Post

• Save from the Global object
• Send data directly
• API

The post task posts plain data to the server. You can use it to either send data that has been saved in the Global object or directly set the data that you want to send. This is a good way to keep track of conditions within your tasks.

Save from the Global object

In your code, you can save data to the Global object. For instance, you might randomly select a condition and save the condition to the Global object.

For example, the following code randomly assigns participants to the experimental or the control group:

API.addGlobal({ condition: API.shuffle(['experimental','control'])[0] });

In your code, you can then use that condition to provide your participants different tasks or show them different stimuli. However, adding a variable to global does not mean that it would be logged to the server. In order to log that variable to the server, you need to add a ‘post’ task to the sequence of tasks that you define in the manager file. For example:

{
    type:'post',
    name:'cond'
    variableName: 'condition'
}

This code saves the variable ‘condition’ and its content to the server, under the task name ‘cond’.

In each task, you can use the current object to save variables. You can access the current variable from the global, using the task’s name. For instance, if your study has a task named iat, and in that task you saved a variable called randomization you will have a variable that can be accessed with global.iat.randomization. You will use that to send the randomization variable to the server:

{
    type:'post',
    name:'primaryRandomization'
    variableName: 'iat.randomization'
}

You can also send several variables together. The following task sends global.iat.randomization and global.iat.feedback to the server:

{
    type:'post',
    name:'primaryRandomization'
    variableName: [
        'iat.randomization',
        'iat.feedback'
    ]
}

Send data directly

You can also define an object to be sent:

{
    type:'post',
    name:'condition'
    data: {
        condition: 'experimental'
    }
}

One example for the usefulness of this feature is when the randomization in your task is done using a mixer (e.g., a choose mixer). Consider this code:

{
    mixer:'choose',
    data:[
        {
            mixer:'wrapper',
            data: 
            [
                {inherit:'manipulation'},
                {
                    type:'post',
                    name:'condition'
                    data: {
                        condition: 'experimental'
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            mixer:'wrapper',
            data: 
            [
                {inherit:'control'},
                {
                    type:'post',
                    name:'condition'
                    data: {
                        condition: 'control'
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Note that you can use templates as strings within the data object. This way you can pull information from different parts of global to the same place.

data can also be a function. In that case, it will recieve the arguments global andtask:

{
    type:'post',
    name:'secondaryRandomization'
    stage: 2,
    data: function(global, task){
        return {
            score: global.currentScore,
            stage: task.stage
        }
    }
}

API

The API is as follows: