Setting up a connection with Canvas via LTI 1.3 from Content Controller

 

First - you’ll need to look at the LTI data in the Content Controller.  You can get to this information by clicking on Accounts → Either Create or Click on an existing Account → Click on Advanced → Click on LTI.  

 

Per the screenshot below, you will see that there is a section for Platform Configuration and a section for Tool Details.  The Platform Configuration information will come from Canvas as we set things up on that side.  The Tool Details will be shared with Canvas when we set up the Developer Key.  The setup itself has some back and forth that you will see later in the process.

Next, we will need to create a Developer Key in Canvas.  This will use information from the Tool Details retrieved from the Content Controller.  In order to get to the page to create the developer key, you will need to click on Admin → Developer Keys  → Click “+ Developer Key” and choose LTI Key.

I’ve taken three screenshots to walk you through how to populate Canvas with data from Content Controller.  First up is setting up the Key Setting…note that I have connected the text boxes with the names of the data  that you will get from the Content Controller Tool Details.

If you scroll down a bit, there is a section called LTI Advantage Services.  It should look like this. 

Lastly, there are the Placement, Link Selection, and Assignment Selection Sections.  Note, you only need Link Selection and Assignment Selection under Placements.  Under each of their sections, you will want to use the Content Selection URL (from Content Controller)  for Target Link URI.  You will then want to make sure you have LTIDeepLinkingRequest enabled.  By default the selection window will be quite small so you may want to set the Selection Height and Width to ‘800’ and ‘600’ as well.

Once you hit save, you are then shown a “powered down” developer key.  You will need to click ‘ON’ to make it available for use.  

After you have done this, you will want to grab that ID under details. In my example, it is ‘171080000000000150’.  This will go under ‘Client ID’ under the LTI Platform Configuration in Content Controller.  

While we are there, we can go ahead and populate the following fields.

JSON Web Key Set URL - 

https:/[the platform domain]/api/lti/security/jwks

 

Issue Identifier - 

https://canvas.instructure.com

 

Note:  If you are using a “test” or “beta” Canvas implementation, the issue identifier could be different.  

 

https://canvas.beta.instructure.com (Beta environment launches)

https://canvas.test.instructure.com (Test environment launches)

 

OIDC Authorization Endpoint URL - 

https://[the platform domain]/api/lti/authorize_redirect

Access Token Endpoint URL - 

https://[the platform domain]/login/oauth2/token

 

This leaves us with a mostly full configuration page, the only thing we lack is Deployment ID and that will be created after this next step.  

 

Create An External App

 

Click Settings → Apps → Click View Apps Configuration → Click ‘+App’ → Click on Configuration Type and Choose ‘By Client ID’. 

 Enter the Client ID from earlier.  In this case, ‘171080000000000150’ and hit ‘submit’.  

It will ask if you want to Install the App.  Click Install.  

Once installed, your App will show up in a list of all of the External Apps being used by your Canvas instance.  At the end of the row for the App you just set up, there is a gear icon.  If you click it, one of the options will be Deployment ID.  

Click on Deployment ID and it will show the deployment ID you will use as the last piece of information needed for the Platform Configuration on the Content Controller side of things.  Once added, your Platform Configuration should look like this. 

 

 

Hit Save and the connection between the 2 parties should be set up.  

 

To Test, I would click on Courses to either create a new course or add an assignment to an existing one.  

Click directly on the course to get to its main page and click Assignments.

From the Assignments page, click “+Assignment” to create a new assignment.  Name your assignment and enter any of the other appropriate data.  

Once down to the Submission Type section, click “Online” to change the type to “External Tool”.

This will launch a window that allows you to choose the External Tool that you just created.  Any tool that has deep linking turned on will have a magnifying glass at the end of its name. 

Click the magnifying glass and you will see a list of all of the courses in Content Controller that is available to this account.  

To test your connection, choose a course and hit ‘Continue’.  Note that if you would like to choose more than one course at a time, you will need to contact Canvas to enable this functionality.  When you have made your choice, you will see a screen that looks like this.  

Scroll down and hit Save to save the assignment.  Once you hit save, it launches the course so that you can see the connection working.  Note, if you want to test the flow of grades to the Canvas gradebook, you will need to launch the content as a student.