How to Run an Inquisit 3 Experiment on the Web

Inquisit 3 Web Edition allows you to launch your experiments directly from a web page. If you have purchased a web license, you have the option of launching expeirments from your own web site or from the millisecond.com web site. In either case, data are saved by default to the millisecond.com data service where you can login and download the data files.

If you haven't yet purchased a web license, you can still evaluate Inquisit 3 Web Edition by setting up an experiment on your own web server. When evaluating Inquisit, you can launch and run scripts as normal, but the data will not be saved.

 Click here for more information on registering Inquisit 3 Desktop Edition. Click here for more information on registering Inquisit 3 Web Edition.

Publishing Inquisit scripts on millisecond.com

Hosting your scripts on millisecond.com is the easiest option for those without experience creating and administering web sites. For those with basic web development skills, this option also includes some support for customizing the launch web page and subject number assignment method. To publish a script on millisecond.com:

  1. Write and test your Inquisit script using the Inquisit 3 Desktop Edition editor and tools.
  2. Open your web browser and navigate to the millisecond.com web site.
  3. Select "My Account" from the menu and click the "Register Inquisit Web Scripts" menu item. If you are not already logged into the site, you will be prompted for your user name and password.
  4. Under the "Register Web Scripts" section, click the "Register New Script" link. This will launch the Inquisit Web Script Wizard
  5. The first page of the wizard asks whether you wish to host the experiment on millisecond.com or on your own web server. Select the millisecond.com option. The click the "Browse..." button and select your script file from your local computer. Click next once you have specified the script file.
  6. On the next page you can upload additional files used by the script such as pictures and video.
  7. Next, select whether you wish to use Inquisit's automatically generated launch page or your own custom web page. The subsequent steps in the wizard allow you specify the title, instructions, and how subject id numbers should be generated and assigned to subjects.
  8. When you are done, click the Finish button. That's it, your experiment is now online. You can browse to the launch page using the following url:

    http://research.millisecond.com/[username]/[scriptfilename].web 

    where [username] is your user id and [scriptfilename] is the original filename of your script.
  9. Click the "Start" link to launch your experiment.

Publishing Inquisit scripts on your own web server

Hosting experiments on your own server is also fairly easy if you have basic knowledge of how to create and administer a web site. For those with web development experience (e.g., asp.net, php, javascript), this option gives you the flexibility to customize your launch page beyond the options available to To deploy an Inquisit experiment to your web server, follow these steps:

  1. Write and test your Inquisit script using the Inquisit 3 Desktop Edition editor and tools.
  2. Once your script is ready, copy the script and all of the associated files (e.g., image and sound files) to your web site.
  3. Open your web browser and navigate to the millisecond.com web site.
  4. Select "My Account" from the menu and click the "Register Inquisit Web Scripts" menu item. If you are not already logged into the site, you will be prompted for your user name and password.
  5. Under the "Register Web Scripts" section, click the "Create Your Own Launch Pagess" link. This will open a page with instructions for obtaining a copy of our sample launch pages. There are 3 samples with different ways of generating subject numbers, including generating random numbers and prompting participants to enter a number themselves. Click the option that you want and save the web page to your computer.
  6. Using Notepad or your favorite HTML editor, open the sample web page you just saved.  Do not use Microsoft Word to edit the page as it will screw up the javascript methods required for the page to run.
  7. Scroll to the section of the web page marked "ENTER YOUR CONFIGURATION VALUES BELOW. Here you can set the value of the variables that control which script is run. The variable are ScriptPath, UserId, MonkeyMode, EncryptionKey, Version, and FinishPage. The names of the variables were chosen to make it clear what each one does, and there are also comments in the html page with more detailed explanations. Specify the values appropriate for your script.
  8. Save your changes to the web file and copy the file to your web site.
  9. Browse to the sample web page that you just saved and click the "Start" link to run your script.