Advice on how to share a resource from the Commons?

[willmoin]

We are looking to share some pre-prepared material with instructors, so that they can import into their Canvas courses to provide student support around peer evaluation. I have the materials now in Canvas Commons but I'm looking for the best way to refer instructors to those materials in Commons. There is a 'Copy Resource Link' button but this seems to generate a URL that only reliable works for external users (our own registered users get confronted with a https://canvas.instructure.com/login/canvas login window). What do other people do to tell their own staff about a resource? The best that we have come up with is to provide walkthrough steps about how to access commons and what to search for, but does not seem a very efficient approach! Any ideas?

Thanks, Will (Liverpool, UK)

[akhilton]

I'm also here looking for a reliable way to share resources from the Commons with our faculty. We've uploaded materials to the Commons, but are also experiencing the same issues with the link generated from the "Copy Resource Link" taking users to the generic login page. I'd love to use the Commons, but right now it isn't functional without being able to share a link. Like you, I'd like to avoid sending users to the Commons and having them search for our resources. I know that would work, but it is clunky and seems unnecessary when the linking is available and should be working. I'd also like to see what others have done to provide resources to staff and faculty.

[willmoin]

Thanks @akhilton. I had raised this years ago with Canvas support, with no real resolution on it apart from 'that button does not work in that way'. I've just opened a new case to see if they have the resources to add to this (case 09939841). We've done a bit more testing this am and it seems that if a user first clicks on the Commons button in the Canvas navigation bar this authenticates/logs them into Commons and then the resource link works. They would need to click that button once in each work session (if our testing is correct). Still far from ideal but understand the issue more. It would be better if the URLs prompted the same authentication: looks on users computer for active Canvas session, uses these details.

[akhilton]

@willmoinI was coming back to this thread, to tell you we had discovered the same thing. It is still clunky, but we are including the step of clicking on the Commons link from the global menu and then returning to the page to click on the links to download the materials from the Commons. In our testing, it seemed to work. I'm glad we both arrived at the same temporary solution - but I do hope you hear something from Canvas Support. I agree it is far from ideal! I'd love to know what you end up hearing from Canvas Support.

[sharon_kitching]

I can't seem to get your workaround to work correctly. Talking to canvas support and they advise that 'everyone' has the same outcome - you share the link for example: https://commons.sydney.canvaslms.com/resources/ca67e607696b43c5b9f6f21e32a2205c?shared

and then you are redirected to https://canvas.instructure.com/login/canvas which our logins do not work for (we use a redirect to our authentication system). 

So was this working before regionalisation and stopping working then, or has it never worked? If it never worked, why release a feature that doesn't work. And no ETA on when it can be fixed? 

From Canvas Customer support - 
If you look it this way, yes, it's not working for everyone, but it's everyone is getting the same result...This is known issue about commons and as I mentioned it's already under construction but no news about it yet.

[willmoin]

Hi Sharon, you're right - just testing this again today and I too cannot get the workaround to work. To recap at the beginning of 2023 it worked for us to get the user to login to Canvas THEN click on the Commons navigation button to have their computer authenticate to the Commons External Tool, then the link from 'Copy Resource Link' button will work.

However it looks like things have got a lot more sketchy.

https://commons.eu-central.canvaslms.com/resources/7de68639523d47ae8ff3d7e8728a79f3?shared - doesn't work - only shared within our institution. Brings up central Canvas.instructure.com login screen resolutely displays (like you, this has nothing to do with our insitutional server/accounts so a dead end)

https://commons.eu-central.canvaslms.com/resources/5c211e7cb8754ce98068676d14531034?shared - does work, shared publicly, but not logged in (so can't use but can see)

Not sure if any of this is to do with the localised hosting of Commons as you mention or the different sharing rights above, but the workaround used to work. It also means the advice from @ngarimella1 no longer holds true. It's a shame because this is a prime vehicle for sharing resources across faculty whilst maintaining instructure autonomy.

The response you got from support shows I think that they don't have a handle of this - they seem to be saying 'look at it this way: it doesn't work, but at least it doesn't work for everybody'. Doesn't say much for excellence in their products and services!🤣

[ngarimella1]

@willmoin and @akhilton Stumbled on your conversation here about sharing Commons resources with your instructors. 
As you have discovered, we recommend users to first authenticate into Canvas and then open any of the shared links to Commons. 

[willmoin]

Hi  @ngarimella1 thanks for this, if advising others it's worth stressing to them that they not only have to log into/authenticate into their Canvas instance, BUT they ALSO have to click on the Commons link in their global navigation bar - logging into Canvas first by itself does not work. It's not a really a solution but a workaround - the solution would be for the 'Copy Resource Link' url to automatically detect and log into to Commons. However against the 'Commons Regionalisation' there may be some change in this area.

[akhilton]

Thank you @ngarimella1 for the response. That authentication step seems like it is not really intuitive to our users since in their minds they are already authenticated into Canvas because they are already logged into our Canvas environment before they have to click on the Commons link (in our own instance). From that standpoint, it doesn't make a lot of sense to them to read directions where they have to first click out to the Commons and then come right back to where they were. This is our struggle in providing directions on downloading materials through the Commons because it just doesn't make logical sense.

I agree with @willmoin that this is a workaround and not a solution.