Using Docker with The Experiment Factory

What is Docker?

Docker: applications (e.g. your experiments) as containers
- Applications are too "granular"
  - Fiddly to configure hosts to cater for every app's requirements and dependencies
- You could package your study as a virtual machine, but VMs are BIG
- Docker! Hosts provide "docks" (the docker application) which is a platform for any shape of container

The Experiment Factory: a simple container

The latest docs are a bit "raw", but they do work
docker run -v $PWD:/data vanessa/expfactory-builder build test-task state-mindfulness-survey
Dockerfile, startupscript.sh
Same container can be run in the lab (I haven't tried Docker for Windows yet) or online
#docker build --no-cache -t earcanal/study3 .
docker run -v $PWD/data:/scif/data -d -p 80:80 earcanal/study3 start
- Automatic participant-id generated
- File format is JSON. Looks a bit scary, but easy to process with R.
- Can also write to SQLLite, MySQL, Postgres
  - Data rows are still JSON, but at least everything is in a single file!
  - docker run -v $PWD/data:/scif/data -d -p 80:80 earcanal/study3 --experiments test-task,state-mindfulness-survey --database sqlite start
docker exec -it ... bash
docker stop ...

'Headless' online studies coming soon

Deploy to your favourite Docker service provider
- e.g. Digital Ocean
- Run headless
docker run -v $PWD/data:/scif/data -d -p 80:80 earcanal/study3 --experiments test-task,state-mindfulness-survey --database sqlite start
Work in progress: participant tokens