Getting your course data in sync between Full Fabric and Canvas can feel like a never-ending admin task — but it doesn't have to be. With Canvas integration enabled, grades flow automatically from Canvas into Full Fabric, and students registered in Full Fabric appear in their Canvas courses without manual intervention 📚. This guide walks you through setting it up and keeping it running smoothly.
Before you start: what do you need?
To use Canvas integration, you'll need:
Admin access to both Full Fabric and Canvas
Canvas Account ID (your institution's unique Canvas identifier)
Canvas access token (generated in Canvas as an admin)
Course mapping between Full Fabric and Canvas (we'll help you with this)
If you're not sure where to find these in Canvas, check your Canvas administrator documentation or contact your Canvas support team.
How do I enable Canvas integration?
In Full Fabric, navigate to Settings → General settings → Integrations → Canvas.
Set up the configuration fields.
Click Authenticate.
Once enabled, Full Fabric can now communicate with your Canvas instance. The next step is to tell Full Fabric which of your courses should sync with Canvas.
How do I map courses between Full Fabric and Canvas?
Course mapping is how you tell Full Fabric which Full Fabric courses correspond to which Canvas courses. Without these mappings, Full Fabric won't know where to send enrollments or retrieve grades from.
Setting up a course mapping
In Full Fabric, go to Settings → General settings → Integrations → Canvas.
Click on Sync Courses.
From the dropdown, select the Full Fabric course field you want to map.
In the Canvas property field, start typing the name of the field and the dropdown will display the available Course fields to map to.
Full Fabric will now sync the data saved for that course to the courses in Canvas.
Viewing and editing your mappings
All your course mappings appear in the Course Mappings table. To edit a mapping, click the dropdown and make your changes. To remove a mapping, click the delete icon.
How do grades and enrollments sync?
Once your courses are mapped, two things happen automatically:
Student enrollments — When you register a student in a Full Fabric course, Full Fabric automatically enrolls them in the mapped Canvas course with the correct role (e.g., student, instructor). If a student is dropped or withdrawn in Full Fabric, they're unenrolled from Canvas as well.
Grades — Every day, Full Fabric retrieves the latest grades from Canvas and updates your Full Fabric records. By default, all grades sync automatically.
Can I trigger a sync manually?
Yes. If you don't want to wait for the daily sync, you can run one on demand:
Go to Academics → Calendar.
Find the course you want to sync and click on it.
You'll see a Sync with Canvas on the top-right alongside the last sync date.
Full Fabric will fetch the latest data from Canvas and update your records immediately.
How do I monitor syncs and check for errors?
The Sync monitoring dashboard shows you the status of every sync — when it ran, whether it succeeded, and any errors that cropped up 🔍.
Go to Settings → Sync Management
The Sync logs table shows:
Course: which course was synced
Last sync: when the sync last ran
Status: whether it succeeded or failed
Records synced: how many grades or enrollments were updated
Errors: a brief note if something went wrong
If a sync fails, click the row to see details. Common reasons include:
Canvas API rate limit exceeded — Canvas limits how many requests we can make per hour. If we hit the limit, Full Fabric retries automatically after a short wait.
Missing course mapping — The course hasn't been mapped yet. Add a mapping and try again.
Invalid Canvas credentials — Your Canvas token may have expired. Re-enter your credentials in the Canvas integration settings.
What happens if a sync fails?
Don't worry — Full Fabric is resilient. If a sync fails due to a transient network issue or Canvas API hiccup, Full Fabric automatically retries the sync several times before giving up.
For persistent errors (like invalid credentials), you'll need to fix the underlying problem and then retry.
What data syncs, and what doesn't?
What syncs:
✅ Course grades (from Canvas to Full Fabric)
✅ Course creation (Full Fabric to Canvas)
✅ Individual assignment grades (if enabled; Canvas to Full Fabric)
✅ Student enrollments (Full Fabric to Canvas)
✅ Student unenrollments and withdrawals (Full Fabric to Canvas)
✅ User creation (Full Fabric to Canvas)
What doesn't sync:
❌ Assignment files, rubrics, or other course content
❌ Canvas users are never created in Full Fabric (Canvas is not your user source of truth)
❌ Grades cannot be edited in Full Fabric and pushed back to Canvas (Canvas is the source of truth for grades)