A Django LTI app for viewing and updating Canvas LMS courses.

Setup

1. copy example.env to .env. The example settings are workable for a dev/test scenario.
2. create a postgres user and database:

   $ createuser -U postgres -P dce_course_admin
   $ createdb -U postgres -E UTF-8 -T template0 --lc-collate=en_US.UTF-8 --lc-ctype=en_US.UTF-8 --owner dce_course_admin dce_course_admin
   

3. check that the DATABASE_URL value in your .env matches the user/db you created
4. run python manage.py migrate
5. run python manage.py runserver [host:ip]
6. Use the django /admin UI to create an entry in the canvas_dev_key table containing your canvas developer key values (see below)
7. check that the app's tool config output is functional by visiting http://host:ip/course_admin/tool_config
8. register the app in your canvas instance
   1. Go to the canvas Admin -> Settings -> Apps tab and click on + App button
   2. Choose Configuration Type: URL
   3. Name can be whatever you want, e.g. "DCE Course Admin"
   4. Consumer Key will be the LTI_OAUTH_COURSE_ADMIN_CONSUMER_KEY from your .env
   5. Shared Secret will be the LTI_OAUTH_COURSE_ADMIN_CONSUMER_SECRET from your .env
   6. Config URL will be http(s)://[host:ip]/course_admin/tool_config

Canvas developer key

This app makes use of the harvard-dce/django-canvas-api-token extension to handle Canvas's oauth workflow for generating user access tokens. You'll need to get whoever admin's your institution's Canvas instance to generate this developer key for you. In a local dev/testing situation you can possibly make one yourself.

If you happen to be using the canvas-docker docker image there is a pre-generated developer key already included. Using the /admin UI create an entry in the canvas_dev_key table with the following values:

• consumer_key = "dce_course_admin" (if using the example.env values)
• client_id = "1"
• client_secret = "test_developer_key"

Development setup

If you already have easy access to a development instance of Canvas congrats! If you don't I suggest using the canvas-docker docker image.

To start a instance of canvas-docker that can communicate with the dce_course_admin app you will need to start the container using the --network host option of the docker run command, like so:

docker run -t -i -p 3000:3000 --network host lbjay/canvas-docker:latest

Wait a minute or so for the container's services to spin up and then visit http://localhost:3000

Tip: because the canvas-docker container has it's own instance of postgres bound to port 5432, and because we're using docker's --network host option, you will get a port collision if your local postgres server used by the django app is also on port 5432. My workaround for this is to start a container instance of postgres on port 5433:

docker run -d -p 5433:5432 postgres:9.3