Introduction

Canvas, like many LMSs, supports loading external resources inline using theIMS LTI standard. These tools can be deployed on a course or account level. Once configured, tools can be surfaced as links in course modules or used to deliver custom assignment experiences. Canvas supports some additional integration points using LTI (see the "Placements" dropdown in the left hand navigation here) to offer a more integrated experience and to allow for more customization of the Canvas product. This is accomplished by configuring additional settings on external tools used inside of Canvas and by leveraging LTI Advantage services.

Because tools can be deployed at any level in the system hierarchy, they can be as general or specific as needed. The Chemistry Department can add chemistry-specific tools without those tools cluttering everyone else's interfaces. Or, a single teacher who is trying out some new web service can do so without needing the tool to be set up at the account level.

Types of Tool Integrations

Canvas currently supports the following types of tool placements.

External tool <a href="file.assignment_tools.md"style="text-decoration: revert; color: revert;">assignments integrations:

This type of integration is part of theLTI 1.1 Outcomes Service or LTI 1.3 Assignment and Grade Services and allows external services to synchronize grades, and other assignment details.

Example use cases might include:

• Administering a timed, auto-graded coding project

• Evaluating a student's ability to correctly draw notes at different musical intervals

• Giving students credit for participating in an interactive lesson on the Civil War

Adding a link/tab to the <a href="file.navigation_tools.md#course_navigation"style="text-decoration: revert; color: revert;">course navigation:

Example use cases might include:

• Building a specialized attendance/seating chart tool

• Adding an "ebooks" link with course required reading

• Connecting to study room scheduling tool

• Linking to campus communication hub

• Displaying a course-level dashboard (ex: analytics, student engagement, risk assessment, etc.)

Adding a link/tab to the <a href="file.navigation_tools.md#account_navigation"style="text-decoration: revert; color: revert;">account navigation:

Example use cases might include:

• Including outside reports in the Canvas UI

• Building helper libraries for campus-specific customizations

• Leveraging single sign-on for access to other systems, like SIS

Adding a link/tab to the <a href="file.navigation_tools.md#user_navigation"style="text-decoration: revert; color: revert;">user profile navigation:

Example use cases might include:

• Leveraging single sign-on to student portal from within Canvas

• Linking to an external user profile

Selecting content to add to a variety of locations as <a href="file.content_item.md"style="text-decoration: revert; color: revert;">LTI deep links:

Example use cases might include:

• adding a button to embed content to the Rich Content Editor:

  • Embedding resources from campus video/image repository

  • Inserting custom-designed chemistry diagrams into quiz question text

  • Building integrations with new or subject-area-specialized web authoring services

• selecting links for modules

  • Building and then linking to a remixed version of an online Physics textbook

  • Selecting from a list of pre-built, interactive quizzes on blood vessels

  • Choosing a specific chapter from an e-textbook to add to a module

• creating custom assignments for Canvas

  • Creating a Canvas assignment that launches the student to a custom assessment that can be automatically graded by the tool and synced with the Canvas Gradebook

  • Launching the student to an assessment with interactive videos. Once complete, the tool returns an LTI launch url that allows the teacher to see the submission without leaving Canvas.

• allowing a student to submit attachments to assignments

  • A student launches a custom video recording tool and submits the recording to Canvas

  • A student chooses an item from a portfolio tool and submits the item to Canvas

Subscribing to notifications with <a href="file.pns.md"style="text-decoration: revert; color: revert;">Platform Notification Service:

Platform Notification Service (PNS) enables server-to-server communication by allowing the Platform to send messages, known as Notices, to Tools outside the scope of an active user session. Tools can register a "webhook" or handler endpoint using PNS to receive specific types of Notices, facilitating seamless integration and automation.

How to Configure/Import Integrated Tools

LTI 1.1

Tool's placements can be configured usingLTI configuration XML as specified in the IMS Common Cartridge specification, or using the external tools API. Configuration XML contains all non-account-specific settings (except the consumer key and shared secret, which must always be entered manually). The user can configure the tool by a tool-provided URL (recommended), or paste in the XML that the tool provides.

For information on how to programmatically configure external tools, so users don't have to copy and paste URLs or XML, please see the Canvasexternal tools API.

LTI 1.3

Similar to LTI 1.1, tools built on the LTI 1.3 specification can be configured by either supplying clients with a JSON block or URL that hosts the JSON. This JSON is used to determine the behavior of the tool within Canvas by configuring an LTI Developer Key. Once the developer key is created and turned on, users with sufficient permissions caninstall the tool using the developer key's client ID.

LTI Advantage Services permissions

When setting up Developer Keys, the section “LTI Advantage Services” allows you to enable or disable permissions for access via that developer key. Below is the list of permissions available:

Permission name	What it does	IMS / Canvas scope
Can create and view assignment data in the gradebook associated with the tool	Allows use of all functionality of the LTI LineItems API	https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/lineitem
Can view assignment data in the gradebook associated with the tool	Allows use of the “show” and “list” endpoints of the LTI LineItems API	https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/lineitem.readonly
Can view submission data for assignments associated with the tool.	Allows use of the LTI Advantage Result API	https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/result.readonly
Can create and update submission results for assignments associated with the tool	Allows use of the LTI Advantage Score API	https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/score
Can view Progress records associated with the context the tool is installed in	Allows use of the Canvas LTI Progress API, which is used during Score creation with an associated file	https://canvas.instructure.com/lti-ags/progress/scope/show
Can retrieve user data associated with the context the tool is installed in	Allows use of the LTI Advantage Names and Roles Provisioning Service	https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-nrps/scope/contextmembership.readonly
Can register event notice handlers using the Platform Notification Service	Allows use of the 1EdTech Platform Notification Service.	https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/scope/noticehandlers
Can fetch assets from the platform using the Asset Service (experimental)	Allows use of the Asset Service (part of the 1EdTech Asset Processor specification). Under development and not available yet for general use.	https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/scope/asset.readonly
Can create reports using the Asset Report Service (experimental)	Allows use of the Asset Report Service (part of the 1EdTech Asset Processor specification). Under development and not available yet for general use.	https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/scope/report
Can update or remove the tool's EULA accepted flag (experimental)	Allows use of the EULA Service (part of the 1EdTech Asset Processor specification). Under development and not available yet for general use.	https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/scope/eula
Can update public jwk for LTI services	Allows use of the LTI Public JWK API to update the tool's developer key's public JWK	https://canvas.instructure.com/lti/public_jwk/scope/update
Can lookup Account information	Allows use of the Canvas LTI Account API (read only)	https://canvas.instructure.com/lti/account_lookup/scope/show
Can view the content of a page the tool is launched from	Allows use of the lti.getPageContent postMessage	https://canvas.instructure.com/lti/page_content/show

NOTE: scopes with https://canvas.instructure.com are Canvas specific while others are LTI specifications

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