How do I make API calls in an account with an access token?
If you have generated an API access token, you can use it to make API calls.
Canvas tokens align with Canvas permissions. If your Canvas account is deleted or if you are no longer an administrator, your tokens will also be revoked.
Option One: Make A Call Over HTTPS
All API calls must also be made over HTTPS. The access token must be included as a URL query parameter in any API calls made to Canvas. For example, the endpoint to grab the user's list of courses is:
- GET /api/v1/courses.json
To retrieve Bob's list of course and if Bob's access token were "token_of_magical_power" then you would call
- GET /api/v1/courses.json?access_token=token_of_magical_powers
For a detailed example of using the API, check out the API basics documentation on github.
Option Two: Make A Call Using A Request Header
The other way to make an API call with an access token is to add it to the request header. If using curl (a command line program that can be used for running API requests) you would specify the access token like this.
- curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" 'https://<canvas>/api/v1/accounts/<account_id>/courses.json'
Notice that the access_token is not in the URL at all.
See the example on the API documentation site.
