Need advice on Apps integration into new courses, please help.

[Danstackhouse]

We bought them all! But nobody can use them!  

Questions:

1.  For Apps already installed and used successfully in previous courses and years as well as Apps not installed, how do I find the "Consumer Key" and the "Shared Secret" for the Apps that I've used in the past and would like to use in the future.  Especially as a high school science teacher, there are many Laboratory apps that will help greatly due to the COVID pandemic precautions we must follow.

So far I go as a teacher into one of my Canvas courses and access the "Settings" link near the bottom on the left.  Next, I select the "apps" tab at the top.  Every app whether installed or not asks for a "Shared Secret" and "Consumer Key".  How do I get the information to fill those fields and be able to add the app to my current Canvas course?

Thanks, everyone. 

[nwilson7]

@Danstackhouse That information comes from a contact from that App's respective company.  When a company sends me that information, I always save those emails in a special place so I can access them again if needed.  Some programs have an area within the app that will tell you but so far almost all of them I have had to reach out to their support or our CSM with that company in order to get them.  

Maybe others in this community have found a way with an API but I have never seen a way to pull that info.

Hope that helps!

-Nick

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @Danstackhouse,

A few things to note...

If an app already shows as "installed" then there should be no need to install it again.  You just need to access the app from the appropriate place (some are course navigation menus, some are external assignments, rich content editor plugins, etc).

For the apps which aren't installed, my guess is that those have not been purchased by your school/institution.  Some apps may be free, and usually those will give some indication of the process to obtain a key/secret as you go through the install process.

The apps screen can sometimes cause confusion, especially for teachers.  The list being shown isn't necessarily what's already been paid for, but it really more like an "app store" on a cell phone, where all options are listed and then you'd be asked for payment if you want to use one.  That being said, administrators can customize what teachers see on that list (or hide everything completely), so it's hard for anyone in the community here to know exactly what you see, and of that list what would be free to use or what might cost money for you or your school/institution.

Hope this gives you slightly more understanding of what you're seeing, even though it may not completely answer your questions.

-Chris