Canvas Google Apps LTI authorization failures

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johnmartin
Community Champion
  • UPDATE Jan 18, 2018  —Still broken. No word on a fix....
  • UPDATE Aug 8, 2017  —Canvas recognizes this is a bug and is working on a fix (Cases #01843701, #01865357, #02000557). Not sure how or where to get updates on their progress.
  • UPDATE Aug 4, 2017  —Still broken. Still no error message suggesting the user switch browsers or login to Chrome with another account. Still many confused users getting frustrated because Canvas doesn't work Smiley Sad.
  • UPDATE Apr 24, 2017 —Still broken. Not answered. Don't let the "Assumed Answered" label fool you.
  • UPDATE Apr 20, 2017 —Still broken. No movement to fix on Instructure's part. They say it's "working as designed." If so, their design that forces students to jump through more hoops (see comments below) to access course content is a bad one. The goal should be to minimize navigation efforts and maximize access to content. The Canvas Google Apps LTI fails in this criteria.

ORIGINAL ISSUE, AS IT STILL STANDS — The Canvas Google Apps LTI authorization is failing on me in Chrome in one course (not others), and observed with faculty. Anyone else? Workarounds?The chat with Instructure support helped determine that it worked in Firefox but not Chrome. They suspected it may have something to do with being logged into multiple accounts. His boss suggested that the Google Apps LTI might need to be re-setup (by our Admin). 

Here's a screencast of the issue: Canvas Google LTI failures - YouTube 


More troubleshooting:

  1. I cleared all Instructure and Canvas cookies,
  2. then logged out of all Google accounts in Chrome,
  3. then shut down and restarted Chrome.
  4. Then opened afflicted Canvas course (https://canvas.wisc.edu/courses/39891/pages/feb-3-rubrics-in-canvas)
  5. Still saw no Google content and was asked to Authorize. Authorization fails.

Note

  • works in Incognito mode in Chrome.
  • works in other Canvas courses in Chrome.
  • works in Firefox.

Final bit of troubleshooting:

  • it seems to definitely be the Canvas tool's issue. 
  • a manual Google Doc iFrame embed works fine in Chrome, in that course.
3 Solutions
garth
Community Champion

 @johnmartin ‌ I haven't used Google Apps LTI, and would be interested to know more about what you are experiencing.

Please post back with any info you learn.

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Thanks  @jomontuori  . Yes, this has always worked for me. The problem is that we'd have to explain this to 60,000 users who are used to not having a problem using multiple Google accounts — they don't have to do this with other Google API integrations; just Canvas. This special exception for Canvas, imho, should be removed as a matter of removing barriers for learning. 

In the meantime, the other workaround — that doesn't require users to change ingrained behavior to access course content — is to use iFrame embedding.

I surely hope Instructure can recognize that adding this barrier for student-access to content is a step backwards that should be done correctly.

thanks!

John

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ZackDrucker
Community Member

Hey Everyone - I have the solution!  At least it worked for us...

 

This does involve going into Google Admin and making a change to the Sharing settings for the Drive and Docs app settings.

 

1 - Go here

2 - Scroll to Option 2, then number 2 "Go to Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs"

3. Make sure you are in the Sharing Settings, then choose the proper OU that you would like to make the change for.

4. The setting that needs to be on is: "When sharing outside of "your institution name" is allowed, users in "current OU" can make files and published web content visible to anyone with the link.

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