Qwickly LTI: {"code": "Unauthorized", "message": "Site login required"} Error Message – Qwickly

Users of Qwickly's LTI tools may sometimes observe the following error message when trying to use our tools:

{"code": "Unauthorized", "message": "Site login required"}

This error message doesn't originate from Qwickly and seems to come from the LMS system.

What Causes this Error to Appear?

Qwickly LTI uses your LMS's Authentication REST APIs to authenticate the current user with the LMS system (this process is done to ensure the user trying to access Qwickly's LTI tools is indeed the same user who is currently logged into the LMS system).

The error seems to be appearing for users when the tool is going through this workflow. Furthermore, this error only seems to appear for Users who are using an LTI placement that is launching the tool within the LMS in an iframe element.

We have been unable to pinpoint the exact causes of this issue, as this error message doesn't seem to be well documented. However, we suspect that web browsers have recently started applying more stringent checks on external tools that are loaded in an iframe from making requests or accessing cookies (more information here).

How Can I Fix This?

For clients who have reported this issue in the past, Qwickly's best-suggested solution for this issue has been to update their placements to open in a new window. Clients have reported that this change has fixed this issue for them.

Here are steps on how to update the tool to open in a new window on each supported LMS:

Blackboard

Go to System Admin > LTI Tool Providers > www.qwickly.tools > Manage Placements
Open your existing LTI placement
Set "Launch in a New Window" to True

Canvas

Steps to update Qwickly Attendance LTI's placement found here: https://qwickly.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038943171-Updating-Qwickly-Attendance-LTI-to-open-in-a-new-tab-on-Canvas

D2L Brightspace

Navigate to the Org-level or Course-level Navbar where you've configured the LTI link
Click on the edit icon for the specific LTI link
Set "Behavior" to "New Window/tab"
Click on "Save" and then click on "Save and Close" on the Navbar to update the behavior.

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