Based on data coming from the API only, how can one know whether an assignment was created using an old or a new gradebook?

[theo_dufort]

Based on data coming from the API only, how can one know whether an assignment was created using an old or a new gradebook? 

[kona]

 @theo_dufort , greetings! I'll preface this with the disclaimer that I'm not a programmer and don't use the API. Yet, I'm married to a programmer and someone who uses the API a lot... so that sort of counts... right?? Probably not, but I digress. 

My initial thought when I read your question was why would there be a difference in the assignment based on whether someone was using the old or new gradebook? Assignments can be created in a lot of places in the course, but they are not (and can't be) created in the actual gradebook. Nothing with assignments (at least on the front-end) or assignment settings has changed with the use of the new Gradebook. The only real difference I can think of has been with muting (which no longer exists), but I don't believe that was something to do with the assignment, only the way the gradebook functions in terms of allowing or not allowing students to see their grades.

Based on this, I would be surprised if there was any way to tell which gradebook was being used based solely on API data attached to the assignment. That being said, there might be a way to cross-reference when an assignment was created and then look somewhere else in the API to see what gradebook was being used at that time. For that, I'll hope people who actually use the API will chime in and help out!

Along with this though, could you provide some additional context to your question as to what you are trying to find or do? That might help us in the Community better help you!

Thank you! Kona 

[theo_dufort]

Good morning Kona, and thank you very much for your quick answer. 

Indeed, the most obvious difference is the use of the mute button, which has now been replaced with another functionality. This surely affects the teachers' "grade releases" pattern, and, based on data only, I would like to learn how. But first I need to be able to differentiate between "old gradebook assignments" and "new gradebook assignments". When the muted button was used, I assume the assignment was linked to an old gradebook. But if it was not, then I cannot find any way to know what gradebook it was linked to. YET. 

Any ideas ?

[kona]

 @theo_dufort , thank you for the extra information/context.

Anecdotally, as an Instructor, the change from unmuting an assignment to posting an assignment hadn't changed my release pattern at all. I'm doing things the exact same, I just had to set things up a bit differently now at the beginning of the semester. Yet, I can see where it might be interesting to review data related to this to see if I'm the exception or the norm.

I happened to have lunch with someone who does program and knows the API (aka, the hubby) and he indicated that there wouldn't be anything attached to the assignment to indicate if it was created when the faculty member was using the new or old gradebook. As a side note, a faculty member could have created the assignment using the old gradebook, but then switched to using the new gradebook at a later date. I actually had this happen this month. All the assignments for a course were created while I was using the old gradebook, we then switched to the new gradebook before any assignments were due, and now all of my "posting" (unmuting) of grades so far this semester was done using the new gradebook (even though the assignments were created using the old gradebook). 

I wonder if it would work better if you looked at the question in a different way. So not when were the assignments created, but how many assignments were "hidden." (so made use of the grade posting policy) when using the new gradebook VS how many assignments were "muted" when using the old gradebook. Granted, I don't know what is available in the API, so maybe you'd need to look at how the grades were released. I did a quick search and this was the only post I could find related to the new Grade post policy and the API - How to read and change Course Post Policy of the New Gradebook with GraphQL. Still crossing my fingers that someone with actual API knowledge will jump in here and help out.

Kona 

[nwilson7]

I could be completely wrong but I don't think the mute (now sort of "hiding" or "Manual Posting") had anything to do with which gradebook you had on but had everything to do with when Canvas switched the features.  We had the old gradebook on in our test environment and the mute button was still gone because it was no longer a feature of Canvas.

-Nick

[kona]

 @nwilson7 , the mute feature was still available and I was using it with a class as of Dec 2019 (this was in the old gradebook). Yet, we did have the option at the time to switch to the new gradebook if we wanted.

Kona

[tdw · Accepted solution]

As Kona mentioned,

assignments cannot be created from within the Gradebook, they are created in their respective component areas (Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, etc.) and are simply referenced and displayed within the Gradebook.

Thus, the only thing I can think of is to pull all assignments and then sort them before/after you enabled the new gradebook at your institution. Then you can run your comparison on the two sets of assignment data.