Component Id Storage

re_lea_se

 I recently switched to JATOS for conducting online studies and would like to use the worker ID (or a comparable identifier) to assign subject numbers. However, to ensure proper assignment, I need to confirm that the ID changes consistently from participant to participant.

Additionally, I noticed that the worker ID (and other IDs stored in JATOS) does not follow a strictly sequential pattern starting from 1. Instead, there are jumps in numbering—for example, the worker ID may start at 5, then jump to 8, 10, 11, 17 and so on. This makes it difficult to identify a clear pattern, and I’m unsure whether these IDs can be reliably used, for example for counterbalancing.

Could you clarify how JATOS generates these IDs and whether there is an underlying structure to their assignment? Any insights you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

elisa

Hi,

The JATOS worker ID increases with any new participant taking part in any study running on the same server, so they are not a good way to implement counterbalancing.

Have you seen the example studies that implement this? If you go to the Example Studies page and search for 'Randomize' you'll find two examples that might help you get started

Hope this helps

Elisa

re_lea_se

Hi,

Thank you for your response!

I'm running an experiment with eight between-subject conditions and would prefer not to implement a separate component for each condition. Instead, I was considering using a modulo operation based on an ID provided by JATOS. Would the studyResultID be a better choice for this?

Alternatively, is there a way to generate an ID in one component and pass it to the next component?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again!

Lea

elisa

Sure, there's a very easy way to share data between components. Just write and then read from the jatos variable jatos.studySessionData

https://www.jatos.org/jatos.js-Reference.html#jatosstudysessiondata