instructure/canvas-lms · error · OtherError

Invalid item identifier

Error message

Invalid item identifier

What it means

selectServerItem validates that the requested itemID exists in the previously fetched item list before appending it to the selection state. If no list entry's value matches the given itemID, the ID does not correspond to any visible course/content item, so OtherError is raised.

Solutions

1. Re-fetch the item list with getServerItems and select an itemID from that fresh list
2. Confirm the item exists and is visible to the authenticated teacher in the session scope
3. Clear the client's cached selection state and restart the Respondus wizard

Example fix

// before
client.selectItem("course", "123456") // stale id
// after
items = client.getItems("course")
client.selectItem("course", items.first.value)

valid_ids = getServerItems(session, "course").map(&:value)
raise "unknown item id" unless valid_ids.include?(itemID)

begin
  servant.selectServerItem(session, "course", itemID)
rescue RespondusApi::OtherError
  refresh item list and reselect
end

When it happens

Trigger: Calling selectServerItem with itemType "course" or "content" and an itemID that was never returned by getServerItems for the current session, or an ID belonging to a course outside the session's scope.

Common situations: Stale Respondus client cache referencing a deleted or renamed course; client hard-coding item IDs from another Canvas account/shard; session scope changed between listing and selecting.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Invalid item type
• Invalid upload type

AI-assisted analysis of instructure/canvas-lms@1c9f0bb801 (2026-09-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f8101e71a9411621. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at gems/plugins/respondus_soap_endpoint/lib/respondus_soap_endpoint/urn_RespondusAPIServant.rb:315

    #
    def selectServerItem(userName, password, context, itemType, itemID, clearState)
      selection_state = session["selection_state"] ||= []
      if clearState == "true"
        selection_state.clear
      end
      if itemType == "none"
        return []
      end

      # call the unwrapped version of getServerItem
      list, _ = _getServerItems(userName, password, context, itemType)

      case itemType
      when "course", "content"
        if list.item.find { |i| i.value == itemID }
          selection_state << itemID
        else
          raise OtherError, "Invalid item identifier"
        end
      else
        raise OtherError, "Invalid item type"
      end

      []
    end

    # SYNOPSIS
    #   PublishServerItem(userName, password, context, itemType, itemName, uploadType, fileName, fileData)
    #
    # ARGS
    #   userName        C_String - {http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string
    #   password        C_String - {http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string
    #   context         C_String - {http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string
    #   itemType        C_String - {http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string
    #   itemName        C_String - {http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string
    #   uploadType      C_String - {http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string

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