Canvas
Index pages, assignments, and announcements from Canvas LMS
Availability depends on your school's enabled tools, provider setup, and account permissions. These settings are managed in the web workspace. A class policy may restrict a feature described here. Some options require a separately licensed feature. The presence of a guide does not unlock that feature.
The Canvas connector indexes published pages, published assignments, and active announcements from Canvas LMS courses that the configured access token can access.
There is no course picker. Nexus indexes every available course returned by Canvas for that token.
How it works#
| Content | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Pages | Published pages only. Nexus indexes the title and HTML body as text, plus the Canvas page link. |
| Assignments | Published assignments only. Nexus indexes the name, HTML description as text, due date when present, and the Canvas assignment link. |
| Announcements | Active announcements only. Nexus indexes the title, HTML message as text, and the Canvas announcement link. |
| Courses | Only courses in the Canvas available state. Unpublished, completed, and deleted courses are not listed. |
| Permissions | Requires a licensed permission-sync configuration. Nexus can sync Canvas course, section, and group access from enrollments and overrides. |
On each refresh, the connector lists the token's available courses, then processes pages, assignments,
and announcements in that order.
Pages and assignments are included when their Canvas updated_at falls in the indexing window.
Announcements are included when their posted_at falls in the window. Pages without updated_at,
assignments without updated_at, and announcements without posted_at are skipped.
Before you begin#
You need:
The HTTPS URL of your Canvas site, such as
https://school.instructure.comA Canvas user who can open every course you want Nexus to index
Permission in Canvas to create an API access token for that user
A Nexus administrator account
The access token has the same Canvas access as the user who created it. Nexus indexes only the available courses, published pages, published assignments, and active announcements that user can see.
Configure Canvas#
Open Canvas account settings#
In Canvas, open Account → Settings. You can also go directly to /profile on your Canvas site.
Create an access token#
In Approved Integrations, select New Access Token (sometimes labeled Add New Access Token).
Enter a purpose such as Nexus Connector. Optionally set an expiration date.
Leave the expiration empty only if your institution allows non-expiring tokens.
Generate the token and copy it immediately. Canvas does not show the full token again.
Treat the token like a password. It authenticates as the Canvas user who created it. Some institutions restrict who can create tokens; if the button is disabled, ask a Canvas admin to grant the Users - manage access tokens permission or to create the token for you.
For Canvas's own steps, see How do I manage API access tokens in my user account? and Canvas's OAuth / access token documentation.
Configure Nexus#
Open the Canvas connector#
In Nexus, go to Admin Panel → Add Connector and select Canvas.
Enter the Canvas access token#
Create a credential and paste the token into Canvas Access Token.
Enter the Canvas base URL#
Give the connector a name. In Canvas Base URL, enter the site URL, such as https://school.instructure.com.
Use https. Do not use http. You can omit a trailing slash and /api/v1;
Nexus normalizes those if they are included.
Choose access type#
Select the connector access type:
Public makes all indexed Canvas content visible to every Nexus user.
Private limits the entire connector to selected Nexus users and groups.
Auto Sync Permissions mirrors supported Canvas access controls and is available on a managed deployment and Enterprise Edition.
Connect and verify#
Select Connect. Then open Admin Panel → Existing Connectors, select the connector, and confirm its initial indexing attempt completes.
Auto Sync Permissions#
With Auto Sync Permissions, Nexus maps Canvas visibility to Nexus users by email. Canvas user emails must match the users' email addresses in Nexus. Users Canvas returns without an email are not granted access.
The token must be able to read course roster emails. When you save a permission-syncing Canvas connector, Nexus probes the first available course's roster and rejects the connector if no emails are visible.
| Canvas item | Who can see it in Nexus |
|---|---|
| Pages, course-wide announcements, and assignments that are not limited to overrides | Everyone in the course roster (active and invited enrollments) |
| Announcements targeted to specific sections | Those sections, plus teachers, TAs, and designers |
| Assignments set to only visible to overrides | The override's students, sections, and Canvas groups, plus teachers, TAs, and designers |
Courses Canvas marks as public, or public to authenticated users, also grant access to an all-users group when the token can list users on the Canvas account. If the token cannot list account users, those course-wide items are limited to the course roster. Section-specific announcements and override-only assignments stay restricted even on a public course.
Review the access type before connecting. Choosing Public does not preserve Canvas permissions and can expose indexed content to every Nexus user.
Troubleshooting#
The credentials are rejected or the token is expired#
An error such as Canvas API token is invalid or expired (HTTP 401) means the token is missing, revoked,
or past its expiration. Create a new access token in Canvas and update the Nexus credential.
Confirm Canvas Base URL is the HTTPS site URL for the same Canvas instance that issued the token.
The token does not have sufficient permissions#
Canvas API token does not have sufficient permissions (HTTP 403) means the Canvas user cannot call the API being
used. Indexing needs access to the user's available courses and to published pages, published assignments,
and active announcements in those courses.
Permission sync additionally needs roster email visibility on at least one available course.
The Canvas base URL is rejected#
The URL must include a host and must use https. Enter the Canvas site,
for example https://school.instructure.com, not an http URL.
A course, page, assignment, or announcement is missing#
Confirm the token's Canvas user can open the item. Nexus only lists courses in the available state,
only published pages, only published assignments, and only active announcements.
Pages and assignments without updated_at, and announcements without posted_at, are skipped on refresh.
A course that returns HTTP 404 is skipped for that indexing attempt.
Permission sync fails at connector creation#
Confirm you are using a licensed permission-sync configuration. Reconnect with a token that can read course users with email addresses. Student tokens usually fail this check.
Users cannot see content they can open in Canvas#
Confirm the user's Canvas email matches their Nexus email, and that Canvas returned an email for that user on the course roster. Invited and active enrollments are included; other enrollment states are not. Override-only assignments and section-specific announcements are limited to those targets plus teachers, TAs, and designers.
Public Canvas courses are limited to the course roster#
The token cannot list account users. Public-course pages and other course-wide items then use the course roster only. Use a Canvas admin token if you need the all-users mapping for public courses.
Before using this source with students#
Start with approved course material. Check which documents the connector can retrieve and how it maps source permissions. Test with a student account and a teacher account before widening access. A successful sync does not prove that the intended class boundary is correct.
Use source troubleshooting when a document is missing or visible to the wrong audience.