Learn LTI®

Explanations of the LTI® standard for people who have to build against it. Much of what is published about LTI® either describes the specification in the abstract or was written for LTI® 1.1 and never updated. These pages cover the current version, with the requests and responses an integration actually exchanges.

They are written from running LTIAAS in production. Where something is a property of the specification rather than of our service, it is marked as such, and the specification itself is published by 1EdTech Consortium, Inc.

Start here

• What is LTI® 1.3? — the standard, and the launch sequence end to end
• Tool, platform, provider, consumer — the vocabulary, including what 1.3 renamed
• LTI® 1.3 vs LTI® 1.1 — what changed, side by side

Building an integration

• How to add LTI® 1.3 to your application — what you have to implement, and what you can avoid
• Migrating from LTI® 1.1 to LTI® 1.3 — moving an existing integration without breaking the one that works
• LTI® 1.3 libraries compared — what the open-source options cover, and what they leave you
• The LTI® 1.3 security model — what establishes trust, and the checks not to skip
• Building a multi-tenant LTI® tool — what breaks when the second institution arrives
• LTI® 1.3 as a service — what you are choosing between when you decide whether to implement it yourself

Configuration and the services

What the setup fields mean, and what each LTI® Advantage service actually does.

• Every LTI® 1.3 configuration field explained — issuer, client ID, deployment ID and the rest, and which side generates each
• What is an LTI® key? — and why 1.3 does not have one
• LTI® dynamic registration explained — one pasted URL instead of the exchange
• How LTI® deep linking works — letting a teacher pick content inside your tool
• How LTI® grade passback works — line items, scores and why a score can succeed and still not appear
• How LTI® roster access works — reading a course roster, and what personal data you are not entitled to
• LTI® custom parameters and variable substitution — extra values per placement, and why substitution support varies

Browsers and the iframe

An LTI® tool runs inside an iframe, which puts it on the wrong side of every browser restriction on third-party storage. This is the most common reason a working integration starts failing for some users and not others.

• Why LTI® launches break without third-party cookies — what the browser is actually taking away, and the four fixes
• LTI® Platform Storage explained — the specification's own answer, message by message
• Launching outside the iframe — the fallback that always works, and how not to break deep linking with it
• Why your LTI® tool shows a blank page — triage for the symptom everything else produces

LTI® by platform

Every major platform supports LTI® 1.3. What differs is how you register with it, and what each one does that the specification does not describe.

• Does Canvas support LTI® 1.3?
• Does Moodle support LTI® 1.3?
• Does Blackboard support LTI® 1.3?
• Does Brightspace support LTI® 1.3?
• Does Schoology support LTI® 1.3?
• Does Sakai support LTI® 1.3?
• Does Open edX support LTI® 1.3?
• Does Google Classroom support LTI® 1.3? — the one where the answer is no
• Does Microsoft Teams support LTI® 1.3? — as a tool, not a platform

Choosing an approach

• LTI® or an LMS API? — a standard that works everywhere against a proprietary one that does more
• Is LTI® single sign-on? — what it authenticates, and what it leaves you
• Do you need LTI® certification? — what it proves, and what it costs
• How to test an LTI® 1.3 integration — getting a platform to launch from, and what to test once you have one
• How to become an LTI® platform — the other side, if you run the LMS rather than the tool

LTI® and other standards

• SCORM vs LTI® vs xAPI vs cmi5 — four standards that are not alternatives to each other
• OneRoster vs LTI® — moving roster data, versus launching a user

Reference

The guides document LTIAAS itself: account setup, the LMS-by-LMS registration steps, and each API. The glossary defines the terms these articles use.