Improving Pageview Load Times – Temporary Solution in Place outside us-east-1 region

[MateLipcsei]

As part of our response to the incident in December, about slow-loading pages when accessing activity data in Canvas on the ‘User Profile’ page and ‘History’ tab and slower data access for our User API’s PageView objects. Our engineering team has implemented a temporary solution to improve performance. This interim update shifts the data source, allowing for faster access while we work on a permanent fix.

ℹ️ Important: Sites in the IAD region are NOT affected by this issue or the temporary solution. This update applies only to sites outside the us-east-1 region.

As a result, there are two temporary changes to be aware of:

1. Activity data will be available from 2024-07-01 00:00 UTC
2. The event_time timestamp may show slight variations for the same request_id, as it now reflects a different step in our server response process. (The request_id continues to serve as the unique identifier for an activity event)

We understand the importance of accuracy and accessibility, and we’re committed to resolving this fully. Thank you for your patience and continued feedback - your experience remains our top priority!

[jb2483929]

Could you clarify what IAD region is (US - East?)? How do we know what we are in - is it from our instances's status page?

[MateLipcsei]

@jb2483929 ,

yes, us-east-1 is NOT affected. Modified the post to clarify the AWS region.

Thanks.

[dbrace]

I have two questions/requests, @MateLipcsei:

1. I believe I know the answer (but others might not), using a method supported by Instructure, how does someone find out what region they are and if they are/were impacted? Should we go to https://statushistory.instructure.com and review the specifics for our instance or is this provided somewhere else?
2. When resolved, will the new "Page Views" UI allow for admins to place their mouse over a row's "User Agent" to reveal the more specific information? I ask because: (1) it is no longer possible, (2) relying on the downloadable CSV file (which is only 300 rows, even when looking at a specific day) is not helpful (mostly because of the increasing number of rows that exist from LTIs and Canvas mobile apps), and (3) the API is complicated (for one off needs, unless involved in a detailed research) and only supports the most recent 100 entries (when the API url is something like https://CANVAS_DOMAIN/api/v1/users/USER_NUMBER/page_views?per_page=100, anything more requires using bookmark links found in the API's headers).

Thank you.

-Doug

[MateLipcsei]

@jb2483929,

as @dbrace pointed out, you can find your AWS region at https://statushistory.instructure.com/ by entering your instance's name pretty quickly.

[MateLipcsei]

@dbrace,

1.) yes, this method is a pretty convenient way to find it out. Thanks for your comment!

2.) sounds like a valid use-case. do you mind DMing me your contact details so that I can reach out to you for a quick discussion?

Thanks,

Mate

[NickChevalierUT]

@MateLipcsei, appreciate the update! That said, where can measurable impact be seen from these temporary changes? I'm still getting 500 internal server errors anytime I run the "List user page views" API, and still getting an endlessly spinning wheel when trying to view a specific user's page views through the UI.