Upcoming Portfolio GA Release: How to Opt Out of the Portfolio Tool Early

Dalma_Schnell

As we shared in October, the Portfolio tool will be generally available in Canvas this month! We understand that some institutions may want to opt out ahead of the GA release to avoid having the feature be on by default. To support this, we’ve prepared a self-serve option that allows your team to maintain full control over when and how the tool appears to your users.

Self-Serve Opt-Out: Step-by-Step

Institutions that do not wish to install the Portfolio tool during Saturday’s global release can opt out by disabling the Developer Key. Accounts with the key disabled will be excluded from the release, and the app will not appear for their users.

Steps to Opt Out:

In Canvas, go to Admin > Developer Keys.

After clicking Developer Keys, navigate to the Inherited Keys tab.

Locate the “Portfolio LTI Client” key with the ID 170000000001986.

Toggle the key OFF to disable it.

Once disabled, your institution will be considered opted out, and the Portfolio app will not be deployed for your users during the Saturday, November 15 release.

After Saturday, the key will remain turned off, and the app will not appear in your settings.

If you decide to enable the tool later, you can simply turn the key back on and then register the app by following these steps:

Navigate to Settings > Apps > View App Configurations.
Click + App to add a new app.
Select Configuration Type: By Client ID and paste the following Client ID from the Developer Key:

170000000002018

Click Submit and then Install to activate the app.
To change where the tool appears, click the gear icon for the Portfolio LTI and adjust Placements as needed.

After GA Release

Even after the global release, institutions can still disable the app or change its placements at any time by navigating to Settings > Apps > View App Configurations, clicking the gear icon for the Portfolio LTI, and selecting Placements to adjust where the tool appears.

The Portfolio tool will only be available at the User Navigation as "Portfolio", which can be found under the “Account” menu.

For EAP and Feature Preview Users: GA Release Installation Duplication and How to Prevent it

Institutions that already have the Portfolio tool installed due to EAP or Feature Preview participation will see a duplicated installation in their environment under “Developer keys” called “Portfolio LTI Client”.

This duplication protects existing setups so the GA release does not override any current configurations.
Institutions can prevent duplication and disable this new LTI Client in advance using the self-serve steps above to opt out before Saturday, or manage opt-out by disabling the app placements after GA if preferred.

We appreciate your support and partnership as we continue to enhance the Portfolio experience.

jmerlenbach2

Good afternoon @Dalma_Schnell -

If I as a Feature Preview User disable the Developer Key, that will remove access for the users who are currently using until I turn it back on. While this isn't a complete showstopper, it does require us to do some communication.

You mention that there will be a duplicate install under "developer keys" - do you mean a duplicate tool installation/deployment under the installed Apps, or a duplicate key?

If we leave it enabled and allow for the duplication to take place, can I then delete the deployment that was installed over the weekend, leaving the single deployment that was being used as part of our feature preview phase, or is there a reason that the deployment installed by the Instructure team must be used?

Dalma_Schnell

Hi @jmerlenbach2 ,

The key you would be disabling is a completely new key that is part of the upcoming Saturday release called Portfolio LTI Client. Your users are not currently using that. The “duplicate install” I referenced in the guide is this new Developer Key.

Since you are a Feature Preview participant and don’t want duplication, I recommend following the opt-out steps. Doing so ensures that your users will not see a duplicated app, as outlined in the guide under the relevant section.

The existing deployment that your users are currently using will remain intact, and disabling the new key will not affect their access. If you leave the new key enabled, the new installation will appear alongside your existing Feature Preview deployment, meaning that the app will be duplicated.

I hope this clarifies everything!

jmerlenbach2

Thank you for the clarification @Dalma_Schnell .

Our long term goal would be for our users to be using whichever of the Inherited Keys that would be Instructure's "default" for long term support.

If a user had started using the US IAD developer key during the Feature Preview, but we at a later date turned that key off and migrated our installation to only the new Portfolio LTI Client key/installation, would any work that they had done in the original/Feature Preview installation be retained and accessible to them?

hfchen

Same question as @jmerlenbach2, if the "Portfolio LTI Client/*1986" key is going to be the default going forward. Does it point to the same environment where our users has created contents under the "Portfolio US IAD LTI Client/*1967" key?

If so is there any harm if instead of disabling the new key I just set a reminder for me to remove the EAP App from our environment and keep the new tool?

KNGoh

Thanks @Dalma_Schnell for sharing this ability to opt-out.

Charlotte_Lew

Hi @Dalma_Schnell ,

Because of the EAP we have the Portfolio EU FRA LTI Client 'active' on production in our test sub-account. It's not working anymore so is it OK to just remove it by disabling the developer key(s)? Which one do we have to disable: only the 'Portfolio EU FRA LTI Client' ending on 279 or also the 276 which was enabled the same time for the EAP ?

Thanks,

Charlotte

leward

@Dalma_Schnell, When the course navigation placement is enabled in the GA release, what will the enabled/hidden status of the tool be by default? We try to encourage instructors to keep tools hidden from the course nav unless they plan to use them, and the same principle would apply the Portfolio tool. We can modify the deployment config via the API, but that’s not a great option because the config data gets overwritten whenever Instructure makes changes to the key.

Microsoft solved this problem for the MS Education LTI by creating two keys, one with the course nav placement set to enabled and the other with it hidden. That way, institutions were able to choose whether they wanted the tool to be enabled in all courses or just those where the instructor plans to use it.

Dalma_Schnell

Hi @jmerlenbach2,

Yes Josh, the new Portfolio LTI Client key is the one we plan to use long-term. For now, the existing keys are still preserved.

If you want to move your users to the new key, you can absolutely do so. Any work completed under the previous key will be retained and accessible, if the Portfolio tool was configured with the correct Canvas region specific old key. For example, if your Canvas region is PDX but the LTI was set up with the IAD specific developer key, the data will not be preserved, as we cannot migrate data between regions.

Let me know if anything else is unclear!

Dalma_Schnell

Hi @hfchen,

Thanks for the question! Yes, we are planning to use the new Portfolio LTI Client key long term but for now the existing ones are still preserved. The new one uses automatic rerouting to the correct Canvas region, so you don’t need to worry about region configuration here.

If you used the correct Canvas region specific key with the previous configuration method, your data will be preserved when moving to the new key.

Since the EAP installations are quite old and in many cases no longer functioning properly, I highly recommend using the new key rather than relying on the old EAP app. You can absolutely set a reminder to remove the EAP installation from your environment.

Dalma_Schnell

Hi @Charlotte_Lew,

Yes, it’s absolutely okay to remove the old EAP installations, you can disable all Portfolio related dev keys they you see as enabled or you can simple delete the apps in settings too. That’s also why it’s no longer working as these were from the EAP period, and they should have been replaced with the new versions during Feature Preview.

Also, if the developer keys you mentioned are visible directly under your "Account" Developer Keys (and not under "Inherited"), then you should be able to delete them, not just disable them. If for some reason you’re unable to delete the key, we’re happy to help with that.

Let me know if something is unclear!

Dalma_Schnell

Hi @leward,

Thanks for the question!

As noted in the blog post, course navigation will not be enabled by default in the GA release. Only user navigation will be enabled automatically.

Institutions can change placements at any time and choose from global, account, course navigation, or user navigation depending on how they want Portfolio to appear.

If you’d prefer to enable the tool only within a specific subaccount, you can copy the tool ID and create a new configuration under that subaccount with the course navigation placement enabled only within that subaccount.

leward

@Dalma_Schnell ,

Hi Dalma,

I think you misunderstood my quuestion. I understand that the course navigation placement will be disabled by default. I am inquiring about the state of the tool after an admin enables that placement. There are two options:

It is hidden by default and the instructor has to edit the course settings to enable.
It is enabled by default, which means the Portfolio would appear in the Course Navigation in all courses.

In the EAP, when the course nav placement is enabled, the tool is active in all course. I am advocating for making it hidden by default OR creating two separate keys, one with the course nav state as enabled and the other with it hidden.

Even schools that want to make Portfolio available in courses do not necessarily want it in the course nav of every course.