What is Canvas LMS Connector?
Canvas LMS Connector is a full-stack web application I built to make Canvas data more accessible and social. Instead of digging through Canvas’s cluttered interface, users can see their courses and classmates in a clean, friendly UI.
The project lives at github.com/MLMecham/datathink-project.
The Stack
Frontend — React The UI is built in React, giving users a fast, responsive experience. It handles authentication input (your Canvas API token) and displays your courses and friends in a clean dashboard.
Backend — FastAPI FastAPI serves as the bridge between the React frontend and Canvas. It exposes endpoints the frontend calls to fetch user data, and handles all the Canvas API communication server-side.
The Secret Sauce — canvasconnector The backend is powered by canvasconnector, a Python library that wraps the Canvas REST API into clean, Pythonic calls — so FastAPI doesn’t have to deal with raw HTTP requests to Canvas directly.
What It Does
- 🎓 Shows you your enrolled courses
- 👥 Displays your Canvas friends and classmates
- 🔑 Uses your personal Canvas API token to authenticate
What’s Next?
An interactive version of this post using marimo is on the roadmap — imagine entering your Canvas API token right here on the page and seeing your courses load instantly. Stay tuned.