Description

rcanvas is a bouquet of functions to query your institution’s instance of the Canvas LMS.

Installation

rcanvas is not on CRAN, but can be installed via:

devtools::install_github("daranzolin/rcanvas")
library(rcanvas)

Setup

Some prep work is required before use. You must first safely stash your Canvas API token into your operating system’s keyring. This only needs to be done once.

To obtain the Canvas API token follow this trail in Canvas:

Canvas -> Account -> Settings -> Approved Integrations -> Add new token

You then need to run the following once in the R console:

set_canvas_token("YOUR_TOKEN_HERE")

Do not save your token or the code above in an .R file because it could compromise the security of your token.

Each time you run load the rcanvas library you need to set your domain like this:

set_canvas_domain("https://canvas.yourdomain.edu")

Functions

The following functions are implemented:

add_enrollments: Enroll users into a course (or multiple courses)
add_group_users: Add users to designated groups
add_groups: Create groups
comment_submission: comment on submitted content
create_course_folder: create a folder within a course
create_canvas_course: create a new course
create_course_content_migration: migrate content from one course to another
create_course_assignment: create an assignment within a course
get_announcements: Get announcements for a course
get_course_analytics_data: Get course analytics data for a course
get_course_gradebook: Get the gradebook for a course
get_course_items: Get various course items, e.g. files, modules, pages, quizzes, etc.
get_course_list: List the courses you have permission to view
get_course_user_groups: Get users in a course and their group
get_discussion_id: Get the id for a specified discussion
get_discussions_context: Get the context for a specified discussion
get_group_categories: Get the categories for a specified group
get_group_category: Get a single group category
get_group_users: Get users which belong to a group
get_groups_context: Get the list of active groups in the given context that are visible to the user
get_groups_self: Get the groups which the current user (you) belongs to
get_submission_single: Get a single submission
get_submissions: Get submissions for a given course and assignment
get_user_items: Get various user items, e.g. missing submissions, page_views, details, etc.
grade_submission: Grade a submission
search_courses: Search all public courses
update_discussion_id: Update a discussion by ID
upload_course_file: Upload a file to a course

Usage

### Get all courses:
get_course_list()
get_course_list(include = c("teachers", "total_students"))

### Get course analytics data:
get_course_analytics_data(course_id = 20, type = "activity")

### Get course items:
get_course_items(course_id = 20, item = "users", include = "email")

### Get user items
get_user_items(user_id = 365, item = "details")
get_user_items(365, "missing_submissions")

### Get a course gradebook
get_course_gradebook(course_id = 20)

### Get submissions
get_submissions(course_id = 27, type = "assignments", type_id = 2248)
get_submissions(27, "quizzes", 168)

### Comment and grade submnissions
comment_submission(course_id = 27, assignment_id = 2248, 
                   user_id = 4227, comm = "Test comment!")
grade_submission(course_id = 27, assignment_id = 2248, 
                   user_id = 4227, grade = 95)

### Get announcements and discussions
get_announcements(course_id = 27) 
get_announcements(course_id = 27, start_date = "2017-02-01") 
get_discussions_context(4371405, object_type = "courses")

Future Work