Is there a way to return only certain fields through an API url request?

Hello,

I am trying to pull simple reports that go beyond Canvas' built-in reports- so I have been working with the API. I have a script I can use to pull what I need, but it's everything- I want to narrow it down to login_id, user_id, and name.

I see that I can deliberately include fields with include[]=fieldname. I don't suppose there's a way to use those additively- that is, only specify the fields I want?

This is the node.js script I am using:

<SPAN class="keyword token">const</SPAN> request <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="token function">require</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">'request'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><BR /><BR /><SPAN class="keyword token">let</SPAN> url <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token"><SPAN>'</SPAN><A class="jive-link-external-small" href="https://" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://</A><SPAN><my domain>.instructure.com:443/api/v1/courses/12/enrollments?type[]=StudentEnrollment&state[]=active&access_token=<my key>&page=5&per_page=100 rel="next"'</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><BR /> <BR /><SPAN class="token function">request</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>url<SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> <SPAN class="keyword token">function</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>err<SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> response<SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> body<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR /> <SPAN class="keyword token">if</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>err<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR /> console<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="token function">log</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">'error:'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> error<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><BR /> <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN> <SPAN class="keyword token">else</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR /> <SPAN class="keyword token">let</SPAN> results <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> JSON<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="token function">parse</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>body<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><BR /><SPAN class="keyword token">for</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="keyword token">var</SPAN> i <SPAN class="keyword token">in</SPAN> results<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><BR /> console<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="token function">log</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>results<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN>i<SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><BR /> <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><BR /> <SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><BR /><SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

as you can see I am just manually paging through. If there is way to do this automatically, I would be very interested in that too.

My end goal is a report with the fields mentioned, in a format I could share with instructors.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

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Canvas Data

Open API

Accepted answers

Robert

There should be no need to process anything with PHP if you're using Node.

The API is working as desired, in that a REST API result is a record that sends a predefined set of values back to the requestor. If the API allows filtering the results thats extra. But by default a record contains fields, those fields are being returned. Anything else would be like telling your browser to exclude loading the header or footer from every web page you load... or maybe only from specific sites. But then your browser would have to learn how to take that request and Web sites would have to add that as a feature...

With the links I provided above, you should be able to produce a CSV file with the following headers and values.

course_id, login_id, user_id, name

All comments

Robert

Michael,

I don't think there is a way to ignore fields from the response unless they write the API to do so. You can specifically call the values or access them by element/key.

<SPAN class="keyword token">var</SPAN> json <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">'{"one":1,"two":2,"three":3,"four":4,"five":5,"six":6}'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><BR />results <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> JSON<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="token function">parse</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>json<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><BR />console<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="token function">log</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>results<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>one<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><BR />console<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="token function">log</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>results<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>three<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><BR />console<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="token function">log</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>results<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">'four'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">;</SPAN><BR /><SPAN class="keyword token">var</SPAN> res <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN>results<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>two<SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> results<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>five<SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> results<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>six<SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN> <BR />console<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="token function">log</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>res<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍<SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

Automatic paging can be done with loops, here's an example on Lines 159 - 198. The basics to loop through pages, asking for all the records possible (100 per page), while the Link Header says there are more pages (next). Line 175, will show the easiest way to access the individual fields and forget about the rest of the response values, which is what you've already started with. You can also wrap that loop in a loop that works through an array of course id's. Looks good, keep going.

Check these out too:

request - npm - forms

request - npm - http headers

request - npm - oauth signing

csv - npm

https://www.npmjs.com/package/request#custom-http-headers

unknown

Hi @salmonsm ,

I agree with carroll-ccsd, there is no way to filter the fields that are returned.

I am curious as to why you would like to do so, with the examples Robert has provided, you can simply filter out the data to only what you need.

Would love to hear more, also, have you considered Canvas Data for what you are attempting?

Cheers,
Stuart

Robert

There should be no need to process anything with PHP if you're using Node.

With the links I provided above, you should be able to produce a CSV file with the following headers and values.

course_id, login_id, user_id, name

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