There are two types of configuration files for psiTurk. Configuration files contain information needed to run an experiment as well as options which control how psiTurk behaves.
The first file is a "global" configuration file and resides in your home folder (~/.psiturkconfig). The second file is a "local" configuration file and resides in the folder of each experiment.
In general the "global" configuration file sets project-wide configuration options (i.e., those you want set the same for all the experiments or projects you are working on). The "local" configuration file contains the unique settings for individual experiments.
Note
In general, changes to either the local and global file require restarting the server process as it may change the behavior. Generally it is best to edit these files while psiturk is not running, and then restart the command shell.
The global configuration file resides in your home folder in a "dot" file (/.psiturkconfig). This file is created automatically either the first time you run the psiturk command line tool or the first time you run psiturk-setup-example. The default file looks like this:
[AWS Access] aws_access_key_id = YourAccessKeyId aws_secret_access_key = YourSecretAccessKey aws_region = us-east-1 [psiTurk Access] psiturk_access_key_id = YourAccessKeyId psiturk_secret_access_id = YourSecretAccessKey
Other options can be added if you would like those to be global to all your projects. The default options include your access credentials/API keys for Amazon Web Services (and Mechanical Turk) as well as psiturk.org. You can learn how to obtain proper values for these settings by following those links.
You can customize the location of this file to something other than the ~ folder by setting the PSITURK_GLOBAL_CONFIG_LOCATION in your shell environment.
The local configuration file is specific to each project and resides in a file called config.txt in the top level of the project. Here is what config.txt looks like for the default psiTurk stroop project:
[HIT Configuration] title = Stroop task description = Judge the color of a series of words. amt_keywords = Perception, Psychology lifetime = 24 us_only = true approve_requirement = 95 contact_email_on_error = [email protected] ad_group = Default psiTurk Stroop Example psiturk_keywords = stroop organization_name = New Great University browser_exclude_rule = MSIE, mobile, tablet [Database Parameters] database_url = sqlite:///participants.db table_name = turkdemo [Server Parameters] host = localhost port = 22362 cutoff_time = 30 logfile = server.log loglevel = 2 debug = true login_username = examplename login_pw = examplepassword threads = auto secret_key = 'this is my secret key which is hard to guess, i should change this' #certfile = <path_to.crt> #keyfile = <path_to.key> [Task Parameters] experiment_code_version = 1.0 num_conds = 1 num_counters = 1 [Shell Parameters] launch_in_sandbox_mode = true use_psiturk_ad_server = true ad_location = false
This file is divided into a few sections which are described in detail. Each field is described by name and includes in brackets the type of data it expects.
Note
Any configuration option can actually be placed in either
the global or local configuration file. For example, if you
wanted to run different project from different AWS accounts, you
could add an [AWS access] section to move the local config.txt files and
have different values in different folders. Likewise, if you wanted
to have the same organization_name in all your experiments, you
could add a [HIT Configuration] section with an
organization_name field to your ~/.psiturkconfig file. Keep in
mind that settings in the local `config.txt` file always override
settings in the global `~/.psiturkconfig` file.
.. toctree::
config/hit_configuration.rst
config/database_parameters.rst
config/server_parameters.rst
config/task_parameters.rst
config/shell_parameters.rst