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Assignment dates not shifting correctly from template to new course

Question asked by Heather Cherewaty on Sep 19, 2019
Latest reply on Sep 25, 2019 by Heather Cherewaty

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I'm using an automation platform to automate new content migrations in canvas. My issue has to do with shifting dates correctly from the template to the new course. I'm using the content migration end point to create a new content migration for my course with the following parameters:

migration type: course_copy_importer

settings[source_course_id]: Course template ID

date_shift_options[old_start_date]: Start date from Course template

date_shift_options[new_start_date]: Start date of the new course

date_shift_options[old_end_date]: End date from Course template

date_shift_options[new_end_date]: End at date of the new course

date_shift_options[shift_dates]: true

It seems that when I use the UI AND when I use the API to perform a content migration, neither shift/adjust the dates correctly. Some dates ARE perfectly placed within the new start and end dates, while others are not. Has anyone else had this issue? I want to be able to have my new assignment due dates correspond to the correct days within the new start and end dates. It's my understanding that this ought to be possible.

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chofer@morainepark.edu Sep 19, 2019 5:47 PM
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Hello there, Heather Cherewaty Welcome to the Canvas Community. Thanks for posting your question. I'm not exactly sure of an answer for you, but I wanted to let you know that I will share your question with the Canvas Developers group here in the Community in hopes that your question will get some additional exposure. If you are not yet following this group, please use the link that I have provided, and then you will see two buttons at the top right corner of the screen: "Follow" and "Actions". Click on both of them. When you click on "Actions", you'll need to select "Join group".

Also, I'm not sure if you've seen this, but there is a "Canvancement" (Canvas Enhancement) developed by one of our fellow Community members, James Jones called Adjust All Assignment Dates on One Page that you might be interested in looking through. James provides detailed instructions and short video tutorials on how to use a Google Spreadsheet to change due dates rather quickly. I hope this might be of help to you, too.

Good luck, Heather!!!
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- Heather Cherewaty @ chofer@morainepark.edu on Sep 20, 2019 12:49 PM
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  Hi Chris Hofer,
  
  Thanks for the response. If you've posted this question in the developers community, do you have a link? I can't seem to find where it's posted so I can keep an eye on it.
  
  Also, I've looked over the spreadsheet from James Jones and it is impressive. My concern is that it doesn't really solve the issue of fully automating this process as I would still need to upload the new dates through google sheets.
  
  I hope there's someone out there that has encountered such an issue and solved it. Thanks!
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  - Jay Savage @ Heather Cherewaty on Sep 20, 2019 2:06 PM
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    HI Heather,
    
    There's just one post. Chris shared it to the Developers community, which means the same post shows up on multiple boards, with all the threads collated. My response, below, is actually to his developers mention.
    
    If you look at the top left corner of this page, you should see a note that says "Appears in 1 other place."
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Stuart Ryan

Sep 19, 2019 8:13 PM

Hi Heather,

I will admit I have not used those particular calls myself, however, wanted to double check whether the behaviour you are experiencing is consistent?

For example if you were to run through the following scenario:

1. Migrate content item via UI adding +10 days to the start date and +20 days to the end date

2. Migrate content via API adding +10 days to the start date and +20 days to the end date

If the results are wrong/unexpected, do both of the scenarios result in the same incorrect end-date or different results entirely.

Also, if you run through the above scenario a second time, the results you receive (while incorrect) are they consistently wrong? I am trying to narrow down whether there is something with dates/timezones or whether there is a truly random inconsistency with what you are experiencing. Also by narrowing down if things are inconsistent, we can potentially get a better idea of where the problem lays.

Also, is it possible for you to provide an example call that you are using please (with the template ID redacted)? I would like to get an idea of date formats etc that you are using.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Stuart

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Heather Cherewaty @ Stuart Ryan on Sep 20, 2019 1:44 PM

Hi Stuart Ryan,

If I migrate a template to a new course where the start and end dates are the same as the template, then no problem. And that's true for both UI and API.

When I update through the UI and API when start and end dates that differ from the template start and end dates, that's where issues arise. The start and end dates for the new course are always for the same amount of days as the template. For example, the template start date is 1/1/2018 and the end date is 1/26/2018. The new course start date is 9/9/2019 and end date is 10/4/19. Both start on a monday, end on a friday, and are 4 weeks long. I expect that the new due dates would spread across these new start and end dates; so something that is due in the second week in the template (1/8/18) would now be due 9/16/19. Some of these dates correlate accurately, while others do not. For the sake of simplicity, I've included a list of dates per assignment for a course that was adjusted completely manually (so tedious...) and one that is the result of using the API. This may better help illustrate what the issue.

If you stick with it long enough, you'll see that many of the dates that are off, are off by 1 week (with some exceptions) while others are placed correctly. I notice a similar pattern when viewing the spread of these dates off the template due dates as well. And yes, they are consistently wrong.

Example call for my content migration: https://canvas.instructure.com/api/v1/courses/<:Id>/content_migrations

Parameters passed in:

migration type: course_copy_importer

settings[source_course_id]: Course template ID

date_shift_options[old_start_date]: 1/1/18

date_shift_options[new_start_date]: 9/9/19

date_shift_options[old_end_date]: 1/26/18

date_shift_options[new_end_date]: 10/4/19

date_shift_options[shift_dates]: true

Prior to the content migration, I am doing a PUT request to update the Timezone and new start and end dates, however, those update just fine. Then I do the content migration. Below are the differ

	CORRECT DATES	CONTENT MIGRATION DATES
Assignment 1	9/8/2019	9/8/2019
Assignment 2	9/8/2019	9/8/2019
Assignment 3	9/8/2019	9/8/2019
Assignment 4	9/8/2019	9/8/2019
Assignment 5	9/8/2019	9/8/2019
Assignment 6	9/11/2019	9/11/2019
Assignment 7	9/15/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 8	9/18/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 9	9/22/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 10	9/25/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 11	9/29/2019	9/22/2019
Assignment 12	9/15/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 13	9/22/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 14	9/20/2019	9/22/2019
Assignment 15	9/27/2019	9/29/2019
Assignment 16	9/15/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 17	9/8/2019	9/8/2019
Assignment 18	9/8/2019	9/8/2019
Assignment 19	9/29/2019	9/8/2019
Assignment 20	9/8/2019	9/8/2019
Assignment 21	9/29/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 22	9/29/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 23	9/15/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 24	9/15/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 25	9/22/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 26	9/15/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 27	9/15/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 28	9/22/2019	9/15/2019
Assignment 29	9/29/2019	9/22/2019
Assignment 30	9/29/2019	9/29/2019
Assignment 31	9/9/2019	9/9/2019
Assignment 32	9/10/2019	9/10/2019
Assignment 33	9/11/2019	9/11/2019
Assignment 34	9/12/2019	9/12/2019
Assignment 35	9/13/2019	9/13/2019
Assignment 36	9/16/2019	9/16/2019
Assignment 37	9/17/2019	9/17/2019
Assignment 38	9/18/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 39	9/19/2019	9/19/2019
Assignment 40	9/20/2019	9/20/2019
Assignment 41	9/23/2019	9/16/2019
Assignment 42	9/24/2019	9/17/2019
Assignment 43	9/25/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 44	9/26/2019	9/19/2019
Assignment 45	9/26/2019	9/19/2019
Assignment 46	9/29/2019	9/20/2019
Assignment 47	9/10/2019	9/10/2019
Assignment 48	9/11/2019	9/11/2019
Assignment 49	9/12/2019	9/12/2019
Assignment 50	9/13/2019	9/13/2019
Assignment 51	9/16/2019	9/16/2019
Assignment 52	9/17/2019	9/17/2019
Assignment 53	9/18/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 54	9/19/2019	9/19/2019
Assignment 55	9/20/2019	9/20/2019
Assignment 56	9/23/2019	9/16/2019
Assignment 57	9/24/2019	9/17/2019
Assignment 58	9/25/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 59	9/26/2019	9/19/2019
Assignment 60	9/27/2019	9/20/2019
Assignment 61	9/9/2019	9/9/2019
Assignment 62	9/9/2019	9/9/2019
Assignment 63	9/9/2019	9/9/2019
Assignment 64	9/9/2019	9/9/2019
Assignment 65	9/10/2019	9/10/2019
Assignment 66	9/11/2019	9/11/2019
Assignment 67	9/12/2019	9/12/2019
Assignment 68	9/13/2019	9/13/2019
Assignment 69	9/16/2019	9/16/2019
Assignment 70	9/16/2019	9/16/2019
Assignment 71	9/17/2019	9/17/2019
Assignment 72	9/18/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 73	9/19/2019	9/19/2019
Assignment 74	9/20/2019	9/20/2019
Assignment 75	9/23/2019	9/16/2019
Assignment 76	9/24/2019	9/17/2019
Assignment 77	9/25/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 78	9/26/2019	9/19/2019
Assignment 79	9/27/2019	9/20/2019
Assignment 80	9/10/2019	9/10/2019
Assignment 81	9/11/2019	9/11/2019
Assignment 82	9/12/2019	9/12/2019
Assignment 83	9/13/2019	9/13/2019
Assignment 84	9/16/2019	9/16/2019
Assignment 85	9/17/2019	9/17/2019
Assignment 86	9/18/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 87	9/19/2019	9/19/2019
Assignment 88	9/20/2019	9/20/2019
Assignment 89	9/23/2019	9/16/2019
Assignment 90	9/24/2019	9/17/2019
Assignment 91	9/25/2019	9/18/2019
Assignment 92	9/26/2019	9/19/2019
Assignment 93	9/27/2019	9/20/2019
Assignment 94	10/1/2019	9/24/2019
Assignment 95	10/2/2019	9/25/2019
Assignment 96	10/3/2019	9/26/2019
Assignment 97	10/4/2019	9/27/2019
Assignment 98	10/6/2019	9/29/2019
Assignment 99	10/6/2019	9/29/2019
Assignment 100	10/4/2019	9/27/2019
Assignment 101	10/4/2019	9/27/2019
Assignment 102	9/29/2019	9/22/2019
Assignment 103	9/30/2019	9/23/2019

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Jay Savage @ Heather Cherewaty on Sep 20, 2019 3:23 PM
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The first thing that sticks out is the date format. date_shift_options[] should be iso format: YYY-MM-DD, e.g., 'date_shift_option[old_start_date]=2019-01-18'

I'd expect it to just fail outright, but it's possible that the forward slashes are causing unanticipated consequences.

That said, this is *a lot* of assignments, and it's interesting that everything is fine until about assignment 20, and then it starts to run off the rails. And eventually it seems to start repeating number sequences.

That suggests to me that some sort of volume limit on the number of assignments it can accommodate is being exceeded. I'd reach out to your TSM to investigate and decide whether a bug report is in order.

Out of curiosity, are these all native Canvas assignments, or are there LTI integration in play?

Best,

--j
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- Heather Cherewaty @ Jay Savage on Sep 20, 2019 3:46 PM
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  The dates are actually formatted like you mentioned above YYY-MM-DD; I was just typing quickly and chose the wrong format for my response.
  
  Thank you for your feedback, Jay. I was wondering if there is a capacity limit on a content migration. I haven't read anything in the docs that suggest that their are limitations, but it does seem like there could be.
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James Jones Sep 20, 2019 6:23 AM
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Heather,

Can you expand on what you mean when you say perfectly placed and correct dates?

I might take that to mean that you are saying that they are placed outside of the dates you specified. I might also take that to mean that an assignment due on Monday in the original course became due on Tuesday in the copy.

In the second case, unless the courses are exactly the same length in days, that will happen and there's no way around that. I normally copy the course without any dates and then use the spreadsheet that Chris mentioned to transfer the dates from my course calendar.
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- Heather Cherewaty @ James Jones on Sep 20, 2019 1:46 PM
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  I've included a list of dates from a content migration vs what it ought to look like so you can see what I mean. Some of the dates migrate as expected, while some are off by about a week. All courses start on a monday, end on a friday, and are the same duration.
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Jay Savage Sep 20, 2019 11:24 AM
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Hi Heather,

Does the issue seem to affect certain types of events more than others?
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- Heather Cherewaty @ Jay Savage on Sep 20, 2019 1:50 PM
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  I have different courses that have similar issues.
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  - James Jones @ Heather Cherewaty on Sep 22, 2019 6:27 PM
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    I don't know Jay's intent, but by different types of events, he might have been referring to discussions, quizzes, assignments, or specifics like non-graded discussions, surveys, as opposed to different courses. If it turned out that every assignment with an issue was an external tool, for instance, then that might lead us down a more directed path of troubleshooting.
    
    In particular, I would be curious if differentiated assignments are involved with any of those assignments. I've seen Canvas not return the correct (due date for "everyone else") date when differentiated assignments were involved; instead it returned the last date chronologically among all of the differentiated dates.
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    - Heather Cherewaty @ James Jones on Sep 22, 2019 8:10 PM
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      James Jones, Hmm. That's interesting. I do have some courses whose content does migrate correctly, while others don't. It's two courses in particular that are the issue and they have a smattering of different assignments, discussion topics and quizzes, but that's also true for the courses that migrate accurately.
      
      I don't think differentiated assignments are the issue as I can't see that assignments have them for "everyone else" in the template they're migrating from. The assignments that have the "For" option say "Everyone".
      
      Interesting update: I've tried to mitigate the issue with the problem courses by finding the number of days between the assignment due date and the end date (from the template) and updating every assignment in the new course with that offset from the end of the course. It gets some due dates correct while others are either off by 1 or 2 days.
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    - Jay Savage @ James Jones on Sep 23, 2019 11:54 AM
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      Hi James Jones,
      
      Exactly. Does it happen with everything, or just with Assignments, or more often with Announcements or Calendar Events, or LTI External Tools, etc. If it's native Canvas content types that's one thing, but It's mostly happening with, say, a Turnitin plugin, that's something else entirely.
      
      --j
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Heather Cherewaty Sep 25, 2019 11:03 AM
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It happens with assignments, quizzes, discussion topics that are mixed together in assignment groups. No LTI tools.
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Assignment dates not shifting correctly from template to new course

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