Does Canvas support sortable tables?

Question

I want to build a page with a sortable table—allowing the students to click on a table header in order to sort the entire table by that column alphabetically/numerically. I've got some experience with HTML and have found some explainers on how to do this, but it doesn't seem to work. Does Canvas presently support sortable tables? If so, how do we implement them?

Chris_Hofer · Accepted Answer

Hello there, @jeffrey_villine …

By chance, do you know if your school has purchased the Cidi Labs product called DesignPLUS (a third-party integration that works with Canvas)?  If so, the DesignPLUS sidebar has a "Tables" tool that allows you create sortable tables.  The DesignPLUS sidebar has many more tools with ways to design cool looking content pages, but I wanted to share with you that the "Tables" tool within their product does just what you're asking about.

Tables: [New] DesignPLUS User Guide

You'd have to talk with your school's Canvas administrator(s) to see if purchasing DesignPLUS was an option for your school.

I'm not sure what kind of HTML you are using, but there is an "Allow List" of HTML tags that Canvas allows in their editor.  Other HTML tags are stripped out upon saving a content page, which is what might be happening in your case.

Canvas HTML Editor Allowlist - Instructure Community

I hope this information will be of some help to you.  Sing out if you have any questions.  Thanks!

jeremyfw · Accepted Answer

HI @jeffrey_villine

Short answer: nope, Canvas does not natively support sortable tables (however, @Chris_Hofer's suggestion is definitely a viable one)

The longer explanation is that true sorting requires JavaScript (to listen for clicks, reorder rows, and redraw the table). Canvas’s Rich Content Editor only allows HTML + inline CSS and explicitly blocks custom JavaScript for security reasons. So even if you find examples online, they won’t work once pasted into Canvas.

A related gotcha: embedding Google Sheets using Publish to web also won’t give you sorting. That embed is a static, read-only snapshot, the sort/filter UI may appear, but it isn’t interactive.

Practical workaround that does work

Instead of embedding, provide a link to an active spreadsheet:

* Google Sheets (view-only)
* Excel Online / OneDrive

When opened in a new tab, students can:

* Click column headers
* Sort alphabetically or numerically
* Filter data properly

You still get one authoritative data source, and students get the interaction they expect, without fighting Canvas’s limitations.

Cheers,

J