Canvas Deploy Notes (2024-11-06)

Canvas deploys contain code changes that are intended to fix bugs, improve performance, and prepare for new features. These deploys take place every two weeks and can be tested in the beta environment before the production deploy date indicated in the title of this document. Institutions are responsible for conducting thorough evaluations of their custom CSS/JS with each release and deploy to assess potential impacts.

Fixed bugs are located in Known Issues.

Subscribe to the release notes page to be notified of new release and deploy notes

For Canvas Platform Service changes (API, GraphQL, Canvas Data), please see the appropriate page in the Change Log

Interface Updates

Back to Table of Contents

Announcements

Notification Option for Announcements in Blueprint Courses

Admin Instructor

Affected Feature Areas	Blueprint Courses, Announcements
Account Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Inherent to user
Related Ideas	None

Summary

When creating a new announcement in a blueprint course, an Enable New Item Notifications checkbox is available, allowing users to receive notifications for the new announcement.

Note: This checkbox is disabled by default and students must have announcement notifications enabled.

Change Benefit

This update ensures that users are promptly notified of new announcements in a blueprint course. This helps improve communication and ensures important updates are not missed, enhancing overall course management and engagement.

Feature Workflow

Enable New Item Notifications Checkbox

When Syncing a blueprint course, select the Enable New Item Notifications checkbox to ensure users get notifications of a new announcement.

Account Settings

Settings

Limit Name Pronunciation Editing by User Role

Admin

Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Feature Areas	Account Settings
Related Ideas	[Account Settings] Add Pronunciation UI Lock Setting

Summary

In Account Settings, when the Enable Name Pronunciation setting is enabled, admins have the option to limit name pronunciation editing by base role.

Note: The role options are disabled by default.

Change Benefit

This update provides admins greater control over who can edit name pronunciations based on user roles.

Feature Workflow

Enable Name Pronunciation User Role Checkboxes

When the Enable Name Pronunciation setting is enabled, admins can limit editing to Admin, Teacher and Student roles.

User Settings

Pronouns Removed When Setting is Disabled

All Users

Affects User Interface	No
Affected Feature Areas	User Settings
Related Ideas	None

Summary

When the Enable Personal Pronouns account setting is disabled, pronouns are removed from user settings. Previously, pronouns remained visible even after the setting was disabled.

Change Benefit

This update ensures consistency and privacy. When the Enable Personal Pronouns setting is disabled, pronouns are fully removed, preventing confusion and aligning with user expectations.

Other Updates

Back to Table of Contents

Assignments

Preserve Group Category Name During Assignment Copy

Instructor

Affects User Interface	No
Affected Feature Areas	Assignment Groups
Related Ideas	[Course Import/Export] Copy Multiple Groups When Copying a Course

Summary

When copying a group assignment, group categories are created with the same name as the original when no match exists. Previously, group assignments were linked to a matching group category in the destination course if available, or defaulted to the Project Groups category.

Change Benefit

This update is beneficial because it maintains consistency and organization when copying group assignments between courses.

Discussions

Save Sorting Preferences

All Users

Affects User Interface

Affected Feature Areas

Discussions

Related Ideas

[Discussions] Filtering & Sorting

[Discussions] Set your own default view

Summary

When sorting a discussion, the selected sorting preference is automatically saved for that specific discussion.

Change Benefit

This update enhances user convenience by automatically saving sorting preferences for specific discussions.

Rich Content Editor

SourceCodeEditor Update

All Users

Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Feature Areas	Rich Content Editor HTML Editor
Related Ideas	None

Summary

CodeEditor in Instui is updated to the SourceCodeEditor improving accessibility by allowing keyboard users to navigate out of the Pretty HTML Editor. This update also includes some minor color changes of the HTML text.

Change Benefit

The update improves accessibility by allowing keyboard users to easily navigate out of the Pretty HTML Editor, enhancing the overall user experience.

Find more posts tagged with

All Users

Instructor

Comments

JuliaDohr

ad. Notification Option for Announcements in Blueprint Courses
I don't quite understand what's going to change from the current status quo. I was under the impression that an announcement sent via a Blueprint course in associated courses would also trigger notifications for the students there, if the students had enabled notifications for announcements. As I understand it, this change does exactly the same thing. Or is it that potential notifications could be suppressed if the checkbox is not ticked?

Andy_Kalin

The 2024-11-06 Deploy Notes Change Log contains inaccurate information. Unfortunately this is happening more frequently over the last year, making it challenging to anticipate and track announced changes.

In this case, the 2024-11-06 Deploy Notes Change Log lists "2024-11-04 Updated Assignments: Preserve Group Set During Assignment Copy to a Feature Option" but that change does not appear to actually involve a Feature Option. Is this accurate? If not, I infer that whomever posted the change meant to post the change listed in the 2024-11-26 Release Notes, "2024-11-04 Changed Discussions: Multiple Due Dates for Discussions to a Feature Option," but copied and pasted the wrong change into the wrong notes. If that is the case then someone needs to delete entry that from the 2024-11-06 Deploy Notes Change Log.

A second issue in the 2024-11-06 Deploy Notes Change Log is "2024-11-04 Delayed Assignments: Preserve Group Set During Assignment Copy- See the Canvas Release Notes (2024-11-16)" which seems to relate to the change that immediately follows in the Change Log, "2024-11-04 Delayed Assignments: Preserve Group Category Name During Assignment Copy- See the Canvas Release Notes (2024-11-16)." This is confusing. Is "Preserve Group Set" the same functionality as "Preserve Group Category Name"? Only the former is a change listed in the 2024-11-06 Deploy Notes, and if they mean the same thing, then it would help if the Change Log notes were more clear and concise. For example,

"Delayed 'Assignments: Preserve Group Set During Assignment Copy' to 2024-11-16 and renamed to 'Assignments: Preserve Group Category Name During Assignment Copy. See the Canvas Release Notes (2024-11-16)'

would more clearly describe that change.

The overall issue though is that Canvas Release and Deploy notes have become less and less accurate over the past year, making it more challenging to accurately communicate changes to our end users. It seems like proofreading the release notes, the deploy notes, and the change logs prior to publishing them could help resolve miscommunications.

kroeninm

Thanks for mentioning this, some clarity in the deploys would be nice, I read through and did testing for the group copy functionality with no luck as the tiny footnote at the bottom in the Change Log I didn't see, and even though I see it now, I'm not sure how to interpret it. Perhaps just a big strikethrough when it's pushed back and delayed 🙂 would be easier.

Melanie

phanley

We started getting reports this morning from Support people (who have the Act-As permission active) that Masquerading is not working for them (e.g. the masquerade button is no longer present on a user's profile) -- has anyone else seeing a problem with that feature as of today (11-7-2024)?

audra_agnelly

I was trying to test the Blueprint update. I'm not seeing the option to "Enable New Item Notifications" in the sync screen. I also think this wording may be confusing with the existing option "Send Notification" which I understand to be a notification to the instructors that content has been synced vs. enabling notifications for students. And to clarify does "Enable new item notification" mean that students who choose to receive Course Content notifications will also receive alerts when this is selected? And if this does apply to Course Content and they have that set to Notify Immediately would they receive individual emails for every new item created or modified by the blueprint sync?

KarenLillywhite

For

Pronouns Removed When Setting is Disabled

When you have custom values in the list of personal pronouns,When the Enable Personal Pronouns account setting is disabled and then re-enabled, the list of available pronouns is reset to the default values of She/Her, He/Him and They/Them. Users who had selected a custom item from the list do retain that custom value.

Our institution has put a lot of work into an expanded more inclusive list of pronouns. Whilst we have no intention to disable the pronouns, if it were to be cahnged accidentally, the loss of the list would be a significant issue for us.

Child Item