Canvas and Talis Aspire Reading Lists LTI Tool setup

This article applies to LTI 1.1 only

In order to use the Talis Aspire Reading Lists (TARL) LTI Tool you will need to have enabled HTTPS in your tenancy, and be setting this up as part of a mini-project. 

Set up in Canvas

This setup could be completed within between 20 - 30 minutes. No code installation is required

1. You should only setup the TARL LTI Tool if you are working through this mini-project
2. Make sure you have setup an integration key and secret in Talis Aspire Reading Lists
3. Go to your Canvas installation and find the Talis app to install.
   1. Go to the settings for your account
   2. Click the Apps tab.
   3. Search for talis and select it.
   4. Click the Add App button
4. In the popup window, configure the app by filling in the following fields:
   • Name — The name that you want the app to appear as.
   • Consumer Key — The consumer key you created in step 1.
   • Shared Secret — The shared secret created in step 1.
   • Reading List Tenancy Short Code — Add your <tenantshortcode> where requested - if you don’t know this, please contact support.
   • Show in Course Navigation — Tick this box if you want a link to the TARL LTI tool to be forced into every course's navigation menu. Please note: you will have to remove and re-add the app if you ever want to change this option - all your existing tool links will not be affected. Some users have found the course navigation menu to be restrictive in Canvas, as it won't allow you to relink to a module if you choose the wrong one in error. 
     • Update: Talis have released a workflow to allow academics to relink lists and to get around the navigation menu limitation in canvas. September 2017
5. Click Add App
6. You can now use the external tool in your courses to add links to reading list content into your modules.
7. You will now want to add custom parameters to enable Canvas to send the correct module code through to Talis Aspire. The setting in Canvas can be found by editing the installed app.
   1. Go to the Account Settings >> Apps
   2. Click on the tab to view installed apps
   3. Click on the edit button next to the App that you are wanting to edit.
   4. Enter the custom parameters in the custom fields box.

Disabling the tool in Canvas

1. Canvas provide full Instructions in an article in their help centre. 
2. This is a screenshot of the placement management screen that you will see specifically for the Talis Aspire LTI 1.1 tool
3. Things to note from our observations in our own test system.
   • Disabling the Course navigation option will hide any entry for the tool in the navigation menu of courses.  If you disable and later re-enable this, any associated links will continue to work as before.
   • Disabling the Assignment and Link Selection placement did not appear to have any affect on existing LTI links in the module area of courses. It also did not remove the tool from the selection menu when adding a new tool link. We recommend raising this with Instructure.
   • As far as we can tell the only way to stop the LTI 1.1 tool from being selectable in the external tool menu is to delete the WHOLE of the app configuration from Canvas.  This will BREAK/Remove all links that might already exist in courses.
   • Talis have no control over the placement and behaviour of LTI apps in Canvas. This is functionality built by Instructure as a 'Tool Platform' in the LTI ecosystem.