Scrape your Canvas website and download all content to a folder. Tested on 2019-04-13.

canvas-scraper.py

import argparse
import os
import re

from pathvalidate import sanitize_filename
from canvasapi import Canvas
from canvasapi.course import Course
from canvasapi.exceptions import Unauthorized, ResourceDoesNotExist
from canvasapi.file import File
from canvasapi.module import Module, ModuleItem


def extract_files(text):
    text_search = re.findall("/files/(\\d+)", text, re.IGNORECASE)
    groups = set(text_search)
    return groups


if __name__ == "__main__":
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Download all content from Canvas")
    parser.add_argument("url", help="URL to the Canvas website, e.g. https://canvas.utwente.nl")
    parser.add_argument("token", help="Token generated in the settings page on Canvas")
    parser.add_argument("output", help="Path to the output folder, e.g. output/")
    args = parser.parse_args()

    output = args.output.rstrip("/") + "/"

    canvas = Canvas(args.url, args.token)

    courses = canvas.get_courses()
    for course in courses:
        course: Course = course
        modules = course.get_modules()

        files_downloaded = set()

        for module in modules:
            module: Module = module
            module_items = module.get_module_items()
            for item in module_items:
                item: ModuleItem = item

                path = f"{output}/" \
                    f"{sanitize_filename(course.attributes['name'])}/" \
                    f"{sanitize_filename(module.attributes['name'])}/"
                if not os.path.exists(path):
                    os.makedirs(path)

                item_type = item.attributes["type"]
                print(f"{course.attributes['name']} - "
                      f"{module.attributes['name']} - "
                      f"{item.attributes['title']} ({item_type})")

                if item_type == "File":
                    file = canvas.get_file(item.attributes["content_id"])
                    files_downloaded.add(item.attributes["content_id"])
                    file.download(path + sanitize_filename(file.attributes['filename']))
                elif item_type == "Page":
                    page = course.get_page(item.attributes["page_url"])
                    with open(path + sanitize_filename(item.attributes['title']) + ".html", "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
                        f.write(page.attributes["body"] or "")
                    files = extract_files(page.attributes["body"] or "")
                    for file_id in files:
                        if file_id in files_downloaded:
                            continue
                        try:
                            file = course.get_file(file_id)
                            files_downloaded.add(file_id)
                            file.download(path + sanitize_filename(file.attributes['filename']))
                        except ResourceDoesNotExist:
                            pass
                elif item_type == "ExternalUrl":
                    url = item.attributes["external_url"]
                    with open(path + sanitize_filename(item.attributes['title']) + ".url", "w") as f:
                        f.write("[InternetShortcut]\n")
                        f.write("URL=" + url)
                elif item_type == "Assignment":
                    assignment = course.get_assignment(item.attributes["content_id"])
                    with open(path + sanitize_filename(item.attributes['title']) + ".html", "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
                        f.write(assignment.attributes["description"] or "")
                    files = extract_files(assignment.attributes["description"] or "")
                    for file_id in files:
                        if file_id in files_downloaded:
                            continue
                        try:
                            file = course.get_file(file_id)
                            files_downloaded.add(file_id)
                            file.download(path + sanitize_filename(file.attributes['filename']))
                        except ResourceDoesNotExist:
                            pass

        try:
            files = course.get_files()
            for file in files:
                file: File = file
                if not file.attributes["id"] in files_downloaded:
                    print(f"{course.attributes['name']} - {file.attributes['filename']}")
                    path = f"{output}/{sanitize_filename(course.attributes['name'])}/" \
                        f"{sanitize_filename(file.attributes['filename'])}"
                    file.download(path)
        except Unauthorized:
            pass

Awesome stuff, thank you! I forked it over at GH. Added an argument to specify which courses to scrape.

This is a great script! Worked for me and thank you to both Koenvh1 and john-hix :)

I made a few edits, namely one which is not working in scraping modules[20:25]. I receive an error for no Course with attributes any idea why it would only work for the entire set of modules, instead of select few?