Text input form for use with JATOS

suryamani · January 2019

Hello!

I'm trying to use form_text_input with my opensesame experiment in order to log a variable in the beginning of the study.

Currently, I'm attempting to use JATOS in order to run the experiment but it seems as though the form_text_input doesn't work with JATOS. Is there any alternative to using the text input or is there a potential way to fix this issue?

Thanks in advance for the help,
Surya Mani

sebastiaan · January 2019

Hi Surya,

The form_text_input item is indeed not supported by OSWeb. (This is a limitation of OSWeb, not JATOS, which is the management tool.) If you want to collect basic multicharacter text input, you could do this by collecting a series of individual key presses. Not terribly elegant, but it will work. I attached an example experiment, which you can also run through the link below.

https://jatos.cogsci.nl/publix/58/start?batchId=73&generalMultiple

Is this useful?

Cheers!
Sebastiaan

suryamani · January 2019

Thanks very much for the quick response! That should work!

L_Geissert · November 2019

Hey, I actually have the same problem as suryamani. Your idea is good Sebastiaan, but unfortunatly I dont' get how you did it. Could you please explain it to me?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Laura

Samuel · November 2019

I have the same problem with Osweb. I want to intergrate a sort of text input method, just like Laura.

I would be very happy for any help Sebastiaan, on how you did your version.

Greetings Samuel

sebastiaan · November 2019

For some reason some attachments got lost in a recent update to the forum. But here it is again, an improved version of multiple-character input for OSWeb!

multichar-input.osexp

Samuel · November 2019

Thank you Sebastiaan. We are so thankful for your work.

Greetings.

L_Geissert · November 2019

Awesome, thank you!

Best,

Laura

annina_bindschedler · November 2019

Hi Sebastiaan,

Would it be possible that you upload the "multichar-input.osexp" one more time. It seems that it has been removed.

Thanks a lot for your help.

sebastiaan · November 2019

Indeed, we are having some forum troubles and some attachments got lost. But it should downloadable again now through the link above!

annina_bindschedler · November 2019

Thanks, that helps a lot.

L_Geissert · November 2019

Hey, I have one more question regarding the mulitchar-input.

When I use the input for characters and numbers, there is always an 0 before my characters, f.e.

The script is as following:

How do I have to change it to get rid og the 0? If I just deleate the 0 after "slice" in line 5 it doesn't work. Any ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Laura

sebastiaan · November 2019

Hi Laura,

That's a bug that's fixed in the latest version of OSWeb. If you upgrade opensesame-extension-osweb , this problem should go away.

https://osdoc.cogsci.nl/3.2/manual/environment/

Cheers!

Sebastiaan

L_Geissert · November 2019

It works, thank you!

However, now I discovered another problem. The backspace is not working thw way I want it to work. When entering the code, I need the backspace to delete the last letter written (like in a Word document). But, when I upload the experiment and I press backspace when entering the code, it jumps to the website that was opened before I started the experiment. I don't get why, because when I try the experiment from OpenSesame in the Browser, it works perfectly fine..

Thanks in advance!

Laura

sebastiaan · November 2019

Hi Laura,

When entering the code, I need the backspace to delete the last letter written (like in a Word document). But, when I upload the experiment and I press backspace when entering the code, it jumps to the website that was opened before I started the experiment. I don't get why, because when I try the experiment from OpenSesame in the Browser, it works perfectly fine..

It sounds like the browser is capturing the backspace, and interprets it like you pressed the back button. I don't see this behavior, so I'm guessing it's browser specific. Does this happen in all browsers?

Cheers!

Sebastiaan

lmelvill · November 2019

Hey everyone,

I don't know if it helps, but I'm currently using a text input in my online experiment:

multichar_response.osexp

It's definitely not as concise as Sebastiaan's, but it covers more corner cases and includes an arrow for participants. I've found that since the input doesn't have a blinking cursor, participants have a difficult time knowing when to type, especially with multiple inputs. I've also separated numeric and alphabetic inputs. Sebastiaan's is set for ~200 keypresses, but with a lot of inputs, some machines get very slow. Mine is only set to 35.

For Laura, I've found for participants that use FireFox, backspace goes backward out of the forum because it is set for a 'one page back' function. FireFox cannot detect OSWeb's textbox, and thus chooses this function. It can be disabled, however.

Regards,

Rissa

L_Geissert · November 2019

Hey,

thank you for the responses Rissa and Sebastiaan, I appreciate it!

Do I have to disabele it in FireFox or in my script? If I have to do it in FireFox it would be a problem I think, because I can't make sure my participants do the same, so they would need to use a different browser, which is hard to control...

Any recommendations how to deal with this problem? Maybe just assign a key to delete the last letter in OpenSesame and write it into the instructions?

Best,

Laura

lmelvill · November 2019

Hey Laura,

For FireFox, the instructions for disabling the backspace 'Back' function can be found here.

What I recommend if you need input textboxes, is to tell participants to ONLY use Chrome (or safari, I think). If you're using a server with a program like JATOS, you can tell participants this information via email with the link attached. What I also send to my participants is a notice saying that if Chrome doesn't work (this may happen, for whatever reason) that the experiment can run in FireFox if they follow specific instructions (which I send in an additional email).

It's probably not a good idea to use another button as the 'backspace' because individuals' familiarity with the keyboard means they'll instinctively press backspace by accident. This happened to one of my participants on FireFox when she was 3/4 of the way through the experiment.

Here's another version of the text input with numbers and characters in the same instance:

multichar_response_revised.osexp

Although, if you go past 17 or so numerals without characters, weird notation starts to occur, so I put a cap on numeric input.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Rissa

L_Geissert · November 2019

Hey Rissa,

the text input works perfectly fine, thank you!

I also tried in in Chrome and so far the backspace doen'st make a problem there-

Thank you agin for your help and advice!

Best,

Laura

vatsalthebest · June 2020

Hello @seapsy

Thanks for the experiment. In covid times opensesame is giving students and researcher from developing nations a hope to do research and publish using online experimentation.

I just wanted to know one of the issues I am facing currently. I have included the text input in one of my experiments using the code provided by you in this discussion. However the experiment is stuck at the text input screen and does not proceed. Can you please help?

I have attached the experiment for your kind perusal.

Thanks

Vatsal

TP_paradiagms.osexp

nikitaadhikari1 · June 2020

Hi all,

I had a similar kind of problem to the original post, in which I'll need to run my experiment online using JATOS.

I was originally using form_text_input to record word responses during the distractor phase of my experiment, which included typing out country names. I am trying to present an image on the sketchpad for two minutes, which consists of a list of 99 word fragments for countries that the participant must complete. Since I realized that the form_text_input is not compatible with OSWeb, I tried the code in this forum to collect multiple character responses, but rather than advancing with "enter" I need the image to remain on screen for 2 minutes as the participant completes the list of word fragments in a response box below the image. I will also need to be able to see the responses that the participant put in after the experiment is over. Does anybody know if this is possible, and if there is a code for this?

So far I am able to get the image on screen and am able to type out the responses by using a slightly altered version of the experiment that Sebastian shared above, but I can't get the timing right. Any help is appreciated. Thank you so much!

AliW · July 2020

Hiya - I'm using @sebastiaan 's text input solution above... thank you! Fabulous solution :)

AliW · July 2020

Hi All,

@lmelvill Rissa, thank you so much for sharing your solution above (multi..revised). I have adapted it to use for my experiment as I need the letter input. Thank you!

Just one question : does this also work for you outside of OSWeb? I cannot get the enter key to trigger the move on to the second input when I run the experiment in OpenSesame. Is that to be expected?

Its not super important because I will be running it on JATOS in the end. But I wanted to get an idea of how the log is looking and see that everything is being logged as needed, before I upload it all. Hence trying it offline.

Thanks for any pointers you can give :)

Ali

charlieaux · November 2020

Hello everyone ;)

I got a quick question, maybe someone can help me. @sebastiaan i used your multiple-character-input version for my experiment and it is such a great help! I am collecting numbers from the participants (like how may numbers can you remember), they press enter to continue and the next time i ask them to do the same, so in total the participants has to answer 50 times the same question. The problem is that the keyboard saves the answers and when the participants has to answer the next time their previous answers are still visible, but i need to have it cleared each time.

I guess i have to add some code to the inline java script, but im really new to all this so i actually have no clue :D

Thank you very much and have a nice evening,

Charlotte

lvanderlinden · November 2020

Hi @charlieaux ,

I think it's a matter of resetting the multiple-character input at the beginning of each trial by putting an inline_javascript item (in Sebastiaan's example called 'init') at the beginning of the 'get_input_loop', like so:

I attached an example script.

Does this solve your problem?

Cheers,

Lotje

4737.osexp

charlieaux · November 2020

Dear @lvanderlinden,

nice, it works! I put the init script at the beginning of my experiment and not right before the get_input_loop, now it works perfectly fine!

Thank you very much,

Charlotte

lvanderlinden · November 2020

Good to hear :)

Marijo1606 · February 2021

Hi!

I would like to use this trick for touch responses. I am using jatos online and my respondents are using tablets.

I know I can use the touchpad instead of a keyboard. But since the numbers do not automatically appear in the tablet, I am not sure how to program so that respondents know where to touch for 0, 1, 2, etc.

Any help on this?

Thanks!

eduard · March 2021

Hi Marijo,

Maybe I am not fully grasping your design, but I think a solution would be to define buttons on your sketchpads, that correspond to certain touch pads. For example, the bottom left corner will have a box with a 1 in it, next to it will be a box with 2 and so forth for all the buttons you need. Of course the more responses you need to define the less feasible it gets.

I am not sure whether this would work online though. @lvanderlinden does cursor_roi work online? Or would it be necessary to manually define ROIs that trigger certain actions?

I hope this helps,

Eduard

lvanderlinden · March 2021

Hi @Marijo1606 and @eduard ,

Does cursor_roi work online?

No, unfortunately it does not. However, I just made a YouTube tutorial on how to use regions of interest when running your study online. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L9pzw4tpx8&t=947s

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Lotje

eduard · March 2021

Great Thanks :)

Eduard

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