Configuration Files

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.

Global configuration file

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.

Local configuration file

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
number_hits_approved = 0
require_master_workers = false
contact_email_on_error = youremail@gmail.com
ad_group = Default psiTurk Stroop Example
psiturk_keywords = stroop
organization_name = New Great University
browser_exclude_rule = MSIE, mobile, tablet
allow_repeats = false

[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>
#adserver_revproxy_host = www.location.of.your.revproxy.sans.protocol.com
#adserver_revproxy_port = 80 # defaults to 80
#server_timeout = 30

[Task Parameters]
experiment_code_version = 1.0
num_conds = 1
num_counters = 1

[Shell Parameters]
launch_in_sandbox_mode = true
#bonus_message = "Thanks for participating!"
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.

• HIT Configuration
  • title [string]
  • description [string]
  • keywords [comma separated string]
  • lifetime [integer]
  • us_only [true | false]
  • approve_requirement [integer]
  • number_hits_approved [integer]
  • require_master_workers [true | false]
  • contact_email_on_error [string - valid email address]
  • ad_group [string]
  • psiturk_keywords [comma separated string]
  • organization_name [string]
  • browser_exclude_rule [comma separated string]
  • allow_repeats [boolean]
• Database Parameters
  • database_url [url string]
  • table_name [string]
• Server Parameters
  • host [string]
  • port [integer]
  • cutoff_time [integer]
  • logfile [string]
  • loglevel [integer]
  • debug [true | false]
  • login_username [ string ]
  • login_pw [string]
  • threads [auto | integer]
  • certfile [string]
  • keyfile [string]
  • adserver_revproxy_host [string]
  • adserver_revproxy_port [integer]
    • server_timeout [ integer ]
• Task Parameters
  • experiment_code_version [ string ]
  • num_conds [ integer ]
  • num_counters [ integer ]
• Shell Parameters
  • launch_in_sandbox_mode [true | false]
  • bonus_message [string]
  • use_psiturk_ad_server [true | false]
  • ad_location [false | string]