Releases Q&A: 2021-06-19 SpeedGrader Comment Library

[erinhmcmillan]

Looking to discuss this feature from the 2021-06-19 Release Notes? Post a reply and start a conversation!

POSTING GUIDELINES

• This topic is for feature discussion only—please share use cases, best practices, etc. regarding this feature
• Please thread replies as much as possible to keep posts organized
• Feedback to product managers about idea enhancements should be submitted in ideas.canvaslms.com (though linking to the idea here so others can find it is welcome)
• Bug reports for this feature should be submitted to Canvas Support—bugs will not be triaged in this thread

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, all,

Just a reminder, our product manager will chime in to any enhancement added to our Idea Conversations, which is where product engages with ongoing work for features. Please add enhancement ideas to Idea Conversations to help our product manager be able to keep track of individual ideas and respond appropriately.

Thanks!

Erin

[kirsten_ryall]

Hi All, I have found an idea that relates to adding a comment library to SpeedGrader and Docviewer, dating back to 2015. Please note I did not author this idea. Interestingly, it has a status that it has been deployed but I don't know if that is entirely accurate. The idea has 102 stars and 175 comments, so it would be good to get the status updated if possible. Is that something that can be done @erinhmcmillan? It would be a pity to have to start this idea afresh.

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Idea-Conversations/Ability-to-Save-and-Copy-from-Frequently-Used-...

[Stef_retired]

Hi, @kirsten_ryall , the product manager and I discussed exactly this when we were trying to decide how to handle this idea (and it is an object lesson in why we subsequently became so focused on "one idea per submission"). Ultimately we decided to mark it 'complete' but have worded the "completion" message to indicate that it completes the Speedgrader aspect of the request. Like you, we would rather preserve the idea along with its valuable comments than have to start it afresh, so we'll encourage people to continue to add their comments there. Don't worry, though: the PM has the DocViewer piece of the idea in hand.  😊  [Edited to add: I've put a note in the idea description clarifying this.]

[kirsten_ryall]

Wonderful, thanks @Stef_retired. And thanks also to PM who has DocViewer.

[Jeff_F]

A few suggestions:

Include a comment topic or folder system. To illustrate, I currently use a tool called Typeitin and this enables me to group comments by topic. Below are my comment groupings -

• APA essay - 60 comments
• Discussions - 40 comments
• Specific assignments - 4 other comment groups each with about 20 comments per group

I often stack comments so the ability to apply more than one comment is desirable. As is, if I enter a comment from the library and then try to add a second the first comment is replaced by the second.

[Lpicsmith]

I am using the comment library, but if I type my own comments into the comment box first, then select a comment from the library, it deletes all of my own typed comments. Do I have to use the comment library FIRST and then type my own in order to avoid this?

[erinhmcmillan]

Yes, you will want to enter your comment and add it to the library. Anything you select from the library will automatically override any content that is already in the text field.

Erin

[marthazumack]

@erinhmcmillan Is this considered a bug that's being worked on, or just a 'feature'?

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Martha,

That's intended functionality. If you don't want your comment to be overridden, I'd recommend selecting a comment from the library first and then modifying it as you'd like.

Erin

[mlehman1]

This aspect makes it pretty useless for me, because you also can't use more than one of your saved comments. If you try to add another, it replaces the first one. And there doesn't seem to be a way to select more than one. Are there any plans to address this? 

[dtod]

There's no API - how do you build a new feature without an API?

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi,

A lot of the APIs created for Canvas aren't posted externally in our API documentation. If the engineers feel a feature would benefit from external APIs in the future they will update that for you.

Thanks,

Erin

[adelman]

Great idea - but when I tried it I encountered a fatal flaw: adding a library-based comment to the comment box replaces everything I already entered.