Turn WhatsApp discussion ideas into Canvas topics
Capture a prompt in WhatsApp and have Notis create the matching discussion topic in Canvas.
Trigger
New Message Received
Triggered in real time when your WhatsApp Business number receives an inbound message from a customer (text, media, location, or contact). Delivered via the Cloud API webhook.
Action
Create discussion topic
Creates a new discussion topic in a specified canvas course, allowing comprehensive configuration of its content, type, publication settings, engagement features, and associations.
Why this helps
Good discussion prompts get buried in chat threads before they make it into the course.
- Keep course prompts from getting buried in chats.
- Create a discussion topic from a natural language request.
- Reduce context switching during course preparation.
Setup
Build it in a few focused steps.
- 1Connect WhatsApp and Canvas once in the Notis portal.
- 2Create an automation and give it a clear name.
- 3Tell Notis to create a Canvas discussion topic when a WhatsApp message contains a prompt and identifies its course.
- 4Choose New Message Received as the trigger and select where run reports go.
- 5Test with one real discussion prompt and confirm the topic in Canvas.
Questions about this workflow
Can this create a discussion topic in any course?
The course needs to be identifiable from the message or your instruction. Provide the course context so Notis can create the topic in the right place.
Does the discussion publish automatically?
Set your instruction to specify whether topics should be published or saved for review, based on the available Canvas options.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
Supported Triggers and Actions
Notis builds workflows that link Whatsapp to Canvas. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.
Whatsapp triggers
Canvas actions
Recurring trigger
Notis starts this workflow on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, or during business hours.
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.
Webhook trigger
Notis starts this workflow when an external tool or custom backend sends an HTTP request.
Create appointment group
Creates a new appointment group in canvas for schedulable time slots within specified course or group contexts.
Message Status Updated
Triggers when a WhatsApp message status changes. IMPORTANT LIMITATION: WhatsApp Cloud API does not provide a native polling endpoint for message status. Status updates are ONLY delivered via webhooks in real-time. This trigger cannot directly poll the WhatsApp API for status updates. This trigger will return empty results as WhatsApp does not support this operation. To track message status updates, you must: 1. Set up a webhook endpoint to receive status notifications from WhatsApp 2. Store the webhook data in your own database 3. Use a different mechanism to query your stored webhook data For more information, see: - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/webhooks
Create an assignment
Creates a new assignment within a specified course in canvas lms.
New Message Received
Triggered in real time when your WhatsApp Business number receives an inbound message from a customer (text, media, location, or contact). Delivered via the Cloud API webhook.
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.
Interactive Reply Received
Triggered when a customer taps a quick-reply button or selects an option from an interactive list message you sent.
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.
Message Template Status Update
Triggered when the review status of a WhatsApp message template changes — for example approved, rejected, or flagged — on your WhatsApp Business Account.
Create communication channel
Creates a new communication channel (e.g., email, sms, push) for an existing canvas user to receive notifications.
Create content share
Shares a canvas content item to specified users, if the sender has necessary permissions and receiver ids are valid.
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.
Connect any two apps with Notis in the middle.
Whatsapp and Canvas, or any other combination from 1,000+ integrations.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
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