November 2024 developer updates
Google for Education Developer Announcements
Below are this month's Google for Education developer news items. Please reach out to our support resources with any questions or concerns.
Announcements✅ See our Preview the Classroom API guide for information about upcoming features and instructions on accessing and using them.
The new checkUserEligibility endpoint is now available in developer preview!
Previously, developers could check whether users have access to certain Classroom features using multiple dedicated methods, such as checkAddOnCreationEligibility and checkGradingPeriodsSetupEligibility.
Going forward, the single checkUserEligibility method can be used to get the same information. This addition introduces a single pathway for developers to determine eligibility for many features. At launch, the new method will return eligibility for creating/modifying grading periods and add-on attachment creation. Support for additional features will be added over time. See the user eligibility guide for more details.
The current checkAddOnCreationEligibility and checkGradingPeriodsSetupEligibility methods are now marked as deprecated. You do not need to take action at this time if your application is currently using them. We expect these methods will be removed sometime in 2025, and will provide migration guidance once a removal date has been set. We encourage you to adopt checkUserEligibility proactively.
API support for rubrics launched to general availability in December 2024. This new feature enables developers to create and manage Classroom rubrics on behalf of teachers at scale, and retrieve rubric-based grades on student submissions to support more holistic student performance insights.
As part of this change, API support for creating, updating, and deleting rubrics will only be possible for users with an Education Plus license. The aforementioned checkUserEligibility was expanded to enable developers to easily determine which users are able to take advantage of this functionality. The rubrics and user eligibility guides have been updated to reflect these changes. See the announcement for full details.
The add-ons requirements have been revised. We have made them less restrictive by changing several required items to recommendations. No action is required for already-published add-ons; these requirements will apply to all future add-on submissions.
Classroom API reference documentation
Please be advised of the following API changes this month:
The following methods are generally available:
The studentSubmission resource supports draftRubricGrades and assignedRubricGrades fields.
The checkUserEligibility() endpoint supports a CREATE_RUBRIC enum.
Reminders from last month
The draftGrade field is now correctly returned for student submissions marked as "missing". Previously, a bug was introduced when Classroom added default draft grades for missing assignments. The bug caused the draftGrade field to remain empty in cases where a default draft grade had been applied automatically due to the new grading setting and teachers hadn't set the draft grade themselves. See the bug report for more information.
Please be advised of the following documentation changes this month:
We've redesigned our Classroom API guides. The newly reorganized site should be much easier to navigate and more accessible to developers and school leaders. We welcome your feedback and suggestions on the redesign (use the Send Feedback button or open the Page info on the side of the page and click the “Send feedback” bug icon).
Reminders from last month:
Added guidance for using Apps Script with preview APIs.
Minor corrections to formatting and links.
💡Tip: Did you know that when Google Workspace anticipates critical changes to API services, such a breaking API changes or service deprecations, they send warning emails to the email(s) you configured in your Cloud project? Take 5 minutes today to check the Cloud Console > OAuth consent screen for your project(s), click Edit app, and verify the Developer contact information. Be sure to include more than just a single person's email, in case they leave the team or aren't available when an important update is announced.
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