Additional Notes

Additional notes to the datasets.

Understanding the tab_configuration Column in the Courses Table in Canvas Namespace

There have been several questions around the tab_configuration column in the CD2 courses table, and this note want to clarify how it works and what the values represent. This additional context should help improve understanding and make it easier to work with this data.

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Mapping of id Values to Tabs

The latest list of tab IDs can be found in the Canvas LMS source code. Here’s the 2025-02-14 version:

id	Tab Name
0	Home
1	Syllabus
2	Pages
3	Assignments
4	Quizzes
5	Grades
6	People
7	Groups
8	Discussions
10	Modules
11	Files
12	Conferences
13	Settings
14	Announcements
15	Outcomes
16	Collaborations
17	Collaborations (New)
18	Rubrics
19	Schedule
20	Course Paces
21	Search

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Example JSON in tab_configuration Column:

[
  { "id": 0 },
  { "id": "context_external_tool_8923" },
  { "id": 14, "hidden": true },
  { "id": 5, "hidden": true },
  { "id": 1, "hidden": false }
]

Example Interpretation:

• "id": 3 refers to the Assignments tab.

• "id": "context_external_tool_8923" refers to an LTI app (in this case, Studio). You can look up this id in the context_external_tools table to retrieve its friendly name from the name column.

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Logic Behind Tab Visibility

While the tab_configuration column provides raw data, it’s important to note that there is significant logic in the Canvas LMS that determines whether these tabs are actually visible to a specific user. This logic depends on various factors, such as user roles and permissions.

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Understanding hidden: true/false

• "hidden": true means the tab is currently not visible in the course interface.

• "hidden": false (or if hidden is not present) means the tab is visible.