Speed Grader not allowing annotations

[TrischPrice]

It seems that my institution updated Canvas yesterday and now I cannot annotate any flat text files (specifically .cpp, .py, .sql). When I go to the next assignment, I get a warning box saying that I cannot annotate that file type. 

Another issue I am having is with .sql files specifically. These are flat text files and now they no longer appear. To see them I have to download them, and obviously I cannot annotate these either. 

Both of these issues are new since the update. Any ideas?

[jonelle_lonerga]

One of our instructors just ran into this, too -- the student submissions are .txt files full of SQL queries, and he's seeing the "Annotations are not available for this document" error. We're putting in a ticket to see what's what. 

[barrybrown]

I started seeing that yesterday, too. My students are turning in program source code—C, in this case. Sometimes I can see the code right in the browser, but for most of the submissions I have to download the files to see them. Regardless, I can't annotate right on the screen like I used to be able to.

[ac1918]

We opened a support ticket with Instructure yesterday regarding this issue and was told our ticket was escalated to the engineers who are reviewing this behavior.

Curiously, what update did your institution apply? Wow, didn't realize this was already the 3rd Thursday!

[Ron_Bowman]

@TrischPrice -

Thanks for your post on seeing this.  I no longer see my .cpp files in speed grader - only option is to download them like you mentioned with a link showing in the upper left corner of the speed grader view.

Ron

[TrischPrice]

My institution submitted a ticket with Canvas. Hopefully it is fixed soon, exams are on the horizon and my grading time is 5x longer having to download code instead of simply inspecting it directly.

[ac1918]

Update from Canvas support:

"It looks like our engineers have a proposed fix for the issue which will need to be QA'ed before being pushed to production. You should be notified through this case as any additional updates are available."

[TrischPrice]

Can you just suggest a rollback to the previous version? This pain point is does not seem worth anything that might have been added. And I was wrong on my estimage. What I can typically get graded in an hour is taking 7. 

[Ron_Bowman]

@TrischPrice -

Glad I am not in your shoes.  Fortunately for me I only deal with .cpp files and my TA's do the grading.  However, I use Linux/Unix to process all of my files.  I download all of them and run a grading script on them - the ta's still have to look at the code.  Of course the downside is there is currently no annotation possible, but I did not do that anyway.

Ron

[TrischPrice]

This is seriously making me reconsider my process! I don't want to change mid-semester for the student's sake.

I don't annotate for all of my classes (my c++ I give general comments). I do annotate my sql class because a lot of times it is not wrong, but it could be different or better and I want them to know. The realy slow down is that I can usually visually inspect the code in speedgrader and know exactly what is wrong or right. I rarely have to download for that. Having to download every file is killling me. 

On the upside, I am at a CC so classes are on the small side. The downside, no TAs :)!

[murphymike]

I agree!  L2 support told me yesterday that what we are doing was never supported.

[sfrankli1]

I opened a Canvas ticket on this same issue for .py and .cpp files and was also told this was a fluke and these files were never supported.

[ebonakdarian]

That's a disappointing response and doesn't change the fact that they have reduced the functionality of the platform for everyone who was using this. I'm not sure Canvas helps me with my workload with this limitation - it certainly works MUCH less well.

[Ron_Bowman]

@sfrankli1 -

That probably goes for .cpp files as well - which is my issue.  In an interesting quirk, that I am trying to find the answer to, some of the .cpp files submitted actually render in speed grader, but annotations are not allowed. Other submissions do not render at all.  I downloaded one submission that rendered and one that did not and the I submitted them through my dummy student.  I could view the one submission but not the other.  So, it may be a "fluke " in Instructures mind, but evidently it is a random one.  I looked at the encoding for both .cpp files using notepad++, and they are both the same.

 Based on another issue I had about 1 to 2 weeks ago, the render/no render condition must be based on some character showing up.

Ron

[Ron_Bowman]

@ac1918 

Thanks for the update and for pushing this up to canvas support.  Now if they had only QA'd the update before pushing it (meant as s joke - no telling how difficult it is to verify what everything does with the updates - unfortunately what we are dealing with is the only way to know).

Ron

[ac1918]

My support ticket was closed with a note that "Our engineers have deployed a fix for this issue."

We can view the submissions in SpeedGrader but we are still not able to add annotations, nor can we see any of the annotations added to submissions prior to when this functionality stopped working last week.

Is anyone seeing results of the "fix"?

[ebonakdarian]

I'm looking at .java submissions made a few days back and I see no change. I.e., no preview, just a small filename of the source file in the upper left corner. Perhaps it works for new submissions? Getting ready for classes now, so can't try that.

[LNSiefert]

I just tested a brand-new upload of a .jav file and fix is not working.  Our Canvas updates again later this afternoon -- will try again.

[ebonakdarian]

Yes, the same issues with .java files - used to be able to see them in the SpeedGrader for the past few years, now as of a few days ago, they don't show at all (though no error message).

[TrischPrice]

Exactly, really slows down the grading.

[murphymike]

Hello Trisch,

Have you gotten any help, I have been using anotations for a couple of years to grade my Python assignment?

Michael

[TrischPrice]

Just waiting for a fix. In the meantime I have to download all files and skip annotating. Instead I write lengthy notes and hope they can understand what I am talking about. It's not like the grading can wait.

[LNSiefert]

On 2/21/24 8:20 EST I used the Notepad app and made a simple text file.  I then used "save as" to only change the extension and saved it 4 times.  Here were my results:

• text.jav -- No preview, options were to open or download.  Open does not know what app to use on a Windows 10 PC
• text.txt -- Could view in Canvas but got a warning "Annotations are not available for this document"
• text.not -- Could view in Canvas but got a warning "Annotations are not available for this document"
• text.doc -- Could view the file and make annotations

Exact same file -- Canvas is just looking at the extension.

I will keep looking at these files in Speedgrader to see if there are any changes. 😞

[BradHinaus]

same issue with   .py files.  Do not show up on the preview and cannot be annotated.    Oddly there are two student who submit .py files that can be viewed  but not annotated, but none of the .py files submitted by other 25 students cannot be previewed or annotated and must be downloaded.   

For me even if I could see the text of their code, it would help immensely since my grading rubric is in the same window and easy to look back and forth between the code and the rubric rather than overlaying windows after a download. 

[pete0708]

Same problem here. The annotation of *.c files worked for years thru the end of last Fall semester and is now "broken" on the UST Canvas tool. When I contacted the Canvas Support Team via Chat they didn't mention that this appears to be a bigger problem, nor did they offer any assistance. The annotation also doesn't for for Canvas pre-programmed Text files (*.txt)

[KristinL]

Hi Everyone - Many Canvas users reported this issue, and we recognize how the change disrupted your grading experience. I have news to share: our engineering team deployed a fix today. If you still experience issues, please reach out to Canvas Support. How do I contact Canvas Support? 

[LauraCira]

Hi KristinL, thank you for the update. Does that mean that this fix has been applied to beta first, and will be pushed to prod over the weekend? What is the timing for this fix to hit our active versions of prod?

[TrischPrice]

I've tried it out and am working with our Ed Tech team on this. Now it works, but it literally takes 5 minutes for an assignment to load (a 2K file). Before this was pretty much immediate.

[ac1918]

Working for us too. The load is sluggish but the functionality has been restored!

[barrybrown]

The fix is appreciated, but loading each submission now takes 2-5 minutes and sometimes just outright fails with "Error processing document."

I've chatted with support and they are escalating to level 2. 

[ebonakdarian]

Agreed, it's much slower than it was before, appreciate you following up with support, let's hope a fix is in the works soon.

[ebonakdarian]

Yeah, seems to work, but taking quite a long time to load a small Java source (about 100 lines or so). Also very inconsistent, some load fast, others take a LONG time.

[LNSiefert]

Just currious, are you having the same problem today (04/11/24).  An instructor at my college was having the same issue you did in February and it seems to be back today.  He sent me:  "Did Canvas push another “update” for SpeedGrader ???  This morning I am unable to display .java files AGAIN  Also can’t view .PHP files, .CSS files are still displaying as text."

[pete0708]

Yes, the problem re-occured last week! Canvas is aware of the issue, but they have not entered the problem on the "known issue" list nor have they given any indication when it might be fixed.

I hope they don't decide to go the easy route and instead of fixing this issue send out an announcement that they don't intend flat text files like .C, .PY, .JS, etc file to work and drop all support for them.

[TrischPrice]

I really can't believe we are back here with the same issue. And since it was fixed just two months ago, I assumed this would be a quick fix. This REALLY slows down the grading. Any word on a fix???

I heard from a colleague that .java files are fine; that just leaves me more confused.

[ebonakdarian]

No, at least for me, .java files aren't fine, take forever to load, if at all 😕  .. looks like we are back to the problem. I'm not sure why this is such a problem, they are just displaying plain text files (no matter the filename extension).

[pete0708]

Same here. Sad to witness Canvas support not being able to fix this issue.

[TrischPrice]

 Is anyone considering another avenue for giving feedback and/or grading in the fall? I am pretty concerned that this is going to be an ongoing issue and I really don't have the time to waste dealing with it. Open to any suggestions :)!

[emlarson]

We were happy to see that this got added to the "Known Issues" list at [OPEN] Text files associated with a programming la... - Instructure Community - 600893 (canvaslms.co... but there doesn't seem to be any update or progress on it. As a proof-of-concept I was able to batch-download the submissions in an assignment, rename *.c to *.c.txt via a Windows command prompt, and re-upload them one-by-one using the "submit for student" function. That, at least, got them visible in the SpeedGrader (though the results were spotty -- some took a lot longer to render than others did).

This community-feedback system here is a bit quirky because there's an "Accept as Solution" option in these threads (which will send encouraging notes back to the posters) but, to be clear, as of this writing on April 30th, 2024, there is no solution.

[dspiel]

If I go back to past courses where .py files were submitted I have no issues viewing them, but this quarter nothing opens at out college.