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PandaUI

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John Ramirez edited this page Jan 4, 2021 · 28 revisions

PandaCrazy Page - PandaUI -

The PandaCrazy Page, PandaUI, is what you see when you click on the PandaCrazy button in the popup icon extension menu. I often will refer to this page as the PandaUI, Panda User Interface. This page is the major workforce of the extension. You must have this page up for anything to work. There are operations being done in the background but everything is shutdown until this page is opened.





Page Areas: [Top Menu] [Quick Menu] [Panda Job Cards] [Status Log Area]

PageUI Topics: [Groupings] [Timers] [Import and Export Data]







[Top Menu]


The Top Menu area shows the main button menus and the stats from the extension. You will see buttons and dropdown buttons which will show a submenu when you click on the down triangle icon. Each button will do a function that is most desired. The other functions you can do are in the submenu. Under the button row you will see the stats area which shows the stats from the extension. You can click on the text to toggle through a few other stats that you may want to check out.







[Quick Menu]

The quick menu area is where some of the often used functions will be.







[Panda Job Cards]

This is the area which you will be watching a lot because all your jobs added will be stored here. Each panda job you see here is called a job card. Think of them like cards which you can move around in different positions. Cards are just a way for the extension to know the contents inside is separate from other contents. This allows the user to move cards in different positions and drop it in other tabs. By default two tabs are set up and one job card is added for example. You may add, rename or delete tabs when you want. The main tab is permanent and may not be renamed or deleted. I may refer panda job cards as just panda jobs, panda cards or job cards. They all mean the same thing. Each of these cards will represent a panda job with HIT info and stats displayed. On the bottom of the card will be buttons for a user to collect, delete or make it go ham.

  • [Working with Tabs] - Read more about the tabs on the [Panda Cards Page]
  • [Adding More Job Cards] - Read more about adding cards on the [Panda Cards Page]
  • [Card Buttons and Details] - Read more about card buttons and details on the [Panda Cards Page]
  • [Listing All Job Cards] - Read more about listing cards on the [Panda Cards Page]
  • [Deleting Job Cards] - Read more about deleting cards on the [Panda Cards Page]
  • [Meaning of Card Colors] - Read more about the card colors on the [Panda Cards Page]
  • [What About Search Jobs?] - Read more about the search jobs on the [Panda Cards Page]







[Status Log Area]

The bottom area of this page shows the Queue Watch which is probably going to be very useful for you so it is shown by default. There is also an accepted tab showing all HITs accepted by the extension. The status log tab shows the current status of each job collecting now.

  • [Queue Watch] - This tab is shown by default because it is the most useful out of all the tabs. It will show the requester name, pay, time left, description and then will have two links after. The return link will bring up a modal dialog asking if you really want to return the HIT and then will return the HIT. The continue work link will open up a window so you can work on that HIT.
  • [Accepted Tab] - All the accepted HITs that the extension found will be displayed in this tab. Each accepted HIT will show the requester name, group ID, the date/time it was accepted and the title of the HIT. These stats do get saved in the database but are not available to access previous days just yet.

  • [Status Log] - This is the tab that will show how the extension is working with each of the jobs. You will see the requester name, pay rate, job mode, number of accepted HITs, times it tried to fetch a HIT and the elapsed time it last tried to fetch a HIT. This can really let users understand how each job takes it's turn with the timer. If you stop collecting a job the status will show a purple background and then disappear after a few seconds.

  • [Captcha Count] - This shows a counter to the next captcha for users who still see captcha's. This counter can be changed in the options but by default it is at 35. This only helps the user know when a captcha may appear but it can sometimes be hard to predict. You can turn off this text in the general options if you don't need it or don't see captcha's.







[Groupings]

Groupings are a way for users to group panda jobs together so they can start and stop at once. You can have many groupings with the same jobs too. I like to group HITs that have a low time so I can stop those when I have to step away from my computer. You can also have a group start at a specific time and stop after a certain amount of time has elapsed.

  • [Creating Groupings] - The fastest way to create a grouping of jobs collecting now is clicking on the down triangle near the Groupings button at the top of the page. It will bring up a submenu. Click the Create Instantly button and it will bring up a dialog asking if you want to create a grouping with all the jobs collecting now. Click the Yes button and it will be created with a default name and description. If no jobs are collecting it will give an error. You can also click on the Create By Selection button which brings up a dialog modal showing all the jobs you have added. From here you can select the jobs with the checkbox on the left side. You can also enter in a name and description. Click the Save Groupings button to create the grouping.

  • [Start/Stop Groupings] - When you click the Groupings button or Start/Stop Groupings submenu button or Edit submenu button then it will show a list of all the groupings you have created in a modal dialog window. To start or stop a grouping you can double click on it and it will change the background color showing that the panda jobs in that grouping are collecting or not collecting now.

  • [Edit Groupings] - Once you are on the Groupings modal dialog you can click the Edit button to the right of the name and description of the grouping. This will bring another modal dialog showing the number of jobs in the groupings, name, description, start time, end duration and then the list of all jobs created. The checkboxes to the left will show which jobs are currently in the grouping. You can select on each job you want in the grouping. You can also do a search for a job with the provided text in the title or description of a job. Use the radio buttons to further filter the jobs by search jobs or jobs collecting only once. Once you are done with the edit then click on the Save Groupings button.

  • [Auto Start Groupings] - You can automatically start a grouping at a specific time and for a set duration. In the Edit groupings modal dialog you can set the start time by clicking on the text input which will show you an easy way of choosing a time you like. Then you have to set a duration that the jobs will continue collecting. Enter in the number of hours and minutes in the text inputs. The grouping will start at this time every day and end after the hours and minutes has past.







[Timers]

Timers are the most important part of the extension. There are three timers used because of the way MTURK has their PRE limits separate for the panda links, search links and queue links. 1000 milliseconds is usually the best timer value to use so you won't get too many PRE's. The extension does have minimum limits set at 750 milliseconds so it won't go too fast and cause you problems with MTURK. You're responsible for keeping the timers at the correct setting so you don't bombard MTURK servers.

  • [Panda Timers] - By default the panda timer is set at 1000 milliseconds which is equal to 1 second. So this means every 1 second the extension goes out to try to fetch a HIT with a panda link. Every panda job you are collecting will take turns with other jobs each timer cycle. So if you have 5 panda jobs collecting it will take 5 seconds to go through each panda link. It's recommended to keep the amount of panda jobs running as low as possible. Having 25 jobs collecting at once might lower your chance of grabbing a good HIT.
  • [Search Timer] - By default the search timer is set at 950 milliseconds because the PRE limits seem to be a bit lower than panda links. This is the same timer value used on the SearchCrazy page because search jobs and triggers function the same way. Every search job or trigger will be checked on the MTURK search page for each timer cycle. So this means if you had 400 search jobs or triggers they will be checked every 950 milliseconds. This is very different from they way search jobs used to work in the older script and very different from the panda timer. You may change this value on the PandaCrazy page or SearchCrazy page options.
  • [Queue Timer] - By default the queue timer is set at 2000 milliseconds which is about 2 seconds. Every 2 seconds the extension will go to MTURK and grab the HITs you have in your queue so it can show it in the queue watch and have it for reference. Even at 1000 milliseconds it would work fine and not cause PRE's. Usually the extension detects your submitted, returned and abandoned HITs well so this timer doesn't have to be very fast.







[Import and Export Data]

Exporting data is a great way to backup your important data or just transfer it to another computer. This extension also allows importing older exported files from the older script from years ago. It's always best to export your data so you won't lose anything.

  • [Export Data] - To export data you click on the down triangle icon near the Jobs button at the top which brings up a submenu. Click on the Export button towards the bottom of the submenu. A dialog modal will display with a checkbox and a button. If you just want to export your data with all options, tabs and search triggers just click on the Export Your Data To A File button. This will download the data to a file on your computer with a name starting with PandaCrazyEXP_ and then ending with the date/time. The extension for this file will be a json file. You can bring it up in a text file if you want but you shouldn't edit anything or you might have problems importing it. The first checkbox on the dialog is to save your alarm data in the file too. Saving sound data can make your exported files big so if you change any sounds and want to save them then check this checkbox. The second checkbox allows you to only save the alarm sounds and no other data. This makes it easy for you to pass your perfect alarm sounds to another user without giving them all your data you may not want them to look at. Best to keep the checkboxes unchecked if you just want to make a backup of your data.

  • [Import Data] - To import data from an exported file you can click on the down triangle icon near the Jobs button at the top which brings up a submenu. Click on the Import button towards the bottom of the submenu. A dialog modal will display with a checkbox, file selection input and a disabled button. Select a file on your computer with your exported data with the Browse button. The file should start with PandaCrazyEXP_ and has a json extension. You can also import older files created from the old script. Once you select the file the extension will verify the data in the file. If it finds any error it will show an error and you won't be able to import it. If there is no error, then the Import Data From File button should be enabled. Click on that button to import your data. All the data you have now will be deleted and replaced with the data in the file so be sure you don't have anything you need. Once your data is loaded into memory the button will change to Importing completed. Click to restart! Once you click on that button it will restart the page and you should see your imported data. Sometimes you just want to load in the alarm sounds and not all your data so if you click on the checkbox it will only delete your alarms and import the sounds from the file. This is a good way of only saving your alarm sounds once and not have to have large files all the time.






















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