Issue with update_score_and_comments() API call

Question

EDIT: Updated the post to reflect some of the things I learned in comments and feedback to make this more clear.

Good day!  First time posting here, so here's to hoping I can make this easy to understand.  I'm an instructor with a passion to automate manual tasks.

Foregoing the fact that I'm using the Python canvasapi, I'm struggling with the Live API (which will later inform how I use my Python API).

The Canvas LMS API provides the following example of a hash:

{
"quiz_submissions": [{
"attempt": 1,
"fudge_points": -2.4,
"questions": {
"1": {
"score": 2.5,
"comment": "This can't be right, but I'll let it pass this one time."
},
"2": {
"score": 0,
"comment": "Good thinking. Almost!"
}
}
}]
}

The link to that source is here:

https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/quiz_submissions.html#method.quizzes/quiz_submissions_api.update

Here's the hash my Python code produces:

{
  'quiz_submissions': [{
    'attempt': 1, 
    'fudge_points': 0, 
    'questions': {
      '229417081': {'score': 10, 'comment': ''}, 
      '229417071': {'score': 10, 'comment': ''}, 
      '229417074': {'score': 10, 'comment': ''}, 
      '229417023': {'score': 10, 'comment': ''}, 
      '229415416': {'score': 30, 'comment': ''}, 
      '229417041': {'score': 30, 'comment': ''}
    }
  }]
}

We've already established that the question IDs are the correct value to use rather than 1/2/3/etc, and the single/double quotes are not the issue.  The course_id, quiz_id, and submission ID I give to Live API are all correct, as they work for the GETs.  It's this one PUT that is rejecting my hash with the following error:

{ "status": "bad_request", "message": "missing required key :quiz_submissions" }

What am I doing wrong with my hash in Live API?

James · Answer

@MichaelCrowl

I don't use Python or the Canvas library, but I have done a lot of the Canvas API and quizzes (although not this particular API). Here are some comments based on my experience.

You definitely want to use the real Canvas IDs. The 1, 2, 3, are just examples in the documentation, not a literal 1st question, 2nd question, 3rd question, etc.

You are correct that many of the POST and PUT API endpoints have an parent object in them that does not appear in the GET. You need the quiz_submissions wrapper when using the PUT or POST versions. That explains why the LIVE API rejected it. The Python library you're using may add that for you (I don't use it, so I'm not sure). When I write my code for this stuff, I do a check. If the object I'm sending is missing the parent object, then I add it for the user (which is just me). I cannot speak for the library you're using. It would seem that since I'm using a named parameter, that I would take care of that for the user, but it may just be easier to used named parameters in Python.

I've found that I need to put a [] in the parameter name if your JSON.stringify or library doesn't automatically do it. That is, "quiz_submissions" doesn't work for me, but "quiz_submissions[]" does. That's an open and close bracket at the end to indicate it's an array. You would think that since quiz_submissions is an array that the conversion would add that, but it really depends on the library you're using. Since I'm not familiar with the Python or the library, the calling of the function using quiz_submissions=[mydict] would be a place I would explore. I would make it so that quiz_submissions was the value I was passing, which would mean that it wouldn't need an extra quiz_submissions on the inside. What I would pass would be quiz_submissions[], but I don't know if that can be done in Python. Again, don't take any Python suggestions from me too literally, but I would make sure that there is a quiz_submissions[] parameter in what is sent to Canvas.

The IDE you're using shouldn't matter. JSON uses double quotes, but that code that converts it to JSON would take care of that. I'm assuming that your Python library tells Canvas that content type is application/json for you.

What I do when I reach a point like this (possibly before this) is to print the JSON code that I'm sending to Canvas. I would compare it visually and make sure those brackets are in there. Then I would go to a REST client (Postman seems popular, I still use a different one) and send it and see if it works.

There is nothing special about this request. In other words, it appears to be an object that you are sending to a routine that makes a PUT request. Does your library support a generic PUT statement rather than the sub.update_score_and_comments() function? If the library has any debugging options, you might turn that on and see what is being sent to Canvas.

melodyc_lam · Answer

Without the full code, it'd be hard to diagnose the issue, but looking at your Python code, I think you're using the canvasapi Python library built by UCF.

As @chriscas mentioned, the Live API located at .instructure.com/docs/api/live and the canvasapi Python library are two different things, so we need to know in which environment your API calls are failing along with as much detail as possible so we can help.

Chris · Answer

Hi @MichaelCrowl,

Can you post your full python code somewhere where we might be able to review the whole thing?  I know enough python to write some scripts and interpret some others, but the snippets you've posted here just aren't quite making sense to me without the rest of the code to go along with it.  You also mentioned both python API calls and the Live API, which would be two different things.  Are you able to clarify your methodology at all?  Any additional code or clarifications you can give will likely help me or others here try to figure out where something might be going wrong.

-Chris