Streamline, Secure, Simplify: Canvas Catalog's Latest Updates Are Here

[matekiss]

I’m excited to announce several updates that enhance the flexibility, security, and usability of your Canvas Catalog experience. These improvements are based on your feedback, and I’m thrilled to share that two features are now live in production while another enters Beta today. Let’s dive in:

Multiselect Option in User Defined Fields (UDFs)

The Multiselect input type is officially live in production! This powerful new feature allows admins to select multiple values from a predefined list when configuring UDFs. It’s designed to enhance flexibility and streamline data input across a variety of scenarios.

Multiselect type UDF

The Multiselect option integrates smoothly with existing field types like text, checkbox, date, and single select, ensuring a seamless experience.

 

Option to Remove "Self-paced" Text

I’m also excited to announce that the option to remove the "Self-paced" label is now live for all users. This feature, previously available in Beta, gives admins greater control over how courses are displayed to learners.

New setting on the Catalog info page

Why it’s important:
This feature helps your institution tailor course displays to align with branding and learner expectations. Whether you want to keep things simple or emphasize other course details, you’re now in control.

 

Permission-Based Integration Tab

Starting today, the Permission-Based Integration Tab update is available in Beta! This feature enhances security by introducing permission settings for the Integration tab, limiting its visibility to authorized users. The update is scheduled to go live in production next Monday.

What’s new:

• The Integration tab, previously visible to all Root and Subcatalog Admins, now has permission-based visibility.
• Root Admins can configure which Subcatalog Admins have access, ensuring sensitive integrations remain secure.

Initiate integration permission

New workflow highlights:

• Permission configuration: Root Admins can navigate to a Subcatalog Admin menu and toggle a new setting: Initiate Integration.
• Controlled visibility: Only authorized users will see the Integration tab.

This update keeps your integrations secure while reducing unnecessary clutter for users who don’t need access.

 

What’s Next?

Here’s your checklist for these exciting updates:

• Start using the Multiselect UDFs and Self-paced label removal features today—they’re live and ready to enhance your workflows.
• Test the Permission-Based Integration Tab in Beta starting now, and look forward to its production release next Monday.

Your feedback makes all the difference. Let us know what you think about these updates and how we can keep improving your Catalog experience.

The detailed release notes about these developments can be found here and here.

Best,
Máté

[hechla]

Thank you @matekiss. Has there been any discussion about the possibility of having the select and multiselect UDF field display as checkboxes or radio buttons instead of dropdown lists? 

[rpsloan]

@matekiss For the permission-based integration tab, the release note says it should have been in Beta since 12/03 but support says this is a mistake on the documentation and it's not going to be released in Beta. Is that accurate? I wanted to know if this permission will be default ON or OFF when deployed.

(EDIT: I just checked 12/6 at 12:32PM Central and it's in Beta. It's weird that I heard differently from support. Looks like in Beta it is default OFF for all admins.)

[matekiss]

Hello @hechla ,

Thanks for bringing this up—it’s a great idea! To help us understand your needs better, we’d love to get a bit more context:

1. What kind of scenarios or use cases do you have in mind where checkboxes or radio buttons would work better than dropdowns? Knowing this will help us see how it could make things easier for you.

2. How many options do these fields usually have? If the list is long, checkboxes or radio buttons might get tricky, so understanding the typical size will help us gauge if this fits well.

3. Are there any specific challenges with dropdowns that you’re running into, like ease of use or visibility of options? If we can get a sense of the pain points, we can think through how to address them.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts so we can explore this idea further!

[matekiss]

Hi @rpsloan ,

Apologies for the confusion earlier – there was a mix-up with the documentation team about the timing for the Permission-based tab development. It was supposed to go live yesterday, but we ran into a deployment issue. We're actively investigating the cause, and as soon as we identify the problem, we'll fix it and redeploy right away. I’m hopeful we can get this resolved today or tomorrow. Thanks for your patience on this.

This feature will be off by default. You'll need to assign permissions through the Subcatalog Admins menu.

[makraft]

@matekiss  We're happy to see improvements to user defined fields, but as long time customers,  we have questions about legacy checkbox fields and their data, and using enrollment UDFs across different subcatalogs. 

If we want to move from using several separate check boxes to a dropdown, for example, what is the recommended best practice to do this? We're concerned that deleting old check box fields will cause reporting data loss and/or inconsistencies with current user data. 

When different UDFs are used at enrollment across different subcatalogs, how is this data kept synchronized with the user and the enrollment? How can we access it with the API? 

Thanks, again, for the updates! 

[hechla]

---

@matekiss wrote:

Hello @hechla ,

Thanks for bringing this up—it’s a great idea! To help us understand your needs better, we’d love to get a bit more context:

1. What kind of scenarios or use cases do you have in mind where checkboxes or radio buttons would work better than dropdowns? Knowing this will help us see how it could make things easier for you.

2. How many options do these fields usually have? If the list is long, checkboxes or radio buttons might get tricky, so understanding the typical size will help us gauge if this fits well.

3. Are there any specific challenges with dropdowns that you’re running into, like ease of use or visibility of options? If we can get a sense of the pain points, we can think through how to address them.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts so we can explore this idea further!

---

Hi @matekiss,

Once I saw what the multi-select option does I just immediately thought it was clunky and having checkboxes instead would be better. I'm thinking of things like "how did you hear about us (check all that apply)" and providing 5 or 6 options. Or maybe things like "what courses are you interested in" and again give a list of 6 or so course offerings someone might be able to check off two or three (or more). 

I completely agree that depending on the amount of choices checkboxes could take up too much room.  

As for radio buttons... I'm specifically thinking of one of the questions we have as a UDF now... "Please provide your highest level of education." We have it as an open Text box now (I'm not sure why we didn't choose the Select option) but showing the list of 4 or 5 choices with a radio button would just provide a different visual. To be honest, I'm not sure if this would be "better" than the Select dropdown. Just different.

But my primary point was in thinking of how unintuitive a multi-select dropdown is. I can't recall seeing a multi-select dropdown anywhere else (on any other platforms/systems). My first thought when I see a dropdown is that I get to select one option and then move on. 

Just one opinion. 

---

[matekiss]

Hello @makraft ,

Thank you for your questions and for being such a long-time client! I’m really glad to hear you’re finding the improvements to user-defined fields helpful. Let me address your questions one by one:

Migrating from checkboxes to dropdowns

Unfortunately, there isn’t currently a built-in tool to migrate existing checkbox UDFs to a dropdown as the check box has separate UDF key for each one, while multi select has just one key and multiple values. Thank you for the idea, we'll consider this for this year's roadmap.

Handling UDFs across Subcatalogs

When it comes to using UDFs in different subcatalogs, things can get a little tricky because all user UDFs are stored in a single “map” of key-value pairs. This means:

• If the same UDF key is used in multiple subcatalogs, the latest value entered will overwrite the previous one.
• UDF data isn’t tied to a specific subcatalog, so you can’t see which subcatalog the data came from.

Here’s how you can manage this:

1. Use unique keys across subcatalogs: Make sure each subcatalog uses distinct keys for its UDFs to avoid conflicts.
2. Retrieve data with APIs: You can use these APIs to access and analyze UDF data:
   • Enrollment Analytics: POST https://www.my-catalog.edu/api/v1/analytics/enrollments
   • User Analytics: POST https://www.my-catalog.edu/api/v1/analytics/users

I hope this helps clarify your questions! I know these scenarios can be complex, but we’re here to support you. If you’d like to discuss this further or need help implementing any of these suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re also always looking for feedback to improve, so thank you for sharing your ideas.

Best,
Máté

[matekiss]

Hello @hechla ,

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts—this is really helpful feedback. I can see where you're coming from with your points about the multi-select dropdown. It’s definitely one of those UI elements that can feel less intuitive, especially since dropdowns are often associated with single selections. The idea of using checkboxes for “check all that apply” questions, like “How did you hear about us?” or “What courses are you interested in?”, makes a lot of sense. It’s a more familiar experience for most people, and it’s visually clearer too. You’re right, though—space can be an issue if there are lots of options, so we’d need to find the right balance.

As for radio buttons, I totally get the example you shared about “highest level of education.” Showing the options upfront with radio buttons could make the experience quicker and visually simpler. I’m not sure if it’s necessarily better than a dropdown either, but it’s definitely worth thinking about where it might make sense to use them. Your main point about multi-select dropdowns being unintuitive really hits home. They’re not super common, and I agree that when you see a dropdown, the default assumption is usually single selection. That’s great feedback for us to consider as we keep refining the feature.

I’ll make sure this gets discussed with the team, especially the idea of simplifying how we present options depending on the scenario. If you have any other thoughts or examples, feel free to share!

Thanks again,
Máté