We're rolling out some important updates to how Page Views are handled in Canvas, affecting both the user interface and our public APIs. These changes are designed to improve performance, accessibility, and data management, while also changing how partners access pageview data through the API
What's Changing for Canvas Users and Admins?
We’re streamlining access to page view data to simplify the user experience and to be more efficient about data retrieval and access. Most use cases require page view data from the past 30 days. Our data shows that only 2% of queries require data more than 30 days old. Effective September 24 only the most recent 30 days will be presented by default and older data will be available to download on the Canvas UI for Admins.
Enhanced User Interface for Page Views
We're making your page view history even more efficient and user-friendly.
- Your Personal Page View History: When you access your History menu item in Canvas (available from the main menu), you'll continue to see your recent page view history. To ensure clarity and optimize performance, we're introducing an empty state message that will clearly indicate that only the last 30 days of your page view history will be displayed. This doesn't change what you currently see, but makes clear what data is available.
- Admin Page View Insights: For Canvas Admins, viewing a user's page views will see some valuable improvements:
- Streamlined On-Page Display: The infinite scroll on the page view list at the bottom of the user's page views will be replaced with a more accessible pager. Again, this pager will display the most recent 30 days of page view history, providing a focused and efficient view.
- Improved CSV Downloads: We're significantly enhancing the CSV download process for page view data. You'll now have the flexibility to select one or more specific months or the last 365 days of data. Plus, CSV generation will become asynchronous, meaning you can continue working while your report is being prepared. The new process will also deliver one comprehensive CSV file, removing the previous 300-line limitation.
Important API Changes for Developers and Partners
We're also updating the List user page views API to improve its efficiency and scope.
- API Data Reduction: Moving forward, this public Canvas API will return data for the last 30 days only. This change helps us optimize performance and ensure faster responses for common queries.
- Impact on Partners: Partners currently utilizing the List user page views API for historical data will be affected. While incremental updates (the last 30 days of data) will still be readily available through this existing API, accessing older historical data will require a new approach.
- New API for Historical Data (Beta Access): We understand the need for historical data access. To support this, we will be releasing a new set of additional APIs in Q4 specifically designed for retrieving historical page view data. These new APIs will first be available in beta access. We will provide more details on how to access and utilize these new APIs soon.
These updates represent our ongoing commitment to improving the Canvas experience for everyone. We believe these changes will lead to a more performant, accessible, and robust platform.
