User IDs

[Rob Callicotte]

I've noticed that login_id, sis_user_id and just simply user_id are not the same. Because I understand login_id and sis_user_id in the context of our university, what I'm curious about is how unique the "user_id" really is. It is different than the login_id and sis_user_id. But, is it unique only to a course, to an academic year or does it really mean this user who has a sis_user_id of XYZ123 is also uniquely described in the "user_id", though this "user_id" is completely different than the sis_user_id?

Hope that's not too much this and that in my explanation.

My reason for asking is I see this user_id a lot and would like to make use of it, if it isn't too precarious.

[Cody Cutrer]

Rob,

User ID is simply the integral ID that Canvas assigns to each user object in its database, and the primary way Canvas identifies a user. It is guaranteed to be unique within your institution (and within all of Canvas Cloud, given certain implementation details). It is not unique among multiple Canvas installations (i.e. the first user in each install will end up with ID 1). User IDs never change, but a user can be merged into another user, effectively deleting one of the two, and updating all references of that user to the surviving user.

A SIS ID is assigned by the institution, and is optional. It has no special meaning to Canvas, so can map to whatever institutional identifier is appropriate. It is a string (though it can be the string form of an integer if the institution so chooses when assigning them). An SIS ID is unique within your institution. For SIS Imports, it is used as the primary identifier, and most parts of the API accept an SIS ID in lieu of a Canvas user ID. Via the API or the UI, it is possible to reassign an SIS ID from one user to another. It will survive through a user merge - the surviving user could be identified by either of their previous SIS IDs.

Cody Cutrer

Software Engineer

Instructure

--

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Canvas LMS Users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to canvas-lms-use...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Rob Orton]

the user_id is unique per user. It is the primary key in the database. 

-Rob

--

[Graham Ballantyne]

user_id is the unique, canvas-specific ID for your user in the database. It's your typical auto-incremented, not-null, primary key. 

— Graham

--

[sun21...@domail.maricopa.edu]

Cody,

You say " most parts of the API accept an SIS ID in lieu of a Canvas user ID". I want to use SIS IDs instead of Canvas ids, both for courses and for sections. Is there a special syntax/format I need to use to tell the API that I am using SIS IDs rather than internal Canvas IDs?

Thanks for your help,

Sunil

[Chris Herdt]

You can find the syntax for using SIS IDs in lieu of Canvas IDs at:
https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/file.object_ids.html

--

Chris Herdt
Web Applications Developer
http://osric.com/chris/