OpenSesame online

sakisbrouzioutis

Hello OpenSesame developers,

We are a group of 7 students of Radboud University that are trying to develop an online version of OpenSesame.

Our idea is to parse the OpenSesame script file and derive from this JavaScript code. Then, we are using the fabric.js library which has some prepared functions that we can use to show the experiment on the screen. We are going to use the Django framework for the web application.

Till now, we can parse the OpenSesame script file and export JavaScript code. Then, in JavaScript we created some functions that take as an input this code and create in a canvas the experiment. Our implementation is on an early stage.

We are focusing on developing firstly the items 'loop', 'sequence', 'keyboard_response' and 'sketchpad. We have made some progress on the first 3 items.

We would like to know which items are mostly used by the experimenters and also we would like to have some feedback on our approach.

Sakis

sebastiaan

Hi Sakis,

Welcome to the forum, and thanks to you and your student colleagues for taking on this project! Of course, we discussed this already a bit by e-mail, but this forum topic will be a good place for more people to get involved and provide, feedback, requests, etc.

(In case anyone is wondering, the code is for now a private Gitlab server, because this is a requirement of the University.)

Cheers,
Sebastiaan

GuidoCor

I think is a very good idea. Do you know http://www.jspsych.org/ ?

sakisbrouzioutis

No, I have never heard about jsPsych library. It seems an useful library and an interesting option. We will explore this library and check if it is possible to make the implementation using jsPsych.

Till now, the plan was to use fabric.js library and we started implementing using fabric.js. But, we can switch to jsPsych if it is more convenient.

Cheers,
Sakis

sebastiaan

Hi Sakis,

I checked out the code last Friday, and I'm impressed! It's clearly still a work in progress. For example, I didn't manage to translate any of the example experiments to syntactically correct JavaScript. But at the same time, the (pre-translated) JavaScript example works, and the logic behind the translation process is clear and structured.

With an eye on future development, it's very important that you guys document everything. Not only through code comments, but also documentation of the overall architecture, etc. That way we can pick up development after your project is finished, and all or most of your team will move on to other projects.

A related point is licensing. What are your plans in this regard? Again, for future development it's important that the code is eventually released under an open license, preferably GPL3. Have you guys discussed this?

I'm really excited about this project! Thanks a lot to you and your team for working on this!

Cheers,
Sebastiaan

sakisbrouzioutis

Hi Sebastiaan,

Thank you for your kind words. The truth is that with the last commit, there is an error in JS_String file. But, with the previous commit, it was possible to translate the lexical_decision.opensesame example and the output is in out.txt file.

A core principle of our project is to make the code maintainable and extensible. That's why, we add a lot of comments. Moreover, we already have two documents: one for the functional design and one of the technical design that document the architecture of the system.

We have already discussed about licensing the project. We are planing to release the project under an open license. And our only option is GPL3, since in the statement.py file we modified the original source code of OpenSesame Desktop. And in the GPL3 license, it is stated that we can use and modify the code as long as we give credit. Moreover, if we want to release our modified version to the public, the modified version should be released under GPL3.

Thank you again for your feedback!!!

Cheers,
Sakis

lucie

hi everybody

I'm not sure I understand. You have created a script to put on line a project by OpenSesame? I would like to create an online experience, I know a bit of Python but not Java. OpenSesame software seems easy enough to use. I wonder if it was possible to create the experience (my first) via OpenSesame then put it online. If this is the case, could you tell me how?

Thank you in advance

Nice evening

sebastiaan

Hi Lucie,

This project is still under development. The goal is to create a web runtime for OpenSesame experiments (what you're looking for), and considerable progress has been made, but it's not yet ready for general use. If you are interested, I would keep an eye on this discussion so that you'll know when the first public version becomes available.

Cheers,
Sebastiaan

lucie

Hi Sebastiann,

Thank you for your answer. I'm really interested in this development so I would be happy to know when it will be possible. nice evening

YiftahB

Hey Sebastiaan,

I'm a psychology and economics student and I have a lot of experience with web development (mainly PHP, JS) and python (django and pyqt), and I was wondering if you guys need help with the development?
I think it's a really cool idea and it will be really useful.

Cheers,
Yiftah

sakisbrouzioutis

Hi Yiftah,

I am Sakis and I am one of the developers of the online version of OpenSesame. Of course, we need more help with the development and it is great that you want to participate in the project.

Currently, we have implemented an early version of the application. Our code can be found in Link. We are using Python, Django and JavaScript for this project. So, I believe that you fit in our team.

My e-mail is s.brouzioutis@cogsci.nl. Please contact me to discuss more about what you can do to help in the development.

Cheers,
Sakis

froukehe

I would be very much interested in an online version. It would be of great help with teaching (I cannot install Opensesame on the teaching computers, and connecting my own laptop to the projectors is not always easy). It would therefore be great to be able to demo Opensesame in a web browser.

mark

Hi,
Just another vote of support for this - the ability to run OpenSesame online would open up a "whole new world" of experiment possibilities.

neurosc

Hello all,

Is this project still ongoing ? I see no recent progress in the public repository.

sebastiaan

@neurosc The project is dormant for the moment, and has been for some time. The plan is to pick it up again though, with help from the Open University.

Zeke

Good afternoon all,

We were wondering about the latest status of OpenSesameOnline. Has there been any progress since the last post in June? If not, what is the current state of the project? Is it in any form to attempt an online-hosted experiment? What is required for imminent use?

The third question, assuming this project is not ready at the moment: What's the best path forward for someone looking to host their experiment online through a web browser? We have a working knowledge of Python but not JS. We have a functioning experiment all coded up in OpenSesame and we're looking to solicit for participants through MTurk, which explicitly disallows projects that require a download.

sebastiaan

@Zeke There hasn't been significant progress that I'm aware of. I believe that the Open University project is ongoing, but I haven't heard from them—and I assume that I would have heard if there was something to report.

The third question, assuming this project is not ready at the moment: What's the best path forward for someone looking to host their experiment online through a web browser? We have a working knowledge of Python but not JS.

As far as I know, there are no OpenSesame-like options for running experiments online. Two well-known options are:

• http://www.jspsych.org/ is a JS library, so it will require a bit of coding.
• https://psiturk.org/ looks pretty cool, and is certainly well-maintained and documented. But I'm not familiar with it myself.

Zeke

Yep. Just wanted to double-check. Maybe someone from Open University will chime in with updates, for now we're going the jspsych route. Thanks!

Quant_Lab

Hi all,

Where is this project at currently? Any updates?

sebastiaan

I'm happy to, for once, report something more positive: Yes, the project is alive and well again.

That is, the old project that started this discussion is dead. But Jaap Bos, an engineer from Groningen University, and our very own @Daniel are working on another, and more promising, implementation.

You can find a demo here:

• http://www.cogsci.nl/osweb

But remember: this is just a tech preview; I repeat: this is just a tech preview, and complicated experiments often won't work. However, everything that doesn't work (and does work in regular OpenSesame) is a bug, and it would be helpful if you report it here:

• https://github.com/shyras/osweb/issues

You can find a screencast of osweb here (a slightly older version already):

Candice

Hi!

I was wondering if there's a list of functionalities that are currently available in the web version. I tried a few of my experiments and they all seem to have things that aren't available in the web version yet, but I would like to modify them so that they can work in a web browser.

Thank you so much! You all do an amazing job!!

sebastiaan

@Candice We're still very much in the testing stage, although progress is being made. So I would not currently recommend using osweb in real life. As soon as we feel that osweb is ready(ish) for prime time, we will let the whole world know!

If you're looking for a way to convert experiments to an online-runnable format now, you could consider the HTML export tool that @JonPeirce built for PsychoPy. I don't have any experience with this myself though.

tmalsburg

OSWEB looks extremely promising. Great work, everyone. One question: I'm running large-scale online experiments and an increasing number of people expect to be able to use smart devices (phones, tablets) to participate. Designing UIs that work equally well with touch devices and keyboard/mouse is not entirely trivial. Is OSWEB going to offer some kind of support to make this task easier?

sebastiaan

Is OSWEB going to offer some kind of support to make this task easier?

From the perspective of OpenSesame (and OSWEB), touch screens function like mouse input. So when a participant can do an experiment by clicking on things with a mouse, then he or she can also run the experiment on a device with a touch screen.

Cheers!
Sebastiaan