docs/README.md

@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # Introduction
-The Canvas Student Data Export Tool can export nearly all of a student's data from Instructure Canvas Learning Management System (Canvas LMS).  
-This is useful when you are graduating or leaving your college or university, and would like to have a backup of all the data you had in canvas.  
+The Canvas Student Data Export Tool can export nearly all of a student's data from Instructure Canvas Learning Management System (Canvas LMS).
+This is useful when you are graduating or leaving your college or university, and would like to have a backup of all the data you had in canvas.
 
-The tool exports all of the following data:  
+The tool exports all of the following data:
 - Course Assignments
 - Course Announcements
 - Course Discussions
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ The tool exports all of the following data:
 - Course Files
 - Course Modules
 
-The tool will export your data in JSON format, and will organize it nicely into folders named for every term of every year.  
-Example:  
+The tool will export your data in JSON format, and will organize it nicely into folders named for every term of every year.
+Example:
 - Fall 2013
   - Econ 101
     - files
@@ -36,21 +36,33 @@ Example:
 
 # Getting Started
 ## Dependencies
-To run the program, you will need the following dependencies:  
-`pip install requests`  
-`pip install jsonpickle`  
-`pip install canvasapi`  
+To run the program, you will need the following dependencies:
+`pip install requests`
+`pip install jsonpickle`
+`pip install canvasapi`
 
-Then run from the command line:  
+Then run from the command line:
 `python export.py`
 
 ## Configuration
 These are the configuration parameters for the program:
-- Canvas API URL
-- Canvas API key
-- Canvas User ID
+- Canvas API URL - this is the URL of your institution, for example `https://example.instructure.com`
+- Canvas API key - this can be created by going to Canvas and navigating to `Account` > `Settings` > `Approved Integrations` > `New Access Token`
+- Canvas User ID - this can be found at `https://example.instructure.com/api/v1/users/self` in the `id` field
 - Directory in which to download course information to (will be created if not present)
 - List of Course IDs that should be skipped
 
+### Loading credentials from a file
+To avoid manually entering credentials every time you run the program, you can create a `credentials.yaml` file in the same directory as the script that has the following fields:
+
+```yaml
+API_URL: < URL of your institution >
+API_KEY: < API Key from Canvas >
+USER_ID: < User ID from Canvas >
+```
+
+You can then run the script as normal:
+`python export.py`
+
 # Contribute
-I would love to see this script's functionality expanded and improved! I welcome all pull requests :) Thank you!  
+I would love to see this script's functionality expanded and improved! I welcome all pull requests :) Thank you!