Download the PHP package smtech/reflexive-canvas-lti without Composer

ReflexiveCanvasLTI

Abandoned

This project has not been actively maintained since the spring of 2017, when Seth Battis changed roles and was no longer working in a Canvas (or other LTI-capable) environment. Other interested developers are welcome to take up the torch, if interested.

Meanwhile, I observe that Steven Vickers has released an updated version of his PHP LTI Tool Provider that can serve as a base for further LTI development using PHP.

About

LTI tool provider class that includes the \"reflexive\" reach back into Canvas via the API.

Full documentation in repository.

This is one of two packages that are meant to facilitate and accelerate LTI development in PHP, allowing for built-in "reflexive" access to the Canvas APIs from the LTI Tool Provider.

1. This package, smtech/reflexive-canvas-lti is the "plain vanilla" version. That is: it's pure object-oriented goodness with no GUI to add any idiosyncratic flavoring to the process. That makes it a touch more limited, but also (one hopes) more reusable in the grand scheme of things.
2. The other package, smtech/stmarks-reflexive-canvas-lti provides a bunch of handy GUI add-ons, including Smarty templating (via smtech/stmarkssmarty, the St. Mark's-styled extension of my generic battis/bootstrapsmarty package that provides easy access to Bootstrap within Smarty templates). Additionally, this package, as it provides a GUI inherently, also provides some handy interactive control panels:
   • Toolbox::interactiveGetAccessToken() is pretty much what it sounds like: it handles acquiring an API access token from Canvas interactively (providing a well-configured config.xml, of course).
   • Toolbox::interactiveConsumersControlPanel() provides an interactive control panel for managing LTI tool consumer keys and secrets.

How to choose?

It comes down to whether you like building web pages the way I like building web pages (striving for real Model-View-Controller separation, to make my code easier to read/understand), or if you have another paradigm that you prefer. If you like my way, I would recommend extending smtech/stmarks-reflexive-canvas-lti to including branding appropriate for your own institution and using that. If not, or if you are trying to avoid GUI-entanglements, this "plain vanilla" package fits the bill.

Sample code

In the examples directory you will find two example tool providers:

1. tool-provider shows an example of an LTI Tool Provider constructed with the "plain vanilla" package (this one).
2. stmarks-tool-provider shows the same example, tweaked to use smtech/stmarks-reflexive-canvas-lti instead -- which I think is cleaner, easier and simpler. But I'm biased.

Composer Fiddly-bits

Nota bene: Because Stephen Vickers hasn't yet published his LTI_Tool_Provider via Composer, I think the best way to incorporate his code is to replicate the following within your own composer.json file. (That way, when smtech/reflexive-canvas-lti depends on spvsoftwareproducts/LTI_Tool_Provider, Composer will know what we're all taking about.)

Also: to download the spvsoftwareproducts/LTI_Tool_Provider package from its central repository, you have to allow non-HTTPS downloads, which is a bit of a security hole. Not the end of the world, but not Best Practices, either.

And also: