File Uploads

There are two ways to upload a file to Canvas: either by sending the file data in a POST request, or by sending Canvas a publicly accessible HTTP or HTTPS URL to the file.

Uploading via POST

There are three steps to uploading a file directly via POST:

1. Notify Canvas that you are uploading a file with a POST to the file creation endpoint. This POST will include the file name and file size, along with information about what context the file is being created in.

2. Upload the file using the information returned in the first POST request.

3. On successful upload, the API will respond with a redirect. This redirect needs to be followed to complete the upload, or the file may not appear.

Step 1: Telling Canvas about the file upload and getting a token

The first step is to POST to the relevant API endpoint, depending on where you want to create the file. For example, to add a file to a course, you'd POST to /api/v1/courses/:course_id/files. Or to upload a file as part of a student homework submission, as the student you'd POST to/api/v1/courses/:course_id/assignments/:assignment_id/submissions/self/files or /api/v1/courses/:course_id/assignments/:assignment_id/submissions/comments/self/files for submission comments.

Note* The endpoint you choose to post files to will change the permissions set on the file. i.e. only files posted to the submissions comments endpoint can be attached to a submissions comment.

Arguments:

• name

  The filename of the file. Any UTF-8 name is allowed. Path components such as `/` and `\` will be treated as part of the filename, not a path to a sub-folder.

• size

  The size of the file, in bytes. This field is recommended, as it will let you find out if there's a quota issue before uploading the raw file.

• content_type

  The content type of the file. If not given, it will be guessed based on the file extension.

• parent_folder_id

  The id of the folder to store the file in. An error will be returned if this does not correspond to an existing folder. If this and parent_folder_path are sent an error will be returned. If neither is given, a default folder will be used.

• parent_folder_path

  The path of the folder to store the file in. The path separator is the forward slash `/`, never a back slash. The folder will be created if it does not already exist. This parameter only applies to file uploads in a context that has folders, such as a user, a course, or a group. If this and parent_folder_id are sent an error will be returned. If neither is given, a default folder will be used.

• folder

  [deprecated] Use parent_folder_path instead.

• on_duplicate

  How to handle duplicate filenames. If `overwrite`, then this file upload will overwrite any other file in the folder with the same name. If `rename`, then this file will be renamed if another file in the folder exists with the given name. If no parameter is given, the default is `overwrite`. This doesn't apply to file uploads in a context that doesn't have folders.

• success_include[]

  An array of additional information to include in the upload success response. See Files API for more information.

Example Request:

curl 'https://<canvas>/api/v1/users/self/files' \
     -F 'name=profile_pic.jpg' \
     -F 'size=302185' \
     -F 'content_type=image/jpeg' \
     -F 'parent_folder_path=my_files/section1' \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Example Response:

{
  "upload_url": "https://some-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/",
  "upload_params": {
    "key": "/users/1234/files/profile_pic.jpg",
    <unspecified parameters; key above will not necesarily be present either>
  }
}

At this point, the file object has been created in Canvas in a "pending" state, with no content. It will not appear in any listings in the UI until the next two steps are completed. The returned Signature is valid for 30 minutes.

Step 2: Upload the file data to the URL given in the previous response

Using the data in the JSON response from Step 1, the application can now upload the actual file data, by POSTing a specially formulated request to the URL given in the upload_url field of the response.

Depending on how Canvas is configured, this upload URL might be another URL in the same domain, or a Amazon S3 bucket, or some other URL. In order to work with all Canvas installations, applications should be very careful to follow this documentation and not make any undocumented assumptions about the upload workflow.

This second request must be POSTed as a multipart/form-data request to accomodate the file data. The parameters POSTed with this request come directly from the upload_params part of the JSON response in Step 1.

The only addition is the file parameter which must be posted as the last parameter following all the others.

Example Request:

curl '<upload_url>' \
     -F 'key=/users/1234/files/profile_pic.jpg' \
     <any other parameters specified in the upload_params response>
     -F 'file=@my_local_file.jpg'

The access token is not sent with this request.

Example Response:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://<canvas>/api/v1/files/1234/create_success?uuid=ABCDE

IMPORTANT: The request is signed, and will be denied if any parameters from the upload_params response are added, removed or modified. The parameters in upload_params may vary over time, and between Canvas installs. It's important for the application to copy over all of the parameters, and not rely on the names or values of the params for any functionality.

This example assumes there is a file called my_local_file.jpg in the current directory.

Step 3: Confirm the upload's success

If Step 2 is successful, the response will be either a 3XX redirect or 201 Created with a Location header set as normal.

In the case of a 3XX redirect, the application needs to perform a GET to this location in order to complete the upload, otherwise the new file may not be marked as available. (Note: While a POST would be truer to REST semantics, a GET is required for forwards compatibility with the 201 Created response described below.) This request is back against Canvas again, and needs to be authenticated using the normal API access token authentication.

In the case of a 201 Created, the upload has been complete and the Canvas JSON representation of the file can be retrieved with a GET from the provided Location.

Example Request:

curl -X POST '<Location>' \
     -H 'Content-Length: 0' \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Example Response:

{
  "id": 1234,
  "url": "...url to download the file...",
  "content-type": "image/jpeg",
  "display_name": "profile_pic.jpg",
  "size": 302185
}

Uploading via URL

Instead of uploading a file directly, you can also provide Canvas a public HTTP or HTTPS URL from which to retrieve the file.

Step 1a: Posting the file URL to Canvas

The first step is the same as with the "Uploading via POST" flow above, with the addition of a few new parameters:

• url

  The full URL to the file to be uploaded. This URL must be publicly accessible.

• submit_assignment

  A boolean to indicate whether or not to automatically submit the assignment the file is associated with if it is associated with an assignment. Defaults to true.

Example Request:

curl 'https://<canvas>/api/v1/users/self/files' \
     -F 'url=http://example.com/my_pic.jpg' \
     -F 'name=profile_pic.jpg' \
     -F 'size=302185' \
     -F 'content_type=image/jpeg' \
     -F 'parent_folder_path=my_files/section1' \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

Example Response:

{
  "upload_url": "https://file-service.url/opaque",
  "upload_params": {
    /* unspecified parameters; contents should be treated as opaque */
  },
  "progress": {
    /* amongst other tags, see the Progress API... */
    "url": "https://canvas.example.edu/api/v1/progress/1"
    "workflow_state": "running"
  }
}

Step 1b: Understanding the response

Canvas' file management is in a moment of transition. For the duration of this transition, there are two possible behaviors. The newer behavior includes additional fields in the response to the first request and expects an additional action from the application.

In the deprecated behavior, Canvas will initiate a "cloning" of the provided URL by downloading it via Canvas servers. The initial POST was sufficient to start this and no other action is necessary from the application.

In the newer behavior, Canvas delegates the cloning of the URL to the same service that accepts direct uploads. The cloning is kicked off by a POST by the application to the provided upload_url with the providedupload_params, in parallel with a direct upload. The service then informs Canvas directly when it is complete.

In either case, the cloning of the URL will be performed in the background, and the file will not necessarily be immediately available when the API calls complete. Instead, a progress object is provided which can be periodically polled to check the status of the upload.

You can distinguish the new behavior (and expected follow up) from the old behavior precisely by the presence or absence of theupload_url key.

Step 2: POST to the URL given in the previous response

If the response to the initial POST includes an upload_url, you must POST to it with the upload_params just as if you were performing a direct upload. The only exception is that the file parameter is omitted. The Content-Type is still expected to be multipart/form-data.

Example Request:

curl '<upload_url>' \
     -F 'target_url=http://example.com/my_pic.jpg' \
     <any other parameters specified in the upload_params response>

Example Response:

HTTP/1.1 201 Created

This step is not necessary with the old behavior.

Step 3: Check to see when the upload is complete

If the application needs to know the outcome of the upload, it can use the {api:ProgressController#Show Progress endpoint} to query the status. On success, the created attachment's id will be returned in the results of the Progress object as id.

---

This documentation is generated directly from the Canvas LMS source code, available on Github.