Canvas Integration

Some LMS systems, including Canvas, require institution-specific values that are used to initiate the transfer from SONIS to the LMS. To enter this information, navigate to Table Maintenance under the Systems menu and select File Transfer.

On the following page, click on the Canvas table to continue. If no Canvas table has been created in your system, click Add New Record and name the code using the File Transfer Code field.

The ID or Username, Port Number, and Remote Directory fields are not used in the Canvas transfer, but cannot be empty. It's suggested that clients insert a 0 in each field of these fields as a placeholder. This will allow the page to be saved successfully without adding any dummy data that may be confusing to the next person who accesses the page.

The Password of Token field must contain the word Bearer followed by a space and the institution's Canvas authentication token. Click here for a guide from Canvas on how to create and access tokens.

The value for the URL field will vary slightly depending on whether the institution is using the XML export option or the CSV export option.

In either setup, the [institution] should be replaced by the institution portion of the client's Instructure-provided domain name and the [number] portion of the URL should be replaced by the client's Canvas account number. The URL must be in all lowercase or an error will occur.

Once all the required information is in place, click Submit to save the changes and continue the setup process.

Next, Canvas must be set up as the institution's learning management system. This setup is found on the Learning Management Systems Setup page under the Systems menu. Click the Active button in the Canvas row and paste in the referral URL provided by Canvas. This URL must be in all lowercase or an error will occur.

After activating Canvas, scroll down to the For Canvas Only section of the page. These controls allow schools to manage how their Canvas integration will function. First, choose whether to use the Current School Year/Semester or the Registration School Year/Semester if different. Alternately, select a school year/semester that is neither of those. All school semester that have been created in the SONIS system are listed in this menu.

Next, choose whether students and faculty should log in with their SONIS ID, their Email Address, or their LDAP ID, if applicable.

If the Select Online Courses option is set to Yes, only course sections with the On-Line box checked will be included in the export to Canvas. If No is selected, all courses with a valid course type will be exported.

Administrators can choose whether to include Continuing Education courses in Canvas or not by selecting Yes or No.

The update file can treat withdrawn students two different ways, depending on institutional preference. Choose the Inactive option to make withdrawn students on a Canvas roster inactive but leave them on the roster. Or choose Removed to remove these students entirely so the roster only includes active students.

If the Transfer on Export box is checked, each newly created export file will be transferred automatically to Canvas using the URL saved in the LMS Transfer table settings.

Previously, clients could choose to export a CSV or an XML file, but the XML option is no longer supported by Canvas.

The Force SONIS ID on XML option was used to ensure that the XML export file would use the SONIS ID as the login even when users logged in to Jenzabar SONIS using their email address. Since the XML option is no longer supported, this checkbox is no longer needed.

The sections file that's exported from SONIS to Canvas typically uses the section ID to identify both sections and courses. You can replace the second usage of the section ID with the course ID by checking the Include Course ID in sections file box.

The blueprint code is optional. Canvas allows the creation of Blueprint Courses, which can be used as a template for other courses. Once a blueprint course has been created, the content can be pushed to other associated courses. To locate existing blueprint courses in Canvas, navigate to Courses under the Admin menu and check the Show only blueprint courses box. Copy the SIS ID of the blueprint course into the Canvas Blueprint Code field. This value will be exported to Canvas as the Blueprint Course ID. Courses imported from SONIS will follow this blueprint.

The Canvas Course Name Format field controls how course names are displayed in Canvas when exported from SONIS. This setting is used to generate the Long Name field in the Courses export file and the Name field in the Sections files. By default, the Course, Section, Campus, and Description will be displayed separated by colons. To rearrange the order, click on one of the field names and drag them to a new location.

To remove one of the fields altogether and no longer use it in the course name in Canvas, click the -. To add back a field that has previously been removed, click the +.

Finally, scroll down to the section labeled For Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, Canvas, and Edvance360 Only. Choose whether each course in Canvas will Use Lead Faculty or Use Lead Faculty and Additional Instructors. Additional instructors are added on the Section: Edit page.

Click Submit at the bottom of the page to save the changes and activate Canvas.

Prior to exporting, the Semester History table must be up-to-date. A school year/semester record should exist for any semester that is being exported to Canvas. To add a semester, click Add New Record and fill out the required fields. For Canvas export, the LMS Export field must be turned on with a 1. Also note that the Session field cannot be completely blank even if it's not being used. Institutions that do not use sessions should enter a blank space or some other placeholder text before submitting.

Additionally, the On-Line box on the Course Section page can be used to differentiate between courses that will use Canvas and those that will not. If the Select Online Courses option on the Learning Management System Setup page is set to Yes, then only courses with the On-Line box checked will be included in the export file.

By default, the Canvas system can only be accessed between the start date and end date of each course. Some schools may wish to provide their Canvas users with access outside of these dates for setup or other purposes. When Canvas is set as the active LMS on the Learning Management System Setup page, each Section edit page includes a Canvas Start Date field and a Canvas End Date field. Administrators can enter dates in this field to replace the course start and end dates that are exported to Canvas and extend the access window. If one field is used and the other is left empty, the entered replacement date will be used and the default date will be used for the other value.

To export data to Canvas manually, navigate to the Learning Management Export utility in the Systems hub. The type and structure of the file will be automatically in place based on the previous settings. Select a Campus and a School Year/Semester. The School Year/Semester set on the Learning Management System Setup page will be selected by default. Click Submit to create the file.

The second way to create the Canvas XML export file is to set up a timed task using Timed Task Scheduler. If Notifier: Canvas LMS Export does not appear in the list of activated tasks, it should be added. When clicked, the Add button will bring up a list of inactive tasks. Notifier: Canvas LMS Export should be selected from that list and submitted.

Notifier: Canvas LMS Export must be selected from the Task Name list. The rest of the page is the standard timed task setup page.