New CSV Import option, not easy to use

[kikpe]

I was happy to see the option to import a csv to create & assign tags in the recent deploy notes, however the process may be too technical for teachers. Is it possible to create a workflow similar to the csv Import in the Groups space? 

I'm testing in beta and when I click the "instructions", it takes me to an API documentation page (https://hcpss.beta.instructure.com/doc/api/file.differentiation_tags_csv.html) which may be too complex for our everyday users and teachers. I can't see an average elementary (or middle or high school) teacher going to that page and not being overwhelmed by the presentation of information.

Also as I'm following the documentation, getting individual user IDs isn't straightforward for teachers, so this process isn't easier than creating and assigning differentiation tags from the People UI. 

To make it more streamlined and user-friendly, it would be helpful to see the option to export a file template (similar to Groups & Enhanced Rubrics) that can be edited intuitively and quickly by an average user.

[kikpe]

Also I wanted to point out in the Import CSV tray, the wording says "You can create tags by downloading the differentiation tag template" but there is no template.

[James-Kocher]

Also, clicking on the link to the instructions opens in the same tab, when it would be more logical if it opened in a new tab instead! 

[kikpe]

@James-Kocher exactly what I said! 

[tle1]

Yeah the API documentation isn't great and overly complex for most use cases, especially for faculty we want to be able to do this on their own.

The group interface lets you download a csv, paste in groups and upload. But even that interface at least for us isn't neccessary.

All you need to do for both groups and tags, is include:

login_id, group_name

or

login_id,tag_name

Now I haven't had time to test with variant tags or the situation where you intentionally have multiple tags with the same name (why would you???) and need to use the tag_id but you could probably just use that instead of _name. I haven't looked into how simple or not simple it is to get a tag ID. 

[kikpe]

@tle1 were you able to upload a csv? In the documentation it says "canvas_user_id, user_id, or login_id is required and tag_name, canvas_tag_id or tag_id is required" and I used the sample as a template but when I uploaded my file, it won't stop spinning. Even after 3 hours it doesn't give me an error message or load at all.

[tle1]

All I had in my csv

login_id,tag_name
rsbstudb,csv_tag
rsbstudc,csv_tag
rsbstuda,csv_tag2

test student login ids, and tag names

[kikpe]

@tle1 interesting, yeah I tried those two columns and it worked for me. I guess it was just a beta issue before but I wish they made a more user-friendly guide when it's released. Thanks for testing that!

[James-Kocher]

That might have been a Beta issue. I have a friend who tried moving course content in beta yesterday and it never went through. I was able to upload just now with the login_id and tag_name, and it worked just fine!

[kikpe]

@James-Kocher I agree, my file uploaded successfully this morning. But I still have a concern about the technical documentation and a lack of a template. Hopefully this stuff will be fixed before it's released!

[James-Kocher]

Yeah, they totally imply that there's a template to download. At least the group template works for now.  Now to see how to do variants!

[James-Kocher]

Ok, well, that was easy enough. tag_set_name.

[tle1]

Can you show the entire csv? I haven't had the time yet but I'm curious how it differentiates between identical named tags inside and outside a tag set. 

I get it probably cant handle identical names well but names shouldn't be identical outside a tag set anyway. (Maybe not inside either)

[James-Kocher]

So you mean like having let's say a "freshman" tag inside a variant and another with the same name on its own?

[tle1]

A freshman tag, a freshman variant tag inside a tag set, and a freshman tag variant inside another tag set.

[James-Kocher]

It might only like one set name per upload. I tried this, and it added Spock as doctor under the variant "Role"

[tle1]

Did your tagset already exist?

[tle1]

I created Tag Set One

• Variant 1
• Variant 2

Then I uploaded 

login_id,tag_set_name,tag_name
rsbstuda,Tag Set One,Variant 1
rsbstudb,Tag Set One,Variant 2
rsbstudc,Tag Set Two,Variant 1

It placed all 3 students in their tags into Tag Set Two. Instead of the first two into Tag Set One and one in a new tag set.

It looks like it renamed Tag Set One into Tag Set Two, because of the identical variant name?

Only Tag Set Two remains with all three students.

I then dropped in:

login_id,tag_set_name,tag_name
rsbstuda,Tag Set Three,Variant 5
rsbstudb,Tag Set Three,Variant 6
rsbstudc,Tag Set Two,Variant 4

It put One student, c, into Tag Set Two into a new variant tag, Variant 4

But variant 5 and 6 were added as individual Tags as the Tag sets didn't yet exist.

After manually adding Tag Set Three, and using the same file, it then does place them into Tag Set Three with the proper variant tag, (variant 5 and variant 6).

Now the indiviudal tags Variant 5 and 6 are listed as tag sets with no variant tags.

Now after deleting tag set three and reloading the same csv, it loads the students into tag set 3 properly but it also adds as variant tags, the initial variants I needed to create tag set three in the first place, instead of just loading up the two tags in the csv. I don't know if it's the same tag id, but it's remembering the variant tags on the previously same named tag set that I deleted and replaced with the csv upload. The ghost variants are the ts3 and ts3 1.

There is so much here that is wonky, I can't even begin to imagine how much more we need to test to ensure this doesn't cause issues when pushed live.

[tle1]

I tried to upload

login_id,tag_name,tag_set_name
rsbstudb,csv_tag4,New Set
rsbstudc,csv_tag,New Set
rsbstuda,csv_tag2,New Set

and it spins and fails to upload when I refresh the page.

[tle1]

I swapped the order put the set before the tag:

login_id,tag_set_name,tag_name
rsbstudb,csv set,New tag
rsbstudc,csv_set,New tag 2
rsbstuda,csv_set,New tag 3

And it put New tag, new tag 2 and new tag 3 as 3 separate individual tags. not as variants inside a set, and did not create a csv_set tag set.

Trying:

login_id,tag_set_name,tag_name
rsbstudf,a tag set here,a variant tag here

just adds a variant tag here as an individual tag. Again no tagset is created.

Also it seems any upload fails without a student so you can't upload just a tag structure without adding students to the tags. (I don't really recall if groups act the same)

[pelican46]

Thanks for this! Using the login_id, tag_name worked.