We are looking at ways to download the files that students submit to an Assignment using the canvas API.
When a student uploads a file to Turnitin, is that file stored on Canvas in a place I can get it using API? Or, is there a Turnitin API I can use to get the file? Has anyone got some experience downloading files from Turnitin via Canvas?
Thanks, Glen
OOh that is interesting to know, I always assumed that Speedgrader loaded the files remotely (and hence thought that Canvas never saw the actual submission). I will have to have a tinker as it would be great to be able to access the files in this way.
I'm not going to be able to help.
The download assignment submissions is made to a non-API call and although there is a function to zip submissions in the API submissions.rb file, it appears to be an internal call used by other functions. In particular, the submissions_controller.rb file, which is under app and not api, calls it.
Since there is a delay in creating the file, you could not have it return the information with a single API call. It would have to be a report-style download -- you make the request and then check the progress and finally you can download it once it's ready. But I don't see anything in the API documentation or what parts of the code that I've looked at that would indicate that's how it's handled.
I guess that's me saying I don't know that it can be done en-masse directly with Canvas.
We do not use Turnitin so I cannot speak to how files are handled or what options they have on their end. The closest I got to Turnitin was noticing that it had it's own div in SpeedGrader.
I'm actually okay just knowing that Canvas has the files and I won't need to involve TII. That's a huge help. Time to explore and prototype some API calls.
Thanks, Glen
Hi there, Glen Parker...
I thought I would check in with you because I noticed there hasn't been any new activity in this topic for a few months. While I don't necessarily have an answer for you myself, have you been able to come up with a solution on your own? If so, would you be willing to share what you've learned back here in this thread? Or, if you are still looking for some assistance with this, please let us know that, too. I am going to share your question with the Canvas Developers group here in the Canvas Community in hopes that your question will get some additional exposure. If you're not yet following that group, please use the link that I have provided, and then click on the "Follow" button at the top right corner of the page. You may also need to click on the "Actions" >> "Join group" menu option. Finally, I am going to mark your question as "Assumed Answered"...not because we've necessarily found an answer, but because there hasn't been any new activity in this thread for quite a while. This won't prevent you or others from posting additional questions and/or comments below, however. I hope that's alright with you, Glen. Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Glen Parker, Turnitin forwards submissions to Canvas, and files appear in Speedgrader. What I do not know about is the Canvas API piece of mass downloading submissions. Perhaps James Jones knows or knows someone who does.