Current Turnitin integration tools and LTI API

[Daniel Merino]

Dear all,

we are currently trying a demo of Turnitin to evaluate their use in our
institution. I have followed the Confluence guide (1) and installed the
10.x branch of Content Review tool (2). Everything has gone fine, but
when I have tried to activate the API in turnitin.com, I have found that
only LTI API option is available. The old "Sakai with Assignments 2"
option, still present in Turnitin obsolete documentation (3), has been
removed.

I have asked the support team and I have been encouraged to use "the
superior LTI alternative" instead the "older, inferior Turnitin Sakai
integration".

I have read a lot of mails and documentation, specially this mail from
Adam Marshall (4) and there are several things that are not clear to me.

-Does 10.x branch of "old" Content Review tool work if we configure
Sakai to work with Turninin's LTI API?

-If this will not work, I assume that LTI API will work with new
Oxford's TII LTI integration (5). Is this code currently usable in Sakai 10?

-If the old tool does not work with LTI API and the new LTI tool is not
ready yet, how are you using Turnitin right now in Sakai???

Please, I would thank any light into this issue. Not sure what steps to
do right now.

Thanks in advance.
Best regards.

(1)
https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=75673327
(2) https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/turnitin/branches/sakai-10.x/
(3)
https://guides.turnitin.com/03_Integrations/Turnitin_Partner_Integrations/Sakai/Sakai_Integration_Administrator_Installation_Guide/03_Configuring_the_Sakai_integration_within_Turnitin
(4)
http://collab.archives.sakaiproject.org/sakai-user/2015-March/004918.html
(5) https://github.com/ox-it/wl-turnitin
--
Daniel Merino Echeverría
daniel...@unavarra.es
Gestor de E-learning - Centro Superior de Innovación Educativa.
Tfno: 948-168489 - Universidad Pública de Navarra.

[bernardo.garcia]

Answering with inline comments, if you want to know anything else, feel free to ask.

You have more information about the TII LTI integration here: https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=102793252

There has been a bit of discussion recently about how to contribute the changes, it was finally decided Longsight would update the 12.x version and backport it to 11.

See also: https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/TII-188

The 10.x patches are in there and ready (for whoever should do it) to merge.

El jueves, 28 de abril de 2016, 10:54:55 (UTC+2), daniel.merino escribió:

Dear all,

we are currently trying a demo of Turnitin to evaluate their use in our
institution. I have followed the Confluence guide (1) and installed the
10.x branch of Content Review tool (2). Everything has gone fine, but
when I have tried to activate the API in turnitin.com, I have found that
only LTI API option is available. The old "Sakai with Assignments 2"
option, still present in Turnitin obsolete documentation (3), has been
removed.

I have asked the support team and I have been encouraged to use "the
superior LTI alternative" instead the "older, inferior Turnitin Sakai
integration".

I have read a lot of mails and documentation, specially this mail from
Adam Marshall (4) and there are several things that are not clear to me.

-Does 10.x branch of "old" Content Review tool work if we configure
Sakai to work with Turninin's LTI API?

No, as it's all pending to merge as I said before. Planned for 10.8 then, but the patch should probably work with your version if you don't want to wait.

 

-If this will not work, I assume that LTI API will work with new
Oxford's TII LTI integration (5). Is this code currently usable in Sakai 10?

Same answer, for Sakai 10 you can directly pick the patches from the jira. Configuration and some of the behaviour has changed though.

 

-If the old tool does not work with LTI API and the new LTI tool is not
ready yet, how are you using Turnitin right now in Sakai???

TII are acting a bit specially with the migration. So people who used to have the old integration can still use it (until the end of the year), but are forcing new clients to use the LTI, even if there was no time to finish the integration. But I think this should not affect you.

[Daniel Merino]

Thanks, Bernardo, that's very useful.

So, if I have understood well, if I:

- patch our Sakai 10.5 with uploaded patches at TII-188.
- deploy assignment, basiclti and contentreview.
- and configure LTI API in sakai.properties following the official Turnitin's guide.

I will have a prototype of the future TII integration tool running in Sakai 10.5. Am I right?

I am going to check it. Thanks a lot!
Best regards.

El 28/04/16 a las 12:20, bernardo.garcia escribió:

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[bernardo.garcia]

That's about right. Just don't think the official guide is updated with the new configuration. TII access settings are now configured using a "global" Sakai LTI tool:

LTI GLOBAL TOOL CONFIGURATION:

------------------------------

Launch URL -> https://turnitinuk.com/api/lti/1p0/assignment

Launch Key -> from the turnitin setup

Launch Secret -> from the turnitin setup

Send Names (ticked)

Send Emails (ticked)

Allow custom parameters (ticked)

Allow tool title to be changed (ticked)

Tool Visibility (stealthed)

It must have a site ID of !turnitin

Also you have to choose on your components.xml file which SiteAdvisor are you plan to use. It depends on whether you want all the sites to act the same way or just activate TII on certain sites using a site property. Access this link (https://github.com/ox-it/wl-turnitin/blob/master/readme.md) for extra info.

We definitely should update the confluence configuration page soon, but it will be whenever the new integration is actually merged/released.

[Daniel Merino]

Hi again Bernardo,

I'm having a hard time trying to get this working. I can't find documentation about it and Turnitin is not helping too much with their info...

-I have modified patches at TII-188 to work in 10.5. This is ok: turnitin, basiclti, content-review and assignments compile fine. Tomcat starts without issues.

-For simple testing, I have added these properties in sakai.properties, that I think that override the components.xml configurations:

assignment.useContentReview=true
assignment.useContentReviewService=true
assignment.useContentReviewLTI=true

-And I have configured as admin a LTI 1.1 tool with these fields:

LTI Version    LTI 1.x Tool
Site Id (Leave blank to make tool available in all sites)
Tool Title (Above the tool)    Turnitin
Allow tool title to be changed    Do not allow
Button Text (Text in tool menu)    Turnitin
Allow button text to be changed    Do not allow

Tool Status    Enabled
Tool Visibility    Visible
Launch URL    https://api.turnitin.com/api/lti/1p0/assignment
Allow launch URL to be changed    Do not allow
Launch key    ***************
Allow launch key to be changed    Do not allow
Launch secret     ************* (I THINK that is our Account ID because nobody has told me what I should use here)
Allow launch secret to be changed    Do not allow

Allow frame height to be changed    Do not allow
Send User Names to External tool     Send User Names to External Tool
Send Email Addresses to External tool     Send Email Addresses to External Tool
Allow External Tool to return grades     Allow External Tool to return grades
Provide Roster to External Tool     Provide Roster to External Tool
Allow External Tool to store setting data     Allow External Tool to store setting data
Allow External Tool to access Lessons API     Allow External Tool to access Lessons API


Now I can add a turnitin tool to my sites in Worksite Setup, but the tool is not visible. No error is shown in Tomcat logs. And when I create an assignment, the turnitin options are not available.

Please, do you know how can I proceed now?

Thanks in advance.
Best regards.

El 29/04/16 a las 08:35, bernardo.garcia escribió:

[Bernardo Garcia Vila]

Yeah, it's all a bit complicated the first time around...

If you want to set those global properties, ensure the GlobalPropertyAdvisor is the one uncommented on the components.xml.

For the LTI global tool configuration, you'll have to change:

Site Id: !turnitin

Allow tool title to be changed    Allow

Tool Visibility    Stealthed

The other settings seem right, although you don't specify the custom settings one which should also be turned on.

Finally, TII options should appear when you try to create a new assignments. You should never add or modify directly the TII LTI tools from a site, as it's all automatically managed within assignments.

[Daniel Merino]

Thanks, Bernardo. Now I can see the TII options in a new assignment.

Which custom setting is not specified?

LTI call fails, but I think that this is because nobody has told me the secret. I will look on this the next week.

Thanks a lot again.
Best regards.

El 29/04/16 a las 14:34, Bernardo Garcia Vila escribió:

Vivimos en una sociedad profundamente dependiente de la ciencia y la tecnología y en la que nadie sabe nada de estos temas. Eso constituye una fórmula segura para el desastre. (Carl Sagan)

[Bernardo Garcia Vila]

If the LTI call fails, then you should probably see some kind of error on the log. TII is not very talkative when assignment creation fails, so we had to just print it on the logs and show a generic error on the screen.

About that setting I said, it's the one on the LTI global tool that goes:

"Allow additional custom parameters"

I'd also recommend you to turn on the debug logging at least for this file, specially when testing the functionality initially:

log.config.x = DEBUG.org.sakaiproject.turnitin.util.TurnitinLTIUtil

[Daniel Merino]

Hi again Bernardo,

I managed to configure LTI calls, but after that I am receiving a different error in the logs:

" 'oauth_consumer_key' value is missing or not valid.. "

This is what I see in the logs from TII integration tool:

2016-05-04 14:30:43,571 DEBUG http-bio-8080-exec-3 org.sakaiproject.turnitin.util.TurnitinLTIUtil - Setting global TII LTI tool properties
    2016-05-04 14:30:43,584 DEBUG http-bio-8080-exec-3 org.sakaiproject.turnitin.util.TurnitinLTIUtil - Global tool id: 2
    2016-05-04 14:30:43,584 DEBUG http-bio-8080-exec-3 org.sakaiproject.turnitin.util.TurnitinLTIUtil - Global tool key: [INSTITUTION KEY]
    2016-05-04 14:30:43,584 DEBUG http-bio-8080-exec-3 org.sakaiproject.turnitin.util.TurnitinLTIUtil - Global tool secret: [SECRET KEY]
    2016-05-04 14:30:45,706 DEBUG http-bio-8080-exec-3 org.sakaiproject.turnitin.util.TurnitinLTIUtil - Status 200: OK request: https://sandbox.turnitin.com/api/lti/1p0/assignment

    2016-05-04 14:30:45,883  WARN http-bio-8080-exec-3 org.sakaiproject.turnitin.util.TurnitinLTIUtil - LTI props {custom_studentpapercheck=1, custom_use_biblio_exclusion=1, custom_s_view_reports=0, oauth_nonce=22833396548125612, oauth_consumer_key=[INSTITUTION KEY], resource_link_id=/assignment/c/52fda126-632e-4ace-be0f-907fb7ec9f32/2755532b-50ef-4324-842a-385327bdcd76, oauth_callback=about:blank, ext_resource_tool_placement_url=http://[SERVER URL]/sakai-contentreview-tool-tii/tii-servlet, oauth_signature=XApiJTAoQ6HWC3FH3N4quvXLcjc=, lti_version=LTI-1p0, oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1, custom_feedbackreleasedate=2016-05-11T15:00, custom_journalcheck=1, user_id=admin, lti_message_type=basic-lti-launch-request, custom_allow_non_or_submissions=0, custom_duedate=2016-05-11T15:00, context_title=Sitio Dani100, custom_maxpoints=0, custom_internetcheck=1, oauth_version=1.0, custom_startdate=2016-05-04T10:00, custom_report_gen_speed=0, custom_late_accept_flag=0, custom_institutioncheck=0, custom_use_quoted_exclusion=1, lis_person_name_full= , resource_link_title=asdfadsasdasd, ext_basiclti_submit=Launch Endpoint with BasicLTI Data, custom_submit_papers_to=0, context_id=52fda126-632e-4ace-be0f-907fb7ec9f32, roles=Instructor, oauth_timestamp=1462365043}

TII support told me to check if we could have blank spaces in our consumer key & tool secret (of course we haven't!). After that, they haven't answered anymore.

I wonder if you have seen this in your tests or if by chance you have any clue of how to fix it.

Thanks in advance.
Best regards.

El 02/05/16 a las 08:37, Bernardo Garcia Vila escribió:

Hay que exigir que se predique con el ejemplo. Suele dar el mismo resultado pero reduce el número de predicadores. (Perich)

[Bernardo Garcia Vila]

The good news is you're already making LTI calls to TII. To solve your problem, please check the oauth_consumer_key value on your Turnitin global LTI tool settings. If you look at the logs you posted, you can see your oauth_consumer_key value is wrong: it's '[INSTITUTION KEY]', which I doubt it is! ;) Other LTI prop that I can see is wrong is ext_resource_tool_placement_url (server url not set?). Plus I don't think you're sending the email address of the users, which is mandatory.

On a different note, we must update the integration because TII have modified some of their LTI behaviour without warning us. I'll let you know once we do it.

Regards.

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[Daniel Merino]

Sorry for not being clearer... I have replaced the sensitive information by the uppercase values between square brackets, but that info is fine in the logs.

I configured LTI tool to send the user's email, but it seems that no email is sent and that the user_id sent is always admin. Could this be the problem?

I look forward to hearing about your additional patches.

Thanks.
Best regards.

El 09/05/16 a las 11:30, Bernardo Garcia Vila escribió:

Sólo tenemos la luz de la razón para iluminar nuestro camino. Llega el teólogo, dice que alumbra poco y la apaga. (Voltaire)

[Bernardo Garcia Vila]

Oh, I see...

Then I'm a bit lost, but I think it probably has something to do with the other misconfiguration you mention (always admin, no email...). 

Could I have access to that server?