Administration Guide - Required Steps

This article walks Canvas administrators through the required steps to connect a Canvas instance to PaperScorer. Once these steps are complete, individual teachers at your institution can connect their own accounts.

For Canvas administrators only. This article covers the initial Canvas-side setup that an institution’s Canvas administrator must complete. Individual teachers should see Connecting Your Account to Canvas instead.

Step 1: Create a Developer Key in Canvas

From the main Canvas dashboard, click Admin in the main navigation. This opens a sub-menu listing the Canvas instances you administer. Select the instance you want to connect to PaperScorer. (The screenshot below is from our development instance — your list will look different.)

You’ll be directed to the admin settings page for the instance. Click Developer Keys in the menu.

You’ll see a list of existing developer keys (which may be empty if you haven’t created any before). Click the + Developer Key button and select the + API Key option from the sub-menu.

You’ll be taken to a form to configure the new API key.

Key Name (required): a descriptive name that anyone viewing the key list will recognize. We recommend something like PaperScorer Access Key.
Owner Email (required): the email address of the person who owns this key and would be contacted to troubleshoot issues. Usually the address of whoever is creating the key.
Redirect URIs (required): the URLs Canvas is allowed to redirect to after authorization. Use exactly: https://app.paperscorer.com/canvas/connect
Icon URL (optional): displays an icon next to the key in lists. To show the PaperScorer logo: https://static.paperscorer.com/styles/paperscorer/logo/paper-scorer-logo.png
Scopes: PaperScorer expects Force Scopes to be turned OFF.

PaperScorer expects Force Scopes to be turned OFF because our app evolves and may require new or changed scopes over time. If your security policy requires Force Scopes to be on, please contact our support team so we can coordinate the exact scope set.

When the form is complete, click Save. You’ll be returned to the Developer Keys list.

From the Developer Keys page, complete two more steps:

Activate the key. Click the state toggle so it shifts right and turns green.
Reveal the key details. Click Show Key — you’ll need the Developer Key ID and the Developer Key itself for the next step.

Step 2: Add the Connection in PaperScorer

With the developer key details in hand, sign in to the PaperScorer web app. You’ll need a PaperScorer account to proceed.

NOTE: You do not need a Teacher Pro account to create or manage Canvas connections — a free account is sufficient.

From any page in the PaperScorer app, click the Connections main-navigation option.

On the connections page, click Add connection.

Fill in the Add Connection modal:

Type (required): set to Canvas.
Client domain (required): the Canvas instance domain from Step 1. Don’t include http:// or https:// — just the host (e.g. paperscorer.instructure.com ).
Client ID (required): the Developer Key ID. This is the value shown just above the Show Key button in Canvas’s Developer Keys page.
Client Secret (required): the Developer Key value itself. Click Show Key in Canvas and copy the revealed value.

After adding the connection, complete two final steps to activate it:

Activate the connection. Toggle the connection to its active state. You can toggle this off at any point in the future to immediately disconnect all your Canvas users at once.
Verify the connection. This sends you through a quick sign-in flow against your Canvas instance to confirm the credentials work. No session data is saved — PaperScorer just confirms the auth round-trip succeeds.

Once both steps are complete, individual users at your institution can connect their accounts and begin syncing data between PaperScorer and Canvas.

What Your Users Should Do Next

Your users can follow the Connecting Your Account to Canvas walkthrough to link their personal accounts.

If you’d also like to add a PaperScorer link directly to the Canvas course navigation (so teachers can launch PaperScorer from any course page), see the optional administration steps. This is recommended for institutions with heavier PaperScorer usage but is not required for the base integration.

Troubleshooting

Users report “invalid scope” or “insufficient scope” errors when connecting.

Confirm that Force Scopes is turned off on the developer key. If your policy requires Force Scopes on, contact PaperScorer support.

Users are redirected to a Canvas error page after authorizing.

Check the Redirect URI on the developer key — it must be exactly https://app.paperscorer.com/canvas/connect with no trailing slash or other variations.

I need to rotate the developer key.

Create a new key in Canvas, add a new connection in PaperScorer with the new credentials, activate it, then deactivate the old one. Existing user connections continue to work as long as one active connection points at the right Canvas instance.