How to delete CourseWork (Assignments) by title in Google Classroom - google-apps-script

Question

I have several courses that all have the same set of topics with coursework (Assignments) that have the same title in each of those topics. I am trying to delete those assignments from just a few of the topics in each course using Apps Script. I expected to be able to use Classroom.Courses.CourseWork.delete(), but, so far, my code does nothing. No error - just no change in the Assignments. I think my permissions and such are in order, because these are assignments that I created with this same account/permissions.
My issue might be that I am not able to get the coursework ids from the name of the assignment. I'm not sure how to do that, but I think it could be missing from my code.
Here's what I tried:
function deleteAssignments() {
var courseIds = ['100000000000','100000000001','100000000002'];
var topicNames = ['topic3','topic2','topic1'];
for (var i = 0; i < courseIds.length; i++) {
var topics = Classroom.Courses.Topics.list(courseIds[i]).topic;
var topicObj = topics.reduce((o, e) => Object.assign(o, {[e.name]: e.topicId}), {});
for (var j = 0; j < topicNames.length; j++) {
var topicId = topicObj[topicNames[j]];
var exec = Classroom.Courses.CourseWork.delete({
title: "Example Assignment",
topicId: topicId,
workType: "ASSIGNMENT",
}, courseIds[i]);
}
}
}
I checked the Google Classroom courses.courseWork docs, but I think I don't understand well enough how to structure my code as a whole to make use of the info there, because I don't have any background knowledge/training.
I used Problem listing assignments of a student in Google Classroom to come up with my code, but mine is not working and I can't figure out where I'm going wrong.
I also looked at Using Google Apps Script to list assignments through Google Classroom API using course.coursework.list, but when I run the code in the answer, my log says that it's loading, but it never appears to finish.

Answer 1

In this sample script, the courseworks are deleted by searching the coursework names.
Sample script:
Before you use this script, please confirm Classroom API is enabled at Advanced Google services, again.
function deleteCourseworks() {
var courseIds = ['###courseId1###', '###courseId2###',,,];
var courseworkNames = ["###coursework name1###", "###coursework name2###",,,];
for (var i = 0; i < courseIds.length; i++) {
var courseWorks = Classroom.Courses.CourseWork.list(courseIds[i], {courseWorkStates: "PUBLISHED"}).courseWork;
var courseWorkObj = courseWorks.reduce((o, e) => Object.assign(o, {[e.title]: e.id}), {});
for (var j = 0; j < courseworkNames.length; j++) {
var courseWorkId = courseWorkObj[courseworkNames[j]];
console.log(courseIds[i])
console.log(courseWorkId)
var exec = Classroom.Courses.CourseWork.remove(courseIds[i], courseWorkId);
}
}
}
In this case, if you want to delete the courseworks of the state of "DRAFT", please modify courseWorkStates: "PUBLISHED" to courseWorkStates: "DRAFT".
Note:
When an error like "status" : "PERMISSION_DENIED" and The Developer Console project is not permitted to make this request. occurs at Classroom.Courses.CourseWork.remove, the reason of issue can be seen at this thread. Please be careful this.
In that case, for example, it seems that the courseworks created with the GAS project can be deleted. It seems that this is the current specification.
References:
Method: courses.courseWork.list
Method: courses.courseWork.delete
Added:
The following sample script deletes the courseworks by searching the coursework names. But in this case, when the same coursework names are existing, all courseworks of them are deleted. So when you use this, please be careful this.
Sample script:
function deleteCourseworks() {
var courseIds = ['###courseId1###', '###courseId2###',,,];
var courseworkNames = ["###coursework name1###", "###coursework name2###",,,];
for (var i = 0; i < courseIds.length; i++) {
var courseWorks = Classroom.Courses.CourseWork.list(courseIds[i], {courseWorkStates: "PUBLISHED"}).courseWork;
var courseWorkObj = courseWorks.reduce((o, e) => Object.assign(o, {[e.title]: o[e.title] ? o[e.title].concat(e.id) : [e.id]}), {});
for (var j = 0; j < courseworkNames.length; j++) {
var courseWorkIds = courseWorkObj[courseworkNames[j]];
if (courseWorkIds) {
courseWorkIds.forEach(id => {
var exec = Classroom.Courses.CourseWork.remove(courseIds[i], id);
});
}
}
}
}