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garth · ‎02-05-2019

@Renee_Carney Yeeessss, I saw that, very nice : ) One less app for me to maintain...I hope!

garth · ‎01-10-2019

@barbaracoen ‌ you will need to cache the user token in your database. The first time the user launches your application they accept the OAuth prompt and authorize your application to run with their identity, and your application is assigned an access token (which the user can revoke at any time in their settings) You need to cache that token data. The next time the user logs in, grab their user id from the LTI data and lookup their token data in your database. If you don't find it then you have to redirect to the OAuth authorization page. If you do find it, use it and bypass the OAuth authorization page. Bottom line, you will need to cache data in a database that is accessible by your LTI application. Let me know if this helps.

garth · ‎11-19-2018

@James another great post, thank you. I have recently been asked to buid a hierarchy of "Department Chairs", and came across this article while looking to see what others have done. The Admin report almost works, but it does not show the hierarchy between sub-accounts. For example, the primary "Admin" role in the root account is applied to all sub-accounts below it. It will be up to you to keep track of that inheritance and handle it in your lookup table. This is simple for the root account, but as you get into nested sub-accounts it isn't as clear regarding which admin's have access to additional nested sub-accounts. In other words when you make the API call for a sub-account it does not return admins for the account above the sub-account, which doesn't give you a full picture of who has admin access to that sub-account. Who else has access based on inheritance? It is possible to use recursion to traverse all accounts and sub-accounts to get all admins for each department (sub-account). Reults do include custom account roles that you have created. Create a lookup table to keep a record of each sub-account and associated admins, and fill in that lookup table as you traverse the sub-account tree. Doing this I was able to record an admin for a sub-account, then relate that admin to all associated sub-accounts, giving me a more complete picture of who had admin access to which sub-accounts. In most cases I think the report is sufficient, but it is possible to get more detail with the API. Granted, this was a special case, but maybe it will help someone.

garth · ‎08-09-2018

@de_millington ‌ you can use Postman to string together multiple API calls, but that is not the road I would go. Postman is not a software development tool, personally I don't find it well suited for running full algorithms / business logic. I would continue to pursue the use of PowerShell if that's what you know, doing a quick search just here in the community I found this: How to POST in powershell You can likely find more relevant resources with your own search. JavaScript is also a good option, and also returns good search results. @James did a nice post on a use case for JavaScript here: Sorting Rubrics Made Easy

garth · ‎08-08-2018

@de_millington ‌ I have never tried to test the API calls using the reference you have given. The tool I use is Postman, take a look at this post: API Testing: Postman‌ Let me know if that helps.

garth · ‎08-07-2018

@de_millington all API calls are documented, Copy course content can be found here I have copied a specific section of that documentation below, and highlighted "source_course" as bold text. It's the first parameter defined under the "Parameter" column below. You can also search this page for source_course to find the definition. If you are going to work with the API, I strongly recommend getting comfortable with the documentation available from Canvas. Start here: The Basics and scroll down all of the options in the left panel to explore the API and get comfortable with how it is organized. I hope this helps. Copy course contentContentImportsController#copy_course_content POST /api/v1/courses/:course_id/course_copy Scope: url:POST|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/course_copy DEPRECATED: Please use the Content Migrations API Copies content from one course into another. The default is to copy all course content. You can control specific types to copy by using either the 'except' option or the 'only' option. The response is the same as the course copy status endpoint Request Parameters: Parameter Type Description source_course string ID or SIS-ID of the course to copy the content from except[] string A list of the course content types to exclude, all areas not listed will be copied. Allowed values: course_settings , assignments , external_tools , files , topics , calendar_events , quizzes , wiki_pages , modules , outcomes only[] string A list of the course content types to copy, all areas not listed will not be copied. Allowed values: course_settings , assignments , external_tools , files , topics , calendar_events , quizzes , wiki_pages , modules , outcomes

garth · ‎08-06-2018

What URL are you using to access your instance of Canvas? In other words, what URL are you putting in the browser to get to your instance of Canvas? Use that same URL to make your API calls. :course_id represents the course you are copying into, and the parameter source_course represents the course you are copying from.. You will need to make API calls for each individual course. Word of caution, test in Beta or Test before you make calls against your production instance.

garth · ‎08-02-2018

@de_millington ‌ the API will give you the tools you need to copy course content. You certainly don't need an LTI to copy course content. Take a look at the Copy course content API call. Have you thought through how you will keep track of this? There are likely multiple faculty teaching a subject, each with their own style. You might consider building a database to keep track of things: - a table to catalog course templates for each course/instructor combination - a table to keep track of the courses as they come through your SIS import -- during SIS import you would need to keep track of the first time you are seeing a cousre, look up the instructor associated with that instance of the course and find their template in your database. - a table to schedule the course copy and keep track of succes / failure / retry So you may end up having two workflows: 1. Your SIS import to gather and log your courses + associated instructors + schedule the course content copy 2. A workflow to watch for new course copy records, look up the associated template based on course type and instructor, and initiate the content copy as well as monitor and repot on the status. You could do this with .NET, JavaScript, PowerShell...any tool you choose that is capable of making the API calls and accessing your database. I hope that helps.

garth · ‎07-26-2018

@de_millington ‌ it sounds as though you need to develop an LTI toolkit to handle your custom needs. There is quilte a bit of information out there on LTI. I made these three posts on how to get your application to appear in Canvas: .NET LTI Project - Part 1 - Connect to Canvas‌ .NET LTI Project - Part 2 - Launch Request‌ .NET LTI Project - Part 3 - OAuth‌ Then followed up with these posts covering how to handle OAuth to keep track of the user once they are in your environment: .NET - OAuth2 Workflow: Part 1 - Authrorize Redirect‌ .NET - OAuth2 Workflow: Part 2 - Access Token & State‌ .NET - OAuth2 Workflow: Part 3 - Refresh Token‌ Each set of posts has source code associated with it. I hope you will update here with your status and let us know how your project is going.

garth · ‎07-23-2018

@de_millington ‌ without details of your requirements, it's really hard to say what path you should take. To answer your question: "Would I be correct in assuming that PowerShell is the platform/language used to develop the process, and that the Rest APIs are what is required to get that code into Canvas?" PowerShell is one tool you could use to make API calls to Canvas to send and receive data. JavaScript is also a tool you could use to make API calls to Canvas to send and receive data. API allows you to exchange data with Canvas, but will not allow you to push "code" into Canvas. It will be up to you to leverage the Canvas API to make the calls necessary to satisfy whatever requirement you are working on. Your code will run either in your browser, or on your servers. Even if you build an LTI application, at the end of the day that LTI application will be hosted and run on your servers, LTI applications do not run as part of Canvas or on Canvas servers, Canvas simply exposes your LTI application as an iFrame on the page but it is hosted and running on your servers. I hope that helps.

garth · ‎07-11-2018

@Renee_Carney ‌ thank you : )

garth · ‎07-05-2018

I have not heard anything more on this.

garth · ‎04-11-2018

i haven't posted any specific solutions, but i did post some tutorial based material. some links that might be useful: https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/canvas-developers/blog/2016/07/26/lti-1x-useful-links .NET LTI Project - Part 1 - Connect to Canvas‌ .NET - OAuth2 Workflow: Part 1 - Authrorize Redirect‌ API Testing: Postman‌

garth · ‎04-11-2018

kelsey‌ it is possible to send custom grades back to your SIS, but it requires an LTI. I've written a custom LTI application that allows instructors to override the Canvas grade and passback a specific grade value. Other than your scenario, another good example is when a student needs to receive a grade of "Incomplete", or "I". With a custom LTI you can allow the instructor to passback any grade you like, as long as the registrar and IE folks are ok with it If you have development resources available (which may not be the case) you might ask them to look into this. Once you have LTI under your belt Canvas becomes a very flexible platform where you can do essentially anything you need to. At least that has been my experience. Good luck with your migration, always a fun task.

garth · ‎04-06-2018

Eric, here are a few quick responses. 1. I totally understand this issue. How do you handle it today in CAMS? You have control over how you present student names in Canvas, you use the import file to tell Canvas how to display the names. If you have a technique you are using in CAMS, your queries to generate the user import file should implement that same strategy. 2. The only "pending" status for a student that I'm aware of is if the student is manually created in Canvas. If the import is creating the user there are two possible status values: "active" or "deleted" (see definition of users.csv file) If you are referring to the student course enrollments, there are four status values: "active", "deleted", "completed", "inactive" (see definition of enrollments.csv) Have you confirmed the origin of student creation for records showing "pending" status? 3. Looking at the definition for enrollments.csv you see there are four possible status values (mentioned in #2). You are defining a status of "Suspension for Non-Payment" which is not a known status to Canvas. In this case your business logic will need to translate your proprietary status to "deleted" or "completed". You will need to test this to make sure you get the desired result. 4. Did you look at the generated enrollments.csv file to make sure the status change in CAMS was properly translated to Canvas? It sounds as though your business logic that is generating the csv file may need to be re-tested and validated. Also, students who are "dropped" from a course in Canvas are placed in the DropBag table and may be removed from SRAcademic. Make sure the query you are running to generate a list of "dropped" students is looking at the DropBag records. It is also worth mentioning that if records are deleted from CAMS, there is no record to tell Canvas that a status change has occurred. I have seen a student/course be "dropped" in Canvas by deleting the record. When a record is deleted in CAMS, the associated student/course becomes orphaned in Canvas, the integration queries will no longer find that record in CAMS and no change of status will be sent to Canvas. I hope that makes sense. Bottom line: change the status of a student or course, do not delete the student or course. I hope this helps.

garth · ‎01-03-2018

@mwatson4 ‌ do you have an SIS import working already? If so, you should have a query in place that organizes your courses by department. As long as your courses are entered into CAMS, the courses can be imported into Canvas, for any semester. I have implemented our SIS import to allow us to specify which semesters are eligible for import. By doing this we can wait for the course listing to stabilize prior to import, preventing constant creation/deletion of courses as the course listing changes. I hope this makes sense. If you're query is not organizing your courses by department let me know and I can point you in the right direction.

garth · ‎10-03-2017

Wow! So glad the idea was accepted, thanks

garth · ‎09-21-2017

sorry for the late response, i replied to your direct contact, i hope the info helps.

garth · ‎08-28-2017

@clforwork ‌ awesome! Glad you got it working. Thanks for sharing.

garth · ‎08-26-2017

@clforwork ‌ can you post your syntax?

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