Disable user using REST API

Question

When a user is terminated in the organization, we would like the account to be disable using automation tools.

* What is the correct process to disable a user?
* Using delete login (https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/logins.html#method.pseudonyms.destroy) is sufficient?
* Is there a API to disable User ?

Chris · Answer

Hi @ErnestChan,

In my opinion, Python is pretty easy to learn, and also pretty easy to use to interact with the Canvas API.  GenAI code assistants can definitely help out, though they can definitely hallucinate nonexistent API calls at times, so you it's good to have some knowledge yourself to be able to check what AI creates.

-Chris

ErnestChan · Answer

Thanks Christ for your respond. As a experienced python developer, how would you rate the difficulty of writing custom Python script for running Canvas REST API? I am learning all the Python basic from datacamp and wondering whether with the help of Claude Code I could manage this task without the help of our IT team.

Chris · Answer

Hi @ErnestChan,

I do pretty much everything with python scripts right now.  I would say it really comes down to your preference though.  I'm a Computer Science major, so python came pretty naturally to me (and provides the most flexibility), while I felt like I was spending more time to figure out how to get Postman to do what I wanted.  I think a lot of people may be the opposite of me though…

-Chris