MTurk-Qualtrics-Helper

Warning! MTurk-Qualtrics Helper is currently in probation (read: beta stage of development). If you think you've caught it misbehaving, please tell me about it so that I can take appropriate disciplinary action. Thank you!

The MTurk-Qualtrics Helper aims to be a simple web app to help create Amazon Mechanical Turk HITs for Qualtrics surveys. Just create your survey at Qualtrics.com, and then follow the steps below to publish it to Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Why? There does not appear to be a method of creating a HIT on Amazon Mechanical Turk using an external URL that also ensures that a Worker has completed the survey before clicking the “Submit” button. This “app” aims to fix that by meeting the following criteria:

A survey created and hosted at Qualtrics.com is displayed through the AMT Worker interface.
The “Submit HIT” button of the AMT Worker interface (that is visible to the AMT Worker throughout the survey) remains disabled until the survey has been completed.

The MTurk-Qualtrics Helper has been tested in the following browsers: 11+ 4+ 8+ 5+ 11+

If you…

…have successfully used the MTurk-Qualtrics-Helper in a browser version not listed above…
…have any issues using the MTurk-Qualtrics-Helper…
…have any suggestions or feature requests…

…please let me know.

To learn more about this app and why it was created, please read this blog post.

Step 1: Copy & Paste Javascript Code into Survey Header

To prevent MTurk Workers from submitting the HIT before the survey has been completed, you must add some Javascript code to the header of your Qualtrics.com survey.

To add code to the header of your Qualtrics survey, navigate to your survey’s “Edit Survey” page and click the “Look & Feel” button on the far left of the page’s menu.

In the Look & Feel window, click on the “Advanced” tab, and then paste the copied code into the “Header” field. NOTE: Although it may not appear to be, the code is actually one very long line. Don’t be surprised if it appears as such when you paste it into the field. Also, if you choose to click the nearby “Edit” link to open the larger editing window, please make sure to click the “Source” button before pasting the code.

Save your changes and launch the survey using the “Launch Survey” button. If your survey was already launched, you must launch it again for the changes to take effect.

Copy and paste the following Javascript code into the header of your Qualtrics.com survey:

<input type="hidden" id="AssignmentId" name="ED~AssignmentId" value="${e://Field/AssignmentId}"><input type="hidden" id="HitId" name="ED~HitId" value="${e://Field/HitId}"><input type="hidden" id="WorkerId" name="ED~WorkerId" value="${e://Field/WorkerId}"><input type="hidden" id="Test" name="ED~Test" value="${e://Field/Test}"><style type="text/css">.rmOverlay{width:100%;height:100%;position:fixed;background:#333;top:0;left:0;z-index:9999;-ms-filter:"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=50)";filter: alpha(opacity=50);-moz-opacity:0.5;-khtml-opacity:0.5;opacity:0.5;}</style><script>Event.observe(window,'load',function(){var url=window.location.toString(),qs=url.match(/\?(.+)$/),qsa=qs[1].split('&')arams={},tmp={};for(var i=0,n=qsa.length;i<n;++i){tmp=qsa[i].split('=');params[tmp[0]]=unescape(tmp[1]);}$('AssignmentId').value=params.assignmentId||'';$('HitId').value=params.hitId||'';$('WorkerId').value=params.workerId||'';$('Test').value=params.test||'';if(/mturk\/preview\?/.test(document.referrer)){$(document.body).insert({top:new Element('div',{'class':'rmOverlay'})});}});Qualtrics.SurveyEngine.OnEndOfSurvey=function(){if($('AssignmentId').value.length&&$('HitId').value.length&&$('WorkerId').value.length){var url='https://'+($('Test').value.length?'workersandbox':'www')+'.mturk.com/mturk/externalSubmit'+'?assignmentId='+$('AssignmentId').value+'&hitId='+$('HitId').value+'&workerId='+$('WorkerId').value+'&test='+$('Test').value;var iframe=document.createElement('iframe');iframe.setAttribute('src',url);$(iframe).setStyle({display:'none'});document.body.appendChild(iframe);}}</script>

Step 2: Create HIT on Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Web Services Credentials

Note! Please visit http://aws.amazon.com/security-credentials to view your access keys. Your AWS secret key never leves this page. It is only used by your browser to digitally sign the AWS request, which is a requirement of the Amazon Web Services API.

Access Key:

Secret Key:

HIT Details

Title:

Surey URL:

Description:

Keywords:
(Optional)

Height of survey frame:

Max # of participants:

Reward amount:

Duration:

Auto-approval delay:

Lifetime:

Country:
(Optional)

The list of countries in which Workers must reside (or not reside) in order to access your HIT/survey.

Test

NOTE: By checking “Test” above, the HIT is created in the MTurk Developer Sandbox. This allows you the opportunity to preview and complete your HIT (i.e., take your own survey throught the MTurk Worker interface). While in the developer sandbox, your HIT will appear just as it will to AMT Workers when the HIT is made public. It is strongly suggested that you utilize this feature, take the time to ensure that your HIT is working properly, and that proper credit is awarded after the completion of the survey. (After completing the survey, a “success” message should be displayed in the MTurk interface). Also ensure that the number of completed assignments has increased by 1 in the Requester Sandbox interface. Taking the time to test your HIT ensures accurate results and avoids unnecessary payments for incomplete assignments once the HIT is public. Once you have tested and verified that everything is working as intended, uncheck the “Test” box above, and click the “Create” button below to publish the HIT on MTurk.

I have read and understand the above statement regarding the importance of testing HITs in the MTurk sandbox.

Changelog

Version 1.00b - 2013-01-29
- Removed server-side code. Everything is now done in-browser and AWS requests are relayed through Yahoo! Pipes.
Version 0.06 - 2012-08-26
- UI facelift using Bootstrap
Version 0.05 - 2011-08-09
- Moved from alpha stage of development to beta
- Added support for country QualificationRequirement
Version 0.04 - 2011-05-18
- Implemented frameHeight on back-end
- Using new method to detect AMT preview page
Version 0.03 - 2011-05-16
- Added frameHeight input
- Added placeholder text to all fields of “HIT Details” fieldset
- Added more information to the section regarding editing the survey header
Version 0.02 - 2011-05-11
- Added overlay to HIT preview frame to prevent AMT workers from interacting with survey prior to accepting the HIT
- Now scrolls to top of page (and top of “Step 2” container) upon form submission to ensure the AJAX response message is fully visible