LTI Advantage 2.0 LineItem Creation Question

[AlManint]

I searched, and if I missed it I apologize.

I'm writing the LTI Advantage portion of our integration.  If the Tool creates the lineitem, a gradebook item and assignment is created.  Currently when I create the assignment, it is automatically published.

Is there a setting where the default could be unpublished?  We would like the workflow to be that the instructure needs to release the assignment to the students inside the LMS.  Is the intent of the LTI spec that it be automatically available?  Since we can't create any due date information in line item creation, we would like the the Canvas user to be able to edit the assignment.

Any feedback is appreciated.  All the auth,  lineitem creation, grade updates and deep links appear to be working (even the custom variable substitutions).

[joshua_lebo · Accepted solution]

Hello @AlManint,

I understand you are looking to use a LineItem to create an assignment in Canvas, and have that assignment created in an unpublished state. The way an assignment is created from a LineItem passed to Canvas depends on the context. Are you using the Line Items API to pass the LineItem to Canvas, or is the LineItem included in a content item in a deep linking response? In both cases there is not an option to specify the published/unpublished state for an assignment, but if you are using deep linking, the available and submission properties of the content item will be used to set the due and available dates for the assignment. Furthermore, if the deep linking request is coming from an assignment_selection placement the user will be displayed an edit page for the assignment were they can adjust the dates and other details. With more information on the context of how the LineItems are being passed to Canvas we may be able to come up with a better solution or workaround to allow you to get the assignments created either with dates already entered, or in an unpublished state.

In the future, for technical questions about implementing an integration with Canvas I would recommend posting in the Canvas Developers Group Forum as you will probably get better answers, and faster, compared to posting in the general Canvas Question Forum.