By Maurits - 1/29/2015
Hi,
Our participants fill in questionnaires using an online questionnaire program, via this program they are subsequently forwarded to Inquisit web. Subject ID's are generated using a URLquery parameter. This all works fine, but for some participants we have a problem when participants have finished the task and are redirected back to the online questionnaire program. The following happens to some participants:
-The default browser is Chrome.
-However, the participant opens our questionnaire link in IE, which opens a session, after filling in the questionnaires, they are forwarded to the Inquisit task in IE.
-Here comes the problem, the redirect back from inquisit to the questionnaire program opens in Chrome.
The session was openend in IE, not in Chrome, this causes a problem since chrome does not recognize the session, so the session can not be closed.
Important to note: On some computers it is not a problem to open everything in IE when it is not the default browser, the redirect is also openend in IE as we want.
My question:
How can we make sure that the redirecting occurs in the same browser as in which the task was openend?
I hope you can help us out! Thanks in advance
Maurits
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By Dave - 1/29/2015
Depending on the launch method used (and perhaps some other peculiar factors) to start the Inquisit experiment, the Inquisit Web engine may be oblivious to the browser that was used to initiate the experiment. While e.g. the Firefox plugin "knows" that it was installed in Firefox, the Web Player is an application that is not installed "in" a particular browser, but works across browsers instead. In such a case, once the Inquisit experiment has finished, the redirection URL may be opened by the system's *default* browser. I don't see any immediate, sure-fire way to prevent that other than asking participants to use their default browser from the get-go.
Perhaps some improvements can be made in future versions to allow for reliable detection and re-use of the initiating browsers. For this it would be helpful to know more details, i.e., under which specific circumstances this occurs for some of your participants (operating system type and version, initiating browser type and version, default browser type and version, launch method used).
I'm having trouble understanding the following: "The session was openend in IE, not in Chrome, this causes a problem since chrome does not recognize the session, so the session can not be closed."
From Inquisit's perspective, the session should be done once redirection has occurred (regardless of the browser). Redirection happens only after data upload. Could you flesh out for me what exactly you mean by "chrome does not recognize the session, so the session can not be closed"? I.e., are those participants not redirected to the correct page (including any relevant query parameters) and thus unable to finish the remainder of your online questionnaire? Or does your survey hinge on anything else (e.g. a cookie) that is present in IE's cache but not available to Chrome? Or is it something else entirely that I'm not catching? Thanks!
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By Maurits - 1/29/2015
Thanks for your elaborate reply Dave!
I have asked several people to try to replicate the problem on different systems, when I have received the information I will pass that through.
About the part which was not entirely clear, I will try to clarify:
The inquisit data is saved properly, the problem is indeed in the redirecting to the correct questionnaire page, or in the transfer of the correct information. I am not an IT-specialist, but this is how I understand it works:
-People open a link to our questionnaires, a cookie is placed and on the background the participant are "logged in" / a session is opened to track the progress of the participant (the participants themselves do not notice any of this).
-In this way, when people quit after doing a couple of the questionnaires, when they open the link to the questionnaires again, they can continue at the point where they stopped.
-After our questionnaires they are forwarded to inquisit, and then have to come back to a finish page.
-When the finish-page is opened in an other browser, the participant will get a message that there was an error because they were not logged in. They do not see the proper finish page.
-When participants click on the link to the questionnaires again, they are directed to the inquisit task again, so the system never received the call that the inquisit task was finished.
I hope this is clear enough to give you a good idea about what is happening.
Maurits
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By Maurits - 1/29/2015
I have contacted the programmers of the questionnaire program, and it is indeed the cookie which is missing when it is opened in a different browser. With this cookie they can track the session.
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By Dave - 1/30/2015
Thanks for the clarification & confirmation regarding the cookie-usage. I unfortunately don't see an immediate way to deal with this particular scenario (other than the have-participants-use-their-default-browser approach already mentioned). I will keep pondering this, though. If I happen to come up with any workable idea, I will add it to this thread.
Also, thanks for having a couple of people try to replicate the issue and offering to provide their configuration details. Please feel free to add those to this thread when you find the time. Much appreciated!
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