Brightspace/D2L APIs for Courses and Enrollments

Brightspace/D2L APIs for Courses and Enrollments

Part 1: Create a Role with Permissions 

We recommend you create a role specifically for this integration. This will allow you to control the permissions available to VitalSource without affecting other users.

1. Click on the gear icon to view the Admin Tools.
2. Under the Security Tab, select Roles & Permissions.
3. Click Create/Copy.
4. You can copy an existing role if you like or start fresh. Either way, make sure your role is configured as noted in the next steps.

• • General
    • Name: VitalSource
    • Cascading Role: Check this box
    • Description: Can add if needed
    • Role Alias: Can add if needed
  • You do not need to select anything in Tool Behavior Options or Classlist Display Options
  • Course Access Options:
    • Access Inactive Courses: Check the box
    • Access Past Courses: Check this box
    • Access Future Courses: Check this box
    • Access All Course Sections
    • Access All Course Groups

5. Click Save.
6. On the Edit Role Interactions page, check all boxes for your Administrator role.
7. Click Save and you have created the role.
8. On the Role List page, click the down arrow next to the VitalSource role you just created and select Import Permissions.
9. Download the .txt file attached to this article. 
   • This contains all the permissions required by VitalSource. See below for a complete list of permissions.
10. Select the VitalSource D2L Permissions file to import. Click Next, and then Import.

Part 2: Create a System User

1. Navigate to the Settings Menu (gear icon) and select Users.
2. Click New User and enter the following:
   • First Name: VitalSource
   • Last Name: Integration
   • Username: vst.integration
   • Role: Select the VitalSource role you created in Part 1
   • Password: Check the Manually set password box and enter a password that you will remember. You will need this later.
3. Click Save.

Part 3: Register an App 

1. Navigate to the Settings Menu (gear icon) and select Manage Extensibility.
2. Click Register an App and enter the following:
   • Application Name: VitalSource
   • Trusted URL: https://bc.vitalsource.com/oauth2callback
   • Major and minor version box is mandatory for the admin to fill in as well.
   • Enable this application: Check this box
   • I accept the Non-Commercial Developer Agreement: Check this box
   • Click Register Application
3. Copy the Application ID and Application Key and save them. You’ll need them again.
4. Click Register Application.
5. Copy the Application ID & Application Key and send them to the VitalSource team along with the URL for your Brightspace site.

Part 4: Authenticate

1. The VitalSource team will send you an authentication link after receiving the application key and ID from you.
2. Before clicking the link, go to your Brightspace site and make sure you are logged out of your own account.
3. Click the link and enter the username and password for the user you created in Part 2 above.
4. You should receive a Success! message meaning that you have authenticated the rostering application. Send a confirmation back to the VitalSource team.
5. Once VitalSource has confirmed that the setup was successful, please add a VitalSource link to a course in your upcoming term and click on this link.
   • This will initiate the API sync and allow us to begin pulling course and roster information.

For Each New Term

Each term sync is initiated with a click on the VitalSource link within a course associated with the upcoming term. To pull course and roster information for each new term, be sure to click on the VitalSource link in a course in the upcoming term to initiate the new term sync.

Permissions 

Here is a comprehensive list of the permissions required by the VitalSource app.

• Classlist (Brightspace Reference→ Here)
  • Has Access to the Classlist: All boxes
  • See Classlist Report: All boxes
  • View Group Enrollments: All boxes
• Content (Brightspace Reference→ Here)
  • View Course Content: All boxes
  • Manage Content: All boxes
  • Create and Edit Modules and Topics: All boxes
• Course Management Console (Brightspace Reference→ Here)
  • See Course Info: Course Offering, Group, Semester, Section, Department, Program, School Type, Campus
  • See Tool Management: Course Offering
  • Set Tool Status: Course Offering
• External Learning Tools (Brightspace Reference→ Here)
  • Manage External Learning Tools Configuration: Course Template, Course Offering, Semester, Section, Department, Program
  • Launch External Learning Tool Links: Course Offering
  • Manage and Delete External Learning Tool Links: Course Template, Course Offering, Semester, Section, Department, Program
  • Manage External Learning Tool Providers: Course Template, Course Offering, Semester, Section, Department, Program
  • Create Quicklinks from available External Learning Tools links: All boxes
  • Create External Learning Tool Links from available External Learning Tool Providers: All boxes
  • Manage LTI Advantage Tool Registrations: Organization
  • Manage LTI Advantage Tool Deployments: Organization
  • Delete External Learning Tool Links: All boxes
• My Org Units (Brightspace Reference→ Here)
  • See My Org Units: Organization, Course Template, Course Offering, Group, Semester, Section, Department, Program
  • Manage My Org Units tool: Course Offering
• Org Unit Editor (Brightspace Reference→ Here)
  • Can Create and Edit Org Units: Organization
• Tool Management 
  • See Org Tool Management: Organization
• User Information Privacy (Brightspace Reference→ Here)
  • See First Names: All boxes
  • See Last Names: All boxes
  • See Usernames: All boxes
  • See Org Defined IDs: All boxes
  • See Email Addresses: All boxes
• Users (Brightspace Reference→ Here)
  • View the Users' Email Address: All boxes
  • View Users' Org Defined IDs: All boxes
  • View User Enrollments: All boxes
  • Search for 'Instructor': All boxes
  • Search for 'Student': All boxes

Endpoints

Here is a comprehensive list of the D2L Valence APIs used by the VitalSource app.

• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.2/courses/:course_id
• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.2/orgstructure/:semester_id/children/
• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.2/enrollments/orgunits/:course_id/users/
• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.2/organization/info
• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.2/orgstructure/:semester_id
• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.2/orgstructure/:org_id/children
• GET /d2l/api/le/1.40/:course_id/content/root/
• POST /d2l/api/le/1.40/:course_id/content/root/
• GET /d2l/api/le/1.40/:course_id/content/modules/:module_id/structure/
• POST /d2l/api/le/1.40/:course_id/content/modules/:module_id/structure/
• POST /d2l/api/le/1.40/lti/link/:course_id
• POST /d2l/api/le/1.40/lti/quicklink/:course_id/:lti_link_id

Data Storage & Usage

Here is a description of the Brightspace data the VitalSource app receives and how that data is stored & used.