Canvas Integration Help

[JuanLaSerna]

I am a student who working with a group for our Software Engineering class. For the idea of our semester long project is creating an application with Canvas Integration. I tried to find resources about how to integrate an application to Canvas, but couldn't find any.

My question is; Can you Integrate an application into canvas and what are the resources for it (video preferably)? 

[JeffCampbell · Accepted solution]

I cannot guarantee that this will address your specific use-case, but maybe this will serve as a starting point for resources:

https://instructure.github.io/

https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/index.html

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Admin-Guide/tkb-p/admin - While mostly an admin guide, there are some resources here about using the API, External Apps, and Integrations that might be of assistance.

[JuanLaSerna]

Thank you so much, this is definitely helpful.

[seanbeirnes]

Hello @JuanLaSerna,

There are two ways you can integrate an application with Canvas:

1. Make an app that is external to Canvas and pulls data from it (or pushes data to it) via the Canvas API. In this case, the app could be a chrome extension, a desktop application, or a web app. For the app to access the API, the user either needs an access token or (preferably) an API Key set up in the Admin settings of the Canvas instance.
2. Make a web app that is accessed within Canvas via the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard. This one is much more complicated since it requires knowing the LTI standard.

I think you are doing a great job trying to find a unique project for your class, but I would suggest first figuring out a problem to solve before moving forward. That will really help determine what the scope of the work it will take to create this app.

I will also note that unless you are making an app to specifically to help students that only requires student permissions, it will be very hard to test out your app without having administrator access to a Canvas instance. The Canvas documentation on GitHub does show you how to get a Docker container of Canvas running locally on your machine, and this could help you test the app as an administrator (depending on what you want it to do). Again, I think you have a great idea, but be careful because the work involved may quickly escalate beyond what you were anticipating. However, if you are willing to put in the work, you will learn a lot of practical knowledge. Best of luck!