Canva reference architecture

Canva Reference Architecture

Overview

Production-ready architecture for Canva Connect API integrations. All interactions use the REST API at api.canva.com/rest/v1/* with OAuth 2.0 PKCE authentication.

Project Structure

my-canva-integration/
├── src/
│   ├── canva/
│   │   ├── client.ts           # REST client wrapper with auto-refresh
│   │   ├── auth.ts             # OAuth 2.0 PKCE flow
│   │   ├── types.ts            # API request/response TypeScript types
│   │   └── errors.ts           # CanvaAPIError class
│   ├── services/
│   │   ├── design.service.ts   # Design creation, export, listing
│   │   ├── asset.service.ts    # Asset upload and management
│   │   ├── template.service.ts # Brand template autofill (Enterprise)
│   │   └── folder.service.ts   # Folder management
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── auth.ts             # OAuth callback endpoints
│   │   ├── designs.ts          # Design CRUD routes
│   │   ├── exports.ts          # Export trigger/download routes
│   │   └── webhooks.ts         # Webhook receiver
│   ├── middleware/
│   │   ├── auth.ts             # Verify user has valid Canva token
│   │   └── rate-limit.ts       # Client-side rate limit guard
│   ├── store/
│   │   └── tokens.ts           # Encrypted token storage (DB)
│   └── index.ts
├── tests/
│   ├── mocks/
│   │   └── canva-server.ts     # MSW mock server
│   ├── unit/
│   │   └── design.service.test.ts
│   └── integration/
│       └── canva-api.test.ts
├── .env.example
└── package.json

Layer Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│             Routes Layer                │
│   (Express/Next.js — HTTP in/out)       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│           Service Layer                 │
│  (Business logic, caching, validation)  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│          Canva Client Layer             │
│   (REST calls, token refresh, retry)    │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│         Infrastructure Layer            │
│    (Token store, cache, queue)          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Service Layer Pattern

// src/services/design.service.ts
import { CanvaClient } from '../canva/client';
import { LRUCache } from 'lru-cache';

export class DesignService {
  private cache = new LRUCache<string, any>({ max: 200, ttl: 300_000 });

  constructor(private canva: CanvaClient) {}

  async create(opts: {
    type: 'preset' | 'custom';
    name?: string;
    width?: number;
    height?: number;
    title: string;
    assetId?: string;
  }) {
    const designType = opts.type === 'preset'
      ? { type: 'preset' as const, name: opts.name! }
      : { type: 'custom' as const, width: opts.width!, height: opts.height! };

    return this.canva.request('/designs', {
      method: 'POST',
      body: JSON.stringify({
        design_type: designType,
        title: opts.title,
        ...(opts.assetId && { asset_id: opts.assetId }),
      }),
    });
  }

  async get(id: string) {
    const cached = this.cache.get(id);
    if (cached) return cached;

    const result = await this.canva.request(`/designs/${id}`);
    this.cache.set(id, result);
    return result;
  }

  async export(designId: string, format: object): Promise<string[]> {
    // Start export job
    const { job } = await this.canva.request('/exports', {
      method: 'POST',
      body: JSON.stringify({ design_id: designId, format }),
    });

    // Poll for completion
    return this.pollExport(job.id);
  }

  private async pollExport(exportId: string, timeoutMs = 60000): Promise<string[]> {
    const start = Date.now();
    while (Date.now() - start < timeoutMs) {
      const { job } = await this.canva.request(`/exports/${exportId}`);
      if (job.status === 'success') return job.urls;
      if (job.status === 'failed') throw new Error(`Export failed: ${job.error?.message}`);
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 2000));
    }
    throw new Error('Export timeout');
  }
}

Data Flow

User clicks "Create Design"
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│   Route     │  POST /api/designs
│   Handler   │
└──────┬──────┘
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│  Design     │  Validates input, checks auth
│  Service    │
└──────┬──────┘
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│  Canva      │  POST api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs
│  Client     │  (auto-refreshes token if expired)
└──────┬──────┘
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│  Canva      │  Returns design.id, edit_url, view_url
│  API        │
└─────────────┘
       │
       ▼
  Redirect user to edit_url → Canva Editor

Auth Middleware

// src/middleware/auth.ts
export function requireCanvaAuth(tokenStore: TokenStore) {
  return async (req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) => {
    const userId = req.user?.id;
    if (!userId) return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Not authenticated' });

    const tokens = await tokenStore.get(userId);
    if (!tokens) return res.status(403).json({ error: 'Canva not connected' });

    // Attach client to request for downstream use
    req.canva = new CanvaClient({
      clientId: process.env.CANVA_CLIENT_ID!,
      clientSecret: process.env.CANVA_CLIENT_SECRET!,
      tokens,
      onTokenRefresh: (newTokens) => tokenStore.save(userId, newTokens),
    });

    next();
  };
}

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
Circular dependencies	Wrong layering	Services import client, not vice versa
Token not found	User hasn't connected Canva	Redirect to OAuth flow
Cache stale	Design updated in Canva	Invalidate on webhook events
Service timeout	Export taking too long	Increase timeout, add job queue

Resources

• Canva Starter Kit
• Canva API Reference

Next Steps

For multi-environment setup, see canva-multi-env-setup.