Allow docViewer in SpeedGrader support more text file extensions - specifically .c and .h

[vtleslie]

Per https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/What-types-of-files-can-be-previewed-in-Canvas/t... the only text file extension that is supported within canvas is .txt.  However, this isn't totally accurate, since I also know that .java (java programming source code files) will also properly preview in the docViewer.

However, I've noticed that .c and .h files (C programming source code files) wlll preview in the browser, but do not preview in the iPadOS app.  This means that I can't use my apple pencil to annotate submissions.

This specific idea request is for .c and .h to be considered preview-able text files in the iPadOS app.

(and it would be nice if the official documentation reflected reality for files like .java files -- so that they will continue to work)

Ideally, the programming team should review common programming language source code file extensions and allow all of them to be treated as text files for the purpose of the docView in SpeedGrader.  I haven't recently taught other languages, so I can't speak to which are supported and which not.

[vtleslie]

Now I'm really sad....as recently as the Spring semester, .java files *were* able to be previewed on my iPad -- but now they aren't.  So, now I can no longer markup program text of any kind.  I can see that removal of this functionality makes things more consistent, but.... since I teach beginning programming, I really like to be able to draw pictures, arrows, etc and that is just hard to do with the keyboard annotation interface.  

Additionally, I had been a real proponent of using stylus based systems for marking up program within my technical college, which is relatively new to Canvas (only our second year), and now I have a bit of mud on my face.... 

[profharris]

Like mentioned above, I have students submitting language source-code files, specifically:  .sh,  .asm,  .lst,  .a    ...  How to I get Speed Grader to open files with these extension as "text" files?

[salbeke]

Yes, I would also like to view student submissions in Speed Grader. I use .R, .Rmd, .cs, .js and .css for my classes. This functionality for viewing simple text from script files would be exceptionally useful.

[a01608746]

It would be nice if all files that were text files (such as .c, .cpp, .h, .java, etc.) were just treated as .txt files. I have found that .c files show up properly most of the time in the browser, but every now and then, a file won't display at all, and sometimes about half of it will be missing. It's pretty rare, but it occurs. Because these files aren't "technically" supported, Canvas says that they can't fix this bug. It shouldn't be too hard to just make these files be treated as .txt files.

[AlanIsaac]

Please include .py (Python) and .nlogo (NetLogo) files in the list of previewable plain text files. These are widely used in teaching.

[jdick1]

Commenting to report I've received this request from computer science instructors at our campus as well.

[AlanIsaac]

Rather than Canvas developers trying to come up with an exhaustive list of file extensions, another possibility would be a View As Plain Text button. Naturally the viewer would have to work for both Windows and *nix end-of-line conventions.

[chriscas]

Yes, Instructure, please fix/add this!  There has god to be a way that docviewer can detect plain-text files without relying on the extension (since extensions are ever-changing).  Canvas really has some shortcomings for STEM courses (show your work math questions, equations, etc), and this one seems like it should be one of the easiest to fix.

-Chris

[ProductPanda]

Comments from Instructure

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