Can a Canvas instance be made to be embeddable in iframe?

[mgandr]

As part of our integration of Canvas into our large campus administration system, we want to be able to embed Canvas, or at least certain parts of Canvas, inside of our campus system admin website, within something like an iFrame.  Currently, it throws up an error that the X-Frame-Options is set to SameOrigin.  

We used to do this integration with Moodle, which had an admin setting in moodle itself, but now that we are potentially moving to Canvas, we want to do the same.  Is it possible to do this through a setting or config change, or would it have to be an edit in the source code?

[stuart_ryan · Accepted solution]

Hi  @mgandr  and Welcome to the Canvas Community!

Given that the X-Frame-Origins is set by the destination iFrame site (In this case Canvas and the Canvas Servers), rather than the serving site (where you would like to embed), I don't foresee that this would be possible.

However, I do have a couple of other ideas in mind that I thought I would throw into the ring for consideration. 

Option 1 is to LTI-ify the campus administration system - one thing we are looking into for our new administration tool which we are rewriting from the ground up is using an LTI integration to present, serve and single sign-on into our Campus Administration Tool from within Canvas itself. Essentially this would be flipping the model on its head, but it is an available option and depending on the use case, could make good sense.

Option 2 that comes to mind would be to assess what functions you would like to present in your campus administration system from Canvas and see if you could achieve those same features with native functionality in the campus administration system using the Canvas APIs to effect the changes you need. Depending on your use cases (which I would love to hear more about), this would let you set up and modify courses, change course settings and perform a wealth of tasks.

I do realise that both of these entail more development work, however they came to mind from my own experiences as a couple of available options.

Hope this helps!

Stuart

Note: I have assumed you are using Canvas hosted by Instructure (Software as a Service), if this is not the case please let me know so I can re-clarify.

[mgandr]

Thank you for the suggestions, I'll discuss them with the rest of the team.

Just a little about our use case, we have a management tool that would allow both administrators and students to log into a single web application from where they can manage everything related to their school account, including finances, access control, purchases (for instance textbooks or school uniforms). This includes the course and marks related functions, which would be provided by an LMS system.

What we are trying to do is basically have a tab/page in this application that embeds the LMS system, which we are hoping can be made to integrate with a variety of LMS systems, but are running with Canvas for the proof of concept. So essentially a self-hosted version of Canvas works for our current situation, but in the future, it would be good if a Canvas-hosted version can simply be plugged into the system with only a bit of customization on our side.

Perhaps, as you mentioned, it would be better to use the LMS system as the main interface and then bring the other functionality into it via LTI, the only issue is this creates a lot more custom development work for each different scenario. We will be considering it, though.

[stuart_ryan]

No worries  @mgandr ‌,

That makes sense and I can see how you are trying to have it more like a full portal. From your use case, I definitely would be leaning towards LTIifying your Admin tool and presenting it in the LMS. However, can also appreciate that there will be some things that may not fit this use case.

There is always the option of Canvas Professional Services (sales can give you the run down), though I have to admit I am unsure if it is something they would be willing to modify (as it would be an infrastructure level change). As I always say, it never hurts to reach out and ask the question, they may have some alternative customisations they have worked on previously that may be relevant too.

Would love to know what you decide after you have a chance to investigate further.

Have a great weekend

Stuart