[Feature request] Allow multiple instances of the same task

[earcanal]

Version of Experiment Factory:

All

Expected behavior

As a researcher, I frequently want to run the same task multiple times during a study (e.g. pre/post treatment).

As a developer, I would like to be able to build switches into my experiment which can be toggled at run-time. For example, I duplicated the ANT task twice, simply because I want one version without the feedback box at the end, and another without a practice block or the feedback box. I would like to merge these back into the library repo as options that I can configure at run-time (perhaps via the initial experiment UI?).

Actual behavior

In the current implementation, this requires duplicating the task under a different name so that you can build both into the container. Aside from being a hack, this approach also duplicates code (recipe for disaster).

[vsoch]

The variables issue is a repeat of #58. Duplicating code I don't see as a major issue, after all an experiment is just a few tiny files compared to the entire container. If you were to need to duplicate an experiment, given that you have the variables and could specify a different name, this would be possible. This is the approach that I think is reasonable.

[earcanal]

OK. Wrt duplication, when you find a bug in experiment.js don't you have to patch n repos? Maybe branches are a compromise? That way you could branch with a different name allowing multiple instances, whilst stil allowing cherry-picking bug fixes from master?

[vsoch]

It would be the same experiment, named something different so you have a different folder.

[earcanal]

Revisiting this. I now have an ANT which can enable/disable features using variables. Do I still need to duplicate a repo under a different name to build it into a container more than once? It looked like it might be possible using a single repo e.g.

LABEL EXPERIMENT_ant1 /scif/apps/attention-network-task
WORKDIR /scif/apps
RUN expfactory install https://github.com/earcanal/attention-network-task

LABEL EXPERIMENT_ant2 /scif/apps/attention-network-task
WORKDIR /scif/apps
RUN expfactory install https://github.com/earcanal/attention-network-task

However, that creates a single folder /scif/apps/attention-network-task and docker run ... --headless --no-randomize --experiments ant1,ant2,... doesn't run either ant1 or ant2.

[vsoch]

I think you would also need to change the uid in the config.json too :)

[earcanal]

I'm not sure I understand. Does that mean it's not possible without copies of the repo?

[vsoch]

Correct, you would have two folders and rename the config.json his to match the folder name. This probably seems annoying, but what I'm trying to do is to prevent (or make it hard) to do some kind of non reproducible practice.

[earcanal]

Ah, so you don't need to have multiple versions of the repo; just follow instructions for Local Experiment Selection for each instance of the same task, tweaking folder name and config.json? I'll try this now and submit a PR to the docs for this use case if it works for me.

[earcanal]

#110