Left navigation links to external sources

[maryanne_mills]

Hi,

There is a link on our left nav bar that points to an external site. I want to change that link but only for this particular page, not all Canvas courses at my college. We have done this before, but we can't remember how we did it. I've been to Settings, but there isn't a way to change the link there.

This is a faculty course in Canvas, not a student course, so we want the library link to go to a completely different destination than all the other courses.

Thanks for any assistance!

Maryanne

[chriscas]

Hi @maryanne_mills,

I don't believe there is a way to edit the existing tool for just one course.  Instead, you'd hide the existing link from the course settings -> navigation tab, then you'd head over to the apps tab and install a new external tool (most likely the redirect tool) pointing to the right URL for that course.

I hope this helps a bit!

-Chris

[maryanne_mills]

A belated thanks to you. I am trying it out right now!

[Chris_Hofer]

@maryanne_mills ...

Might you have the Redirect LTI tool installed?  Edu App Center: Redirect Tool?

In your course, go to:

"Settings" >> "Apps" tab >> "View App Configurations" button.

You may see a row on that screen for "Redirect Tool" and a gear icon to the far right of that row.  If you can click on the gear icon, select "Edit".  In the "Custom Names" box, you should be able to modify the URL listed there.  If needed, also change the "Name" field.  (Yours may already say "Library"?)

Hopefully this is what you are looking for.  If no, please let us know here in the Community, and we'll continue to troubleshoot.

[maryanne_mills]

Belated thanks to @chriscas and @Chris_Hofer . We do have the Redirect Tool installed and I would like to know if I click on all three choices below when redirecting, or just "update course navigation". I attempted "course navigation" only. Is that correct? Thanks again for your assistance 👏

[chriscas]

Hi @maryanne_mills,

Which box(es) to check depends where you want the link to show up.  If you just want it in each course menu (the most likely scenario), you can just check the course option.  You may also need to check the new tab option as well depending on how your library website is structured.

-Chris

[maryanne_mills]

Thanks! For this particular course, I want the Library link to go to a different external URL than all the rest of our courses. So, for all the other courses the link goes to the Library home page. For this course, I want it to go to a sub-page of the library site. If I pick "course navigation" will it change all the courses or just this one?  I think it will just affect this course, yes?

When I chose  open in new tab, I had to click again in Canvas to open another tab:

[chriscas]

Hi @maryanne_mills,

As long as you add the new app from the course settings area (no account settings), it will only appear in that particular course.

-Chris