What's New in the Edlink API

by Dakota Gordon

We're excited to announce the release of the latest version of the Edlink API - 1.7.0. With this release there are a number of major behind-the-scenes changes to our LMS syncing algorithms.

These changes pave the way to a future series of improvements to our sync which will make Edlink data the most accurate and timely available. Eventually, teachers and students will no longer have to wait for things to sync - updates will be available in a matter of minutes.

These updates also set the stage for more sophisticated data sharing rules to keep things safe for schools, and properly limit access to applications for developers.

Version 1.7.3

  • Blackboard, Canvas, Schoology, and Brightspace custom URLs are now better able to handle trailing slashes or improper URL formats.
  • General improvements to OneRoster sync.
  • The OneRoster organization identifier is now available as organization.properties.identifier.
  • The Canvas sync process will now handle some rather unusual edge cases with regard to enrollments.
  • There can now be multiple enrollments between a user and an organization.
  • There can be multiple enrollments of the same enrollment type between a user and an organization (yes, for some reason this happens in practice).
  • Although our database will now sync invalid items (e.g. an enrollment with no corresponding person), these items will not be returned through our API.

Version 1.7.2

  • Schoology assignment dates (e.g. due date, display date) will now correctly adjust for the time zone.

Version 1.7.1

  • All cookies are now set to SameSite=true and Secure.
  • The /my/profile call will now optionally return expanded data for the person's Source, Provider, District, and Integration.

Version 1.7.0

  • Microsoft users will now be imported with the correct system-level role.
  • Fixed a bug in Microsoft submission grading that would have prevented the API from submitting a grade of "0".
  • All API responses will now contain the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) header.
  • You were not previously able to make non-HTTPs requests, but this header was not present.
  • People may now contain a properties object which may contain LMS-specific properties.
  • Organizations may now contain a properties object which may contain LMS-specific properties.
  • Major improvements to the LMS sync process.
  • Targeted updates can be made on-the-fly for more timely data syncing.
  • Major internal changes have been made to the Events API.
  • Externally, the API is very slightly different.

You can keep up with all of our changes to the Edlink API and the Edlink Dashboard in the Changes section of our documentation.