Canvas and Salesforce Integration Best Practices

[jcastillo]

I believe some of you have successfully implemented a Canvas integration with Salesforce. Could you please share some Ideas that you think would best help us achieve this integration in a much convenient way? What are the challenges you encountered? What are the tools you used and features you implemented? Guides and samples are greatly appreciated.

[stuart_ryan]

Hi  @jcastillo ,

While I have done several integrations with Canvas, Canvas to Salesforce is not something I have tackled before. However, I have shared this with the Canvas Developers‌ group who should be able to give you some insights.

I would highly recommend if you are not already, signing up to the Canvas Developers group, there is a lot of useful information in the group that could be of use.

I also found a thread with some possibly relevant discussion which could be of benefit to you as well https://community.canvaslms.com/thread/13216-use-a-crm-like-salesforce-as-a-student-information-syst...  (depending on what type of integration you are looking to do).

Out of curiosity, are you looking to use Salesforce as a SIS, or in some other capacity, as that could lead to differing approaches.

Hope that helps!

Stuart

[jcastillo]

 @stuart_ryan ‌,

Thank you very much! I dearly appreciate you sharing these posts to me. Truly, these references are gold to start with. What I like with both Salesforce and Canvas is the continued community support available to all users. This is really helpful specially for beginner users trying to jump in and get things up and running.

As for the integration, I'm looking at the possibility to make Salesforce a personalized College Management System -more than just a SIS. To make things short and straightforward, I'm looking at Canvas as being our Learning Management System and Salesforce as College Management System. Interestingly, making salesforce a college management system may just be one of many things we can do and build with salesforce as it is highly customizable. We can then use salesforce to even enhance the cool and great features of Canvas specially personalized to our organizational needs.

I'm also hoping that someone here can just drop their sample implementation projects that they used to integrate Canvas to Salesforce and give us a heads-up  and share their experiences on how we can make this implementation project  even more better and timely.

Once again thank you very much!

Best,

Joward

[stuart_ryan]

Hi  @jcastillo 

No worries at all, it is something I love about the Canvas Community also, many very helpful minds willing to share information!

That sounds awesome and makes more sense (so can hopefully get some more insights from some people that have integrated Canvas with Salesforce). Both have extremely extensive (and well documented) APIs, so the flexibility is certainly there.

I look forward to keeping an eye on this and seeing how you progress.

Cheers,

Stuart

[PeterWang]

Hi Stuart,

When I try access below link, there’s an error, please kind advise how to fix it, I am looking for the document for Canvas/Salesforce integration.

Thanks,

Peter 

 

[PeterWang]

Hi Stuart,

We are processing to integrate between Canvas LMS with Salesforce SIS, I just clicked your below LINK for the best practices, but there's error message as below:

======================

You do not have sufficient privileges for this resource or its parent to perform this action.

Click your browser's Back button to continue.

======================

Do you know to fix it ?

Thanks,

Peter

[ThomasDrieam]

Hi all,

Posting in case others are still looking for best practices. We have built a SIS & eCommerce platform that integrates Canvas with, among other things, CRM systems like Salesforce. No need to build your custom integration anymore!

Hope this helps.

Thomas

[kunal_ashar]

Has anyone heard of, or encountered a possible solution to this problem? We've Salesforce as our CRM, and I have been looking for a SSO solution that allows students to log into Salesforce and Canvas using the same credentials, and view a student's comprehensive information from both sources - Salesforce and Canvas.
Thanks in advance.

[nr2522]

Good morning,  @kunal_ashar ‌.

 At Columbia Business School, we engaged 7Summits (https://www.7summitsinc.com/) to help us build a student dashboard in Salesforce, which includes data retrieved from Canvas via API.

 Here’s a slideshow on the topic: https://www.slideshare.net/salesforcefoundation/one-stop-shop-enhance-the-student-experience-with-co....

[cstrikwerda · Accepted solution]

Thanks for posting to the Community,

It looks like this has been asked before. Checking a good conversation in the community here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Question-Forum/CRM-Integrations/m-p/226651

That answer was " C‌anvas has a robust API (Canvas LMS REST API Documentation), so it can integrate with many applications. We did some integrations here with Salesforce. There's nothing out of the box on either end, so you'll have to program the integrations in-house or hire a service provider to build them for you."

Your Customer Success Manager can help setup these integrations as well if you reach out to them. If you are needing help with setting up such an integration, I would suggest reaching out to the Customer Success Manager to help start that conversation and help integrating your Canvas and Salesforce.

[RoshanChoudhary]

Hi jcastillo,

Great question about Canvas and Salesforce integration best practices! Here are some key points to consider:

Security:

• Authentication: Utilize Salesforce OAuth for secure user authentication within your Canvas app.
• Data Access: Enforce proper authorization controls to restrict access to sensitive Salesforce data within the Canvas app.
• CSRF Protection: Implement measures to prevent Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks.

User Experience:

• Responsive Design: Ensure your Canvas app is responsive and functions seamlessly across different devices (desktop, mobile).
• Clear Communication: Provide clear error messages and user guidance within the Canvas app.
• Minimize Context Switching: Strive for a smooth user experience by minimizing the need for users to switch between the Canvas app and Salesforce interface.

Performance:

• Minimize Data Transfer: Optimize data transfer between Salesforce and the Canvas app to avoid performance bottlenecks.
• Efficient Code: Write clean and efficient JavaScript code for your Canvas app to ensure optimal performance.
• Caching: Consider implementing caching mechanisms for frequently accessed data to improve responsiveness.

Development Practices:

• Leverage Salesforce APIs: Use Salesforce APIs effectively to interact with Salesforce data and functionalities from your Canvas app.
• Testing: Thoroughly test your Canvas app to ensure proper functionality and user experience before deployment.
• Documentation: Maintain clear and up-to-date documentation for your Canvas app development process.

Additional Resources:

• Salesforce Canvas Developer Guide: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.platform_connect.meta/platform_connect/canvas_fram...
  https://www.nimbleappgenie.com/blogs/salesforce-cloud-service/  
• Canvas and Salesforce Integration Patterns: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXCrw_mueBE