instructure/canvas-lms · error · GraphQL::ExecutionError

selectedCourse must be 'all' or 'course_

Error message

selectedCourse must be 'all' or 'course_{id}'

What it means

The course work widget accepts a "selectedCourse" filter that must be either the literal string "all" or a string matching /^course_\d+$/ (e.g. "course_42"). validate_course_work_filters! raises this GraphQL::ExecutionError for any other value, including bare numeric IDs or non-string types.

Solutions

1. Format the value as "all" or "course_<numeric_id>" (e.g. "course_42")
2. Ensure the value is a String, not an integer — stringify ids with "course_#{id}"
3. Verify the id portion contains digits only (no non-numeric characters)

Example fix

// before
filters: { "selectedCourse": 42 }
// after
filters: { "selectedCourse": "course_42" }

if (filters.selectedCourse !== undefined) {
  const v = filters.selectedCourse;
  if (!(typeof v === "string" && (v === "all" || /^course_\d+$/.test(v)))) {
    throw new Error("selectedCourse must be 'all' or 'course_{id}'");
  }
}

const isValidSelectedCourse = (v) => typeof v === "string" && (v === "all" || /^course_\d+$/.test(v));

When it happens

Trigger: Sending filters["selectedCourse"] = 42 (integer), "42", "course_abc", "Course_42", "", or null for the course work widget.

Common situations: Front-end passing the raw canvas course id instead of the prefixed "course_{id}" string; dropping the prefix during serialization; type coercion turning the value into an integer.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

Related errors

• A maximum of 50 assessees can be provided at once
• A maximum of 50 assessors can be provided at once
• All ConversationMessages must exist within the same…
• Anonymous assignments must be manually posted
• Assignment overrides are not allowed in the parent…

AI-assisted analysis of instructure/canvas-lms@1c9f0bb801 (2026-09-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f72e0f341130af3d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at app/graphql/mutations/update_widget_dashboard_config.rb:130

  def validate_todo_list_filters!(filters)
    if filters.key?("filter")
      filter_value = filters["filter"]
      unless filter_value.is_a?(String) && VALID_TODO_FILTERS.include?(filter_value)
        raise GraphQL::ExecutionError, "filter must be one of: #{VALID_TODO_FILTERS.join(", ")}"
      end
    end

    invalid_keys = filters.keys - ["filter"]
    unless invalid_keys.empty?
      raise GraphQL::ExecutionError, "invalid filter keys for todo list widget: #{invalid_keys.join(", ")}"
    end
  end

  def validate_course_work_filters!(filters)
    if filters.key?("selectedCourse")
      course_value = filters["selectedCourse"]
      unless course_value.is_a?(String) && (course_value == "all" || course_value.match?(/^course_\d+$/))
        raise GraphQL::ExecutionError, "selectedCourse must be 'all' or 'course_{id}'"
      end
    end

    if filters.key?("selectedDateFilter")
      date_filter = filters["selectedDateFilter"]
      unless date_filter.is_a?(String) && VALID_DATE_FILTERS.include?(date_filter)
        raise GraphQL::ExecutionError, "selectedDateFilter must be one of: #{VALID_DATE_FILTERS.join(", ")}"
      end
    end

    invalid_keys = filters.keys - ["selectedCourse", "selectedDateFilter"]
    unless invalid_keys.empty?
      raise GraphQL::ExecutionError, "invalid filter keys for course work widget: #{invalid_keys.join(", ")}"
    end
  end

  def validate_generic_filters!(filters)
    filters.each_value do |value|

View on GitHub (pinned to 1c9f0bb801)