API Call to Publish or to Unpublished a Course

[gibbonsd]

Is there a Canvas REST API that can be used to Publish a course or Unpublish a Course?

[bneporadny · Accepted solution]

Hey  @gibbonsd ,

When creating a course using the course api‌ you can set the state of the course.  You can also use the course update‌ api‌ (Courses - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation ) where you can set course[event] parameter to offer, which published the course.

The code I have written auto publishes the course upon creation and then I use the #unpublished courses‌ report to find courses that have been unpublished by the instructor and go publish them for the instructor 5 days out from the start.  

Hope this helps.

Brian

[PaulJanzen]

Thanks for your answer. Based on what you provided I was able to determine how to Publish a course using a PUT call. However, I am not able to figure out how to do it when I create (POST) the course. This isn't really an issue for me as I can easily perform the two API calls in succession. But, it would be nice to know if there actually is a way to create AND publish a course in the same API call.

[Boekenoogen]

You will want to go to this link Canvancements - Canvas Enhancements  It is the best place to look for these type of things.

[ag3811]

I don't see anything in there about publishing or unpublishing courses.

[James]

 @ag3811 ,

I think  @jrboek  is talking about the bottom one: How to list teachers who have published/unpublished courses 

If you use the Google Sheet option (3rd one), there's a way to publish the courses as well.

[ag3811]

Maybe he is, but that's not obvious, so it's not the best place to look for these types of things.

[James]

so it's not the best place to look for these types of things.

Logically, that conclusion doesn't follow. Do you have a better place to look? Something can be the best place to look without being the best resource that it can be. If a resource is available in only one place and you have to go to that place to find it, then it's the best place to look. Whether or not it's immediately useful when you get there or you have to do some manipulation to make it useful, it's still the best place to look.

Whether or not those are the best resources is a completely different question. They are not useful for everyone, but for those who are willing to use them, they can save a bunch of time.

It is one of the few places (that I know of) where there is a list of tools and resources of that nature. When Kona created the list, it was an attempt to make it easier for people to find things that were scattered all over the Community. I think both Kona and I will admit that the page needs a lot of love and it could certainly be more useful than it is.

I'm just glad to get a shout-out from John. I think some of his early experiences weren't quite as pleasant as he had some difficulty getting things to work.