Introduction

The Canvas Student Data Export Tool exports nearly all of a student's data from the Instructure Canvas Learning Management System (Canvas LMS).
This is useful when you are graduating or leaving your college or university, and would like to have a backup of all the data you had in canvas.

The tool exports the following data:

• Course Assignments (including submissions and attachments)
• Course Announcements
• Course Discussions
• Course Pages
• Course Files
• Course Modules
• (Optional) HTML snapshots of:
  • Course Home Page
  • Grades Page
  • Assignments
  • Announcements
  • Discussions
  • Modules

Data is saved in JSON (and optionally HTML) format and organized into folders by academic term and course.

Example output structure:

• Fall 2023
  • CS 101
    • announcements/
      • First Announcement/
        • announcement_1.html
      • announcement_list.html
    • assignments/
      • Sample Assignment/
        • assignment.html
        • submission.html
      • assignment_list.html
    • course files/
      • file_1.docx
      • file_2.png
    • discussions/
      • Sample Discussion
        • discussion_1.html
      • discussion_list.html
    • modules/
      • Sample Module
        • Sample Assignment.html
        • Sample Discussion.html
        • Sample Page.html
        • Sample Quiz.html
      • modules_list.html
    • grades.html
    • homepage.html
    • CS 101.json
  • ENGL 101
    • ...
• Spring 2024
  • ...
• all_output.json

Getting Started

Dependencies

• Python 3.8 or newer
• Node.js 16 or newer (only needed for HTML snapshots)

1. Install Python dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. (Optional) Install SingleFile for HTML snapshots: This step requires Node.js.

   npm install

Configuration

To use the tool, you must create a credentials.yaml file in the project root. You can also specify a different path using the -c or --config command-line option.

Create the credentials.yaml file with the following content:

# The URL of your Canvas instance (e.g., https://your-school.instructure.com)
API_URL: https://example.instructure.com
# Your Canvas API token
API_KEY: <Your Canvas API token>
# Your Canvas User ID
USER_ID: 123456
# Path to your browser cookies file (Netscape format).
# This is only required when using the --singlefile flag.
COOKIES_PATH: ./cookies.txt
# (Optional) Path to your Chrome/Chromium executable if SingleFile cannot find it.
# CHROME_PATH: C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
# (Optional) Timeout in seconds for SingleFile to capture a page. Default: 60
# Increase this if you see "Capture timeout" errors during HTML snapshots.
# SINGLEFILE_TIMEOUT: 180
# (Optional) A list of course IDs to skip when exporting data.
# COURSES_TO_SKIP:
#   - 12345
#   - 67890

Finding Your Credentials

• API_URL: Your institution's Canvas URL.
• API_KEY: In Canvas, go to Account > Settings, scroll down to Approved Integrations, and click + New Access Token.
• USER_ID: After logging into Canvas, visit https://<your-canvas-url>/api/v1/users/self. Your browser will show a JSON response; find the id field.
• COOKIES_PATH: Required only if you use the --singlefile flag. Browser cookies are needed to download complete HTML pages as if you were logged in. The script will now detect if your cookies are expired or invalid and will stop downloading HTML pages to prevent errors. For best results, log into Canvas and then export your cookies right before running the script. Use a browser extension like "Get cookies.txt Clean" for Chrome to export them in Netscape format.
• CHROME_PATH (Optional): The script attempts to auto-detect Chrome/Chromium on Windows, macOS, and Linux. If it fails, you can specify the path here.
• SINGLEFILE_TIMEOUT (Optional): Maximum time in seconds to wait for SingleFile to capture a single HTML page. Default is 60 seconds. If you have a slow connection or a busy computer and see "Capture timeout" errors, increase this value.
• COURSES_TO_SKIP (Optional): A list of course IDs to exclude from the export. To find a course ID, go to the course's homepage and look at the URL for the number that follows /courses/.

Running the Exporter

Once your credentials.yaml is set up, run the script:

python export.py [options]

Options:

Flag	Description	Default
-c, --config <path>	Path to your YAML credentials file.	credentials.yaml
-o, --output <path>	Directory to store exported data.	./output
--singlefile	Enable HTML snapshot capture with SingleFile.	Disabled
-v, --verbose	Enable verbose output for debugging.	Disabled
--version	Show the version of the tool and exit.	N/A

Example:

# Run with default settings (uses ./credentials.yaml, outputs to ./output)
python export.py

# Run with a custom output directory and enable HTML snapshots
python export.py -o /path/to/my-canvas-backup --singlefile

After the export is complete, the tool will display a detailed summary of all the data that was successfully extracted, including counts of assignments, files, and pages, as well as any warnings or errors encountered.

Contribute

I would love to see this script's functionality expanded and improved! I welcome all pull requests 🙂
Thank you!