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Wizard Text Based

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leeper edited this page Oct 3, 2014 · 10 revisions

Introduction to the Simple Wizard (Text Based)

This is an introduction to the MTurkR simple wizard, which supplies some basic interactive features for using MTurk. Users interested in functionality not supplied here may also be interested in [the graphical wizard](Wizard Graphical) or in using the MTurkR functions directly via the command line.

Getting Started with MTurkR

There are a few steps you'll need to complete before you start working with MTurkR, after getting your AWS security credentials you'll be able to start working with MTurkR. All screenshots in this tutorial were taken in RStudio.

  • First you need to acquire your security credentials from Amazon
  • They can be found on the Amazon Web Services site aws.amazon.com
  • Once you get your credentials keep them in a safe spot, you can only download them once

  • Click on Access Keys
  • In the bottom left hand side there will be a button that says “Create New Access Key” click this and the following window will pop up

  • Once you create a new key pair you will need to download the .csv file, make sure you save this file you will only be able to download this file once

  • Your keys should look something like this
  • Now you are ready to start working with the Wizard
  • The Excel file that you download will have two numbers in it, one will be the AWSAccessKeyId and the other is the AWSSecretKey.

Introduction to the Simple Wizard

  • To start with the text based wizard you must use the command mturkr.wizard("simple").
  • Copy and paste your AWS Access Key ID and the Secret Access Key, then this menu should pop up
  • You will be prompted whether you want to use the "Sandbox". The sandbox is a trial server where you can test out operations before making them available on the real MTurk site.

Navigating the simple, text-based wizard is via numbered menus. To select any option on a menu, simply enter the number listed next to the item. The number 0 is used on each menu to exit. Thus, if you enter a dialog but wish to return to the main menu, simply press 0 and hit <Enter>/<Return>.

If you start the wizard with mturkr.wizard("simpleGUI"), you can instead use a point-and-click set of menus. The contents of the wizard are otherwise identical to the text-based version.

###Option 1: Check Account Balance

  • This command will allow you to see how much money is left in your MTurk account, this will only show how much you have in your requester account and will not count any money you've earned doing HIT's.

###Option 2: Check Sufficient Funds

This option allows you to estimate whether you have sufficient funds in your MTurk account to finance a particular HIT. It is simply a calculator that wraps around AccountBalance.

###Option 3: Create HIT

This option walks you through how to create a HIT. The wizard only supports creating HITs in two ways:

  1. Using an ExternalHIT structure, which requires you to supply an HTTPS URL for a webpage that contains the entire HIT contents and that will, on form submission, submit to the appropriate MTurk submit URL (see HITs).
  2. Using a HITLayoutId, as retrieved from the Requester User Interface.

The wizard will walk through all of the information required to create the HIT, then execute the request and print the HITId for the new HIT to the console.

###Option 4: Check HIT Status

This operation will check the status of a HIT by simply prompting for a HITId (for example, as returned by the Create HIT dialog). Details will be printed to the console.

###Option 5: Get Assignments

This operation will retrieve assignment details for either a specific assignment or an entire HIT. This requires either the AssignmentId or HITId, respectively.

###Option 6: Extend HIT

This operation will add time and/or assignments to a specified HIT. After being prompted for the HITId, a dialog will allow you to add time (in seconds), assignments, or both.

###Option 7: Expire HIT

This operation will expire a HIT (thus making it unavailable to workers). All that is required is the HITId. To reopen the HIT to workers, use the Extend HIT dialog.

###Option 8: Approve Assignment(s)

This operation will allow you to approve one or more assignments. You have the choice to approve:

  1. One assignment
  2. Multiple assignments
  3. All assignments for a HIT

For one assignment, you will be prompted to enter the AssignmentId. For multiple assignments, you first be prompted for the number of assignments you will approve followed by prompts for each of the AssignmentIds, specified one per line. Finally, if you choose to approve all assignments for a HIT, you will be prompted for the HITId.

Details in each case will be printed to the console.

###Option 9: Reject Assignment(s)

Similar to approving assignments, this dialog will allow you to reject one or more assignments. It is not possible to reject all assignments for a HIT. For one assignment, you will be prompted to enter the AssignmentId. For multiple assignments, you first be prompted for the number of assignments you will reject followed by prompts for each of the AssignmentIds, specified one per line.

In either case you will also be prompted to supply a reason for the rejection, which will be visible to the worker. In the case of multiple assignments, the same reason is used for all assignments.

Details in each case will be printed to the console.

###Option 10: Grant Bonus(es)

This dialog allows you to supply bonuses to one or more workers.

If you choose to grant a bonus to a single worker, you will be prompted for their WorkerId, the AssignmentId for which the bonus is being paid, the amount of the bonus in US dollars, and a reason for the bonus that will be visible to workers.

If you choose to grant a bonus to multiple workers, you will be prompted for the amount of the bonus in US dollars, the reason for the bonus that is visible to each worker (note: the same reason is used for all bonuses), and then the number of Workers you will be granting the bonus to. After this, you will be prompted to enter each WorkerId one-per-line. Then, you will be asked to enter the corresponding AssignmentId for each worker, again one per line.

Some details will be printed to the console.

###Option 11: Contacting Workers

This dialog allows you to contact workers via email using their WorkerId. You can email one or multiple workers.

If you contact one worker, you will be prompted for their WorkerId, an email subject line, and the body of an email. You can use \t (tab) and \n (newline) characters to create appropriate spacing in the email. This is what the dialog looks like:

This is an example of sending a message to a single worker

If you are sending messages to multiple workers, you will be prompted for an email subject line, the body of the email, and then asked how many workers you will contact. Then, you can enter each WorkerId one-per-line. You can, for example, copy and paste a column of WorkerIds from a text editor or spreadsheet program directly into R. Note: All workers will receive an identical email. This is what the dialog looks like:

The result is a text-based based email:

###Option 12: Block Worker

This dialog will allow you to block a worker. A block prevents a worker from completing your HITs (but note that the HITs will still be visible to them in the worker interface). You can only block workers one at a time. You will simply be prompted for their WorkerId and a reason for the block.

###Option 13: Unblock Worker

This dialog will allow you to unblock a worker that you previously blocked. You can only unblock workers one at a time. You will simply be prompted for their WorkerId.

###Option 14: Manage Qualifications

This option opens up a large menu of subsequent options that all relate to Qualifications. That menu looks like:

What would you like to do? 

1: Get Worker(s) By Qualification
2: Get a Qualification Score
3: Update Worker(s) Qualification Score
4: Create a QualificationType
5: Update a QualificationType
6: View a QualificationType
7: Search QualificationTypes
8: List Built-In QualificationTypes

These options are intended for more advanced users who are interested in creating QualificationTypes, granting those Qualifications to workers, and managing qualifications.

###Option 15: Requester Statistics

  • Requester Statistics will show you some basic information about your requester account.
  • You can filter your requester statistics based on time
  • One Day
  • Last Seven Days
  • Last Thirty Days
  • Lifetime of the account
  • This command will return 23 statistics for your account, here is a short list of the sort of data you'll find with this option.
  • Number of Assignments you have running on MTurk (Line 1).
  • Number of HITs you've rejected (Line 5).
  • Number of HITs that have been returned by workers (Line 6).
  • How much money you've paid to workers in US dollars (Line 14).
  • How much money you've paid to workers and Amazon (Line 18).
  • How much money Amazon is holding for uncompleted HITs (Line 23).

###Option 16: Worker Statistics

This dialog will return some statistics about a particular worker that describe their previous work for you (and you only). You will be prompted to enter their WorkerId and then select a time period for the statistics, one of:

  1. OneDay
  2. SevenDays
  3. ThirtyDays
  4. LifeToDate

Some details will then be printed to the console.

###Option 17: Open MTurk RUI Pages

This dialog is simply meant to provide easy access to some of the Requester User Interface pages on the MTurk website. For example, you can open the page to manage a given worker or HIT.

###Option 18: Load MTurkR Log File/Entries

This dialog allows you to view the raw API response for previous MTurk requests. This can be helpful for figuring out what went wrong in a request. You can choose between:

  1. View most recent MTurk response
  2. View another MTurk response

If you choose 1, the most recent API response will print to the console. If you choose 2, you will be further offered a choice among the last 10 API requests (with the type of response listed in the menu).

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