API & Mobile Device Usage

[cgaudreau]

I'm wondering if anyone in this group has used the Canvas API to drill down into the usage of mobile devices and apps. In starting research into mobile device usage on campus (something that should have been started before I got here three years ago!), I want to find the easiest way to locate this data. Looking at pulling in data regarding the Canvas Student apps, as well as access from mobile browsers, on iOS and Android devices.

The Canvas API FastTrack video was incredibly helpful in getting started (especially when recommended experts on campus don't return your emails), but sorting through all the content on the live API page is pretty much a slog.

Any help would be appreciated!

[KristinL]

cgaudreau~ Thanks for posting this question! I think there's a lot to learn about mobile and APIs, and collaborating here in the Community is a great idea. I also shared this question with https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers?sr=search&searchId=cdd21cfe-94c5-40ba-b4ee-e8c617b...‌ in hopes that the posting can attract some more traffic...and replies.

[rseilham · Accepted solution]

Hi cgaudreau‌, 

We pull data on mobile at UCF, but it's originated from Canvas Data and not the APIs, so I'm not really sure to help you here. I'm lucky enough to have a team of smart people that can do this for me. I can tell you that the mobile apps can be identified in activity logs with the following User Agents. Hope this helps a little. 

Canvas Student - iOS (Red App)

• Canvas
• • ex: Canvas/3.14.0 (iPhone; iOS 9.3.2; Scale/2.00))
• iCanvas
• • ex: iCanvas/3.13.2 (iPhone; iOS 9.3.2; Scale/2.00))
• Canvas/com.instructure.icanvas 
• • ex: Canvas/com.instructure.icanvas (1035; OS Version 9.3.2 (Build 13F69))
• CanvasKit
• • ex: CanvasKit/1.0

Canvas Mobile - Android (Red App)

• candroid
• • ex: candroid/4.5.0 (122) 

Canvas Teacher - iOS

• Teacher
• • Ex: Teacher/0.3 (iPhone; iOS 11.0; Scale/3.00)

Canvas Teacher - Android

• androidTeacher
• • Ex: androidTeacher/1.0.1 (7)

SpeedGrader

• SpeedGrader
• • ex: SpeedGrader/226 (iPad; iOS 8.1.2; Scale/2.00)

Canvas Polls

• polling
• • ex: polling/1.0 (iPhone; iOS 8.3; Scale/2.00)

MagicMarker (iOS Only)

• MagicMarker
• • ex: MagicMarker/1.1 (iPhone; iOS 8.1.2; Scale/2.00) 

[cgaudreau]

Excellent! That might be exactly what is needed...I'll forward along to my team to see what they can find through Canvas Data.

[rseilham]

Great! So glad to help. 

[cgaudreau]

 @rseilham ‌, thanks again for sending this along. I'm finally digging into the Canvas data and this resource was/is incredibly helpful, especially without needing to search for it.

Also: any idea what Teacher/CFNetwork/Darwin/17.2.0 might refer to?

[rseilham]

I'm not sure about that one. I searched through a few users and couldn't find that user agent. What's the URL, controller, and action? 

The user agents aren't 100 percent solid in the mobile apps. Sometimes you will see slight different, more web-based agents, when the app is pulling css, images, or other file types. This is also true when creating new sessions, logging out, or using external tools. The good news is this is less common now, but created some really noisy data over the last few years. 

I never see the following user agents anymore:

• iCanvas
• • ex: iCanvas/3.13.2 (iPhone; iOS 9.3.2; Scale/2.00))
• Canvas/com.instructure.icanvas 
• • ex: Canvas/com.instructure.icanvas (1035; OS Version 9.3.2 (Build 13F69))

I only see CanvasKit when accessing videos because it only shows up the action show_kaltura_config. 

So Canvas is basically the only user agent I see anymore for iOS. 

[cgaudreau]

This might be because I am going through the Data Portal, and not the agent .json. All this data is super intriguing - just need to get a better grip on it.

I'll let you know if this comes up in more recent searches!

[cgaudreau]

 @rseilham ‌: Ok, I've hit a stumbling block. We have a ton of data from the Data Portal, but these files are humungous. Like, overwhelming. But, I've been able to use some new-to-me Excel practices such as Split and Pivot tables to start making sense of it.

Could you share with me how you parse out the data you receive from your team? Any help would be appreciated!

[joseph_allen]

Chris, you really need some pro tools like Tableau, Microsoft BI, or something of that nature to manipulate Canvas data.  The Request table which holds all the possible mobile data is huge as you said and will easily max out Excel.   

[cgaudreau]

Thanks,  @joseph_allen ‌. I have been exploring Tableau Public with some of the data, so thank you for clarifying how to focus on and get the most out of it as opposed to Excel.

[rseilham]

I agree with  @joseph_allen ‌. I'm lucky enough to have an LMS admins and database expert in our department that takes care of these requests, but I believe they are using Tableau.