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Turn Drive document comments into Canvas discussion entries

Let Notis bring important document feedback into the Canvas discussion where course follow-up happens.

Trigger

Comment Added (Docs/Sheets/Slides)

Triggers when a new comment is added to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.

Action

Create discussion entry

Tool to create a new entry in a canvas discussion topic. use when posting a message with optional attachments to a discussion topic.

Why this helps

Useful questions and feedback in Drive comments can be overlooked by people who mainly work in Canvas.

  • Surface document feedback in the course discussion.
  • Reduce manual follow-up across separate apps.
  • Preserve relevant context from the original comment.

Setup

Build it in a few focused steps.

  • 1Connect Google Drive and Canvas once in the Notis portal.
  • 2Create an automation in the portal or tell Notis in plain language.
  • 3Describe how to turn a new Drive comment into a Canvas discussion entry and which discussion topic to use.
  • 4Pick the Google Drive Comment Added trigger and choose where run reports should go.
  • 5Test with one real comment and check the discussion entry.

Questions about this workflow

Does this create a discussion topic too?

This workflow creates an entry in an existing discussion topic. Specify the topic in your instruction; the action does not create a topic.

Will the full document be copied into Canvas?

The workflow can use the comment and available context to write an entry. State what context to include in your instruction.

When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

Supported Triggers and Actions

Notis builds workflows that link Google Drive to Canvas. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.

Google Drive triggers

Canvas actions

Recurring trigger

Notis starts this workflow on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, or during business hours.

TriggerScheduled

Create account notification

Creates a global notification within a canvas account, ensuring `end at` is after `start at` and any specified `notification roles` are valid.

ActionInstant

Webhook trigger

Notis starts this workflow when an external tool or custom backend sends an HTTP request.

TriggerInstant

Create appointment group

Creates a new appointment group in canvas for schedulable time slots within specified course or group contexts.

ActionInstant

Comment Added (Docs/Sheets/Slides)

Triggers when a new comment is added to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.

TriggerPolling

Create an assignment

Creates a new assignment within a specified course in canvas lms.

ActionInstant

File Created

Triggers when a new file is created in Google Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create assignment override

Creates an assignment override to adjust due/unlock/lock dates for an assignment in a course, targeting specific students (requires `title`), a group, or a course section; at least one target (`student ids`, `group id`, or `course section id`) is required.

ActionInstant

File Deleted or Trashed

Triggers when a file is moved to trash or permanently deleted in Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create Calendar Event

Creates a calendar event with options for recurrence (finite `rrule` series only), section-specific timings, and blackout dates within a specified context.

ActionInstant

File Shared (Permissions Added)

Triggers when new sharing permissions are granted to a file or folder. Uses Drive's `changes.list` endpoint with inline `permissions` in the `fields` mask so each change carries the file's current permission set provider-atomically. We diff that against `seen_permission_keys` to identify newly added grants. Drive page tokens are the primary cursor; if Drive rejects a stored token, the trigger raises `PollingTriggerError` without clearing state rather than silently re-baselining and dropping events. Limitation: truly ephemeral permissions (added and revoked between two polls without any other file modification in between) are not detected. Drive Activity API would catch those but requires an additional OAuth scope and a different payload contract.

TriggerPolling

Create communication channel

Creates a new communication channel (e.g., email, sms, push) for an existing canvas user to receive notifications.

ActionInstant

File Updated

Triggers when a file's metadata or content changes in Google Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create content share

Shares a canvas content item to specified users, if the sender has necessary permissions and receiver ids are valid.

ActionInstant

Google Drive Changes

Triggers when changes are detected in a Google Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create conversation

Use to send messages in canvas by creating a new conversation or adding to an existing one; an existing conversation with the same recipients (and matching scope/filter, if specified) may be reused unless `force new` is true.

ActionInstant

Connect any two apps with Notis in the middle.

Google Drive and Canvas, or any other combination from 1,000+ integrations.

When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

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