add a parameter for a specific sis_section_id to be returned. You can then filter that enrollment endpoint to include StudentEnrollment and TeacherEnrollment.

It would come out looking something like this:

https://yourinstance.instructure.com/api/v1/courses/course_id:/enrollments?sis_section_id[]=sis_section_id:&type[]=StudentEnrollment&type[]=TeacherEnrollment 

[chriscas]

Hi @JeffW,

This seems like something that needs to be updated in documentation then.  The get section API (https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/sections.html#method.sections.show) clearly shows is has in enrollments include parameter, which I would expect to return all of the enrollments.  I will agree that most people (including myself) would probably just use the enrollments API, but the docs indicate this should work as @VicKovacs wants.  

-Chris

[VicKovacs]

Correct on every count.  Teachers and Students both included.  Pagination is needed (but I already have a script for that).  I still have to find the semester numeric ID (from what we call FA-22), traverse the semester for classes, traverse the classes for sections, and then I get an exhaustive list.  Unless you have something better.  But thanks, that worked.

[chriscas]

I'm pretty sure you need open and close brackets after the include, so it would be https://ouruniv.instructure.com/api/v1/sections/1642107?include[]=enrollments. 

[edit] Nevermind this suggestion, the API does not seem to work as the documentation suggests.

-Chris

[VicKovacs]

"The Sections API (https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/sections.html ) does not show "enrollments" as one of the "include" options."

It seems that it does as AndTheOtherAPI.jpg attached should show. (covers /api/v1/courses/:course_id/sections, which also appears in the enrollments API.

[chriscas]

Hi @VicKovacs ,

It seems you're going to need to make a call specifically to get section enrollments instead of getting them as part of the section itself.

@JeffW gave one suggestion, but I think his might be a bit more complex than needed for this situation.  You can simply call /api/v1/sections/:section_id/enrollments to list all of the enrollments (be sure to think about pagination too with this one, as you'll likely have multiple pages to go through if the section is large).

-Chris

[JeffW]

Hi @chriscas,

I definitely understand the concern here. I did some testing to make sure things were working as described in the documentation. The documentation denotes that allowed values includes "students" but not "teachers". When you combine the students value and enrollments value it will return the section enrollment for each student.

I hope that helps clarify things here. In the end, the GET call for enrollments for a specified section would definitely be the method to use.

“enrollments”: If 'students' is also included, return the section enrollment for each student