Search Canvas

[sipWU]

How can I find (any) file (where I know part of the title and/or content) I have used in an old course but do not know where and when?

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello there, @sipWU ...

There are two solutions I can think of ... but each of them has a cost associated with them ... and so you would want to reach out to your school's Canvas administrator to discuss if making these purchases might be possible in the future ... depending on their budget.

• TidyUP ... this is a product from Cidi Labs, and it is a file clean-up tool. It also has a way to search for files within your course, and it tells you the folder(s) that the file is located in. But, unless things have changed recently, you must do this per course. It is a pretty fantastic tool ... especially if you want to do general clean-up of your course files to get rid of things you're not using any more in your course(s). In my former role as a Canvas administrator, we purchased this tool for our instructors, and it was awesome! This tool is installed at the Canvas account level (rather than the Canvas course level) so that all courses in the account have access to it. TidyUP for Canvas File and Page Cleanup - Cidi Labs
• Atomic Search ... This one might actually be a better option for you, and I'd encourage you to visit this page to watch the short video to see what it can do. I've not used this one myself (though I do recall possibly getting a short trial of it?). Atomic Search for Canvas | Atomic Jolt

Hopefully you'll be able to have a conversation with your school's Canvas administrator soon to see if either of these might be options for you. At the very least, you could contact them to see if they would be willing to show you demos of their products so you get an idea of the capabilities.

Hope this helps a bit! Sing out if you have any other questions...thanks!

[sipWU]

THANK YOU @Chris_Hofer for the prompt reply. Yes, I have read about TidyUP in another thread. However, I do think that one should be forced to purchase an app to search Canvas. Because if so, then Canvas is just a sophisticated database where you cannot find any content you have not provided yourself. On that note ... I am also missing meta data?! 😉

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @sipWU ...

I think what you meant to say is that "I do think that one should not be forced to pay...", correct?

I did a quick search of existing Feature Ideas here in the Community, and the first three results I got were the following:

• Comprehensive Course Search Tool (Searching Course... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
• Search feature - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
• Search for Pages - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

You might want to review these links to see if any or all of them might be close to a feature that you'd like to see Instructure develop into the core Canvas product. You can give those ideas a star rating, and you can also leave a comment on any of them to give Instructure engineers real-world examples of why this would be important to have in Canvas. More on the star rating system here:

How do idea conversations work in the Instructure Community?

Hopefully these additional links will be of more help to you. Let Community members know if you have more questions...thanks!