Experimentr is a hosting/data-collection backend and module-based frontend for web-based visualization studies.
lexperimentr is a version of experimentr that uses leveldb instead of redis.
This repo is a working experiment. The best way to get started is to copy this repo and edit it for your experiment.
Disclaimer: experimentr is still under development and sparsely documented. If you get stuck, contact me via email or file an issue.
Experimentr.js is a front-end framework for experiments.
Experiment stages are defined in modules. Modules consist of a small amount of HTML and Javascript and correspond to one stage of the experiment (such as a post-test). Experimentr.js also contains several helper functions for experiments, such as timing. Check the source for more.
Once experimentr.js loads, it creates a div in <body>: <div id="experimentr">.
Experimentr then adds three elements to the page:
- #experimentr div: to hold the module and controls
- #module div: holds module content
- #control div: holds controls for the modules
(Eventually, more controls such as Previous and Quit will be added).
Experiment modules are defined in public/modules.
Here is an example questionnaire module.
Modules will be loaded in order using the experimentr.sequence() function:
experimentr.sequence([
'modules/consent.html',
'modules/pre-test.html',
'modules/prime.html',
'modules/post-test.html',
'modules/debrief.html'
]).start();
In some modules the Next button is not needed, so it can be hidden and shown via experimentr.hideNext() and experimentr.showNext().
Currently, each module must be unique and cannot be loaded twice in experimentr.sequence(). For example, if you use the same questionnaire as a pre-test and post-test, the same questionnaire HTML must appear in two files (but slightly modified, see preSAM.html and postSAM.html). Module re-use will be added in a later release.
Run the server:
node app.js
Then access the page at localhost:8000.
To find installation instructions for your operating system (Linux, OSX, and Windows), please visit https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Installing-Node.js-via-package-manager#ubuntu-mint
Leveldb can be downloaded from https://code.google.com/p/leveldb/downloads/list. In addition,
you will need to install levelup, which can be installed using npm install level.
- clone this repo
- cd to this repo and run
npm install
You can use debug as your workerId when testing live experiments to help make sure your data doesn't end up the experiment data.
See convert.js for details.