How to reset a communication channel?

[robotcars]

I have a task that sends course level notifications to students using the Canvas API, using communication channels, notification preferences, and conversations.

Communication Channel Fact of Canvas Data shows that, bounce_count is the Number of permanent bounces since the channel was last reset. If it's greater than 0, then no email is sent to the channel, until it is either reset by a siteadmin or it is removed and re-added by a user.

I read that description to say that no email is sent once 1 fails. District emails are all on same email system, so seeing 1-87 bounces for school emails is troublesome. The fact that a single bounce prevents the communication channel from future messages seems terrible.

How does the site admin reset the channel?

Communication Channels - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation

Does not have a reset option.

Seems like the only solution would be to DELETE and CREATE with skip_confirmation flag?

Any ideas?

[audra_agnelly · Accepted solution]

carroll-ccsd‌, the only way I know how to do this is to send a ticket to Canvas Support and ask them to remove the flag on the email. For our K-5 students we block all external emails so their addresses get flagged as soon as they're in Canvas. In September I send Support a list of accounts for our rising 6th graders so that we can get Canvas notifications to start sending back to their district email. I don't know of any other way as a site admin to reset the bounce count. Since the user account's primary email (district email) is sent from our SIS it can't be deleted by myself or the user to reset it. If someone's found a way to do this through API, I'd love to know.

[RobDitto]

Seems like the only solution would be to DELETE and CREATE with skip_confirmation flag?

That is indeed what I do with Communication Channels API when I need to force-confirm a channel for a user. Thankfully the need is rare.

[James]

There is a reset_bounce_count method in the communication_channels_controller. It's not documented because it's not an API call.

According to the routes.rb, it's 

post 'users/:user_id/communication_channels/:id', action: :reset_bounce_count, as: 'reset_bounce_count'

Strangely, the next line mentions a bouncing_channel_report. Calling the route listed makes Canvas say there's nothing there.

The line after that talks about a post that will bulk_reset_bounce_counts.

The communication_channel.rb file has a note to reset bounce count when we're being reactivated.

The communication_channels_controller_spec.rb file says that POST 'reset_bounce_count' "should allow siteadmins to reset the bounce count" but not account admins.  

All of that said, I do not know where it is accessible from within Canvas. The closest I can find is as the user themselves, when they go to Account > Settings, they get this:

With some quick playing around, I was not able to get a request to any of internal calls those to work. Mostly getting 422 Unprocessable Entity status codes.

When I go to the Account > Settings > Account Admins, I see that I'm listed as an Account Admin. Maybe none of thise works because I'm not a site admin, just an account admin at the root account level. I don't think I've ever encountered that before.

I share the findings here. It's not a working solution, but perhaps it will spark something that does work.

There is a constant RETIRE_THRESHOLD that is used to determine how many bounces can happen before retiring the account. It is set to 1.

[robotcars]

Thanks Everyone!

I submitted a ticket to support and they returned with, providing the domains I want reset. This is easy enough to request once a year or before each term if the channels are cut for currently enrolled users.

[gordon]

 I just made that request and no one knew how to do it at Canvas Support and kept referring to the  Arrow in a Circle I should click to reset an individual's bounce Count while masquerading as them.   Sorry but no cigar...  No Circle with an Arrow available to me.  Can we not get the ability in the area where we can search as admins for the blocked communication and reset it there?  Select individual results for each instance we need to clear and clear them or clear all within a the search we just did?

Simpler than tying up the Support desk.  And yes we do not block emails from Canvas so unsure why they are bouncing at all.

[dgorman73]

My students can contact me in canvas but I cannot respond through my university email, I have to do it in Canvas, and it told me to set up the communication channel.

Thanks in advance.

David