Basic simulation components

Before you begin defining the simulation content (such as actors, posts, comments, notifications), you may want to change other components of the simulation.

Below are some simulation components that can be changed via the environment variables .env file. These include the site name and logo, the number and names of the experimental conditions on your site, and feed order. See the table below for a list and description of these components.

Environment Variable	Description
POST_SURVEY	(Optional) The URL to the post-study survey. You may want participants to complete a survey when they have completed the study. If yes, define this variable with your survey link. It is shown when the participant tries to log in to their account after their study is complete. If you'd like to integrate this post-study survey with Qualtrics, see Integrating Qualtrics with Truman. Remember to append ?r_id= to the end of your survey link and set POST_SURVEY_WITH_QUALTRICS to TRUE. If no, remove this variable from the .env file by removing the line from the file.
POST_SURVEY_WITH_QUALTRICS	TRUE/FALSE This label indicates if you would like to integrate a Qualtrics post-study survey with your study. See Integrating Qualtrics with Truman for more information.
IDENTIFIER	Label for participant unique identifier. This label is shown on the form on the Sign Up page. It prompts participants to provide their unique identifier.
RESEARCHER_EMAIL	The contact email of the researcher. This is shown on the Forgot Your Password page so that participants' may contact you for their password to be reset. See FAQs for more information on what to do if a participant has forgotten their password.
NUM_DAYS	Study duration (a numerical value; in # of days). This indicates how long the simulation should last for participants. So, after the specified number of days has passed since a participant creates their account, their account will be deactivated, and they will not be able to access the site after. 1 day is 24 hours.
SITE_NAME	Platform Name. This is shown throughout the platform.
SITE_LOGO	File path to the platform logo. This is shown throughout the platform, specifically via the header.
SITE_PICTURE	File path to the platform picture. This is shown on the Login and Sign Up.
NUM_EXP_CONDITIONS	The number of experimental conditions in the experiment. This variable works in conjunction with the variable below. Participants are randomly assigned to an experimental condition upon account creation. This variable defines how many conditions there should be.
EXP_CONDITIONS_NAMES	The names of the experimental conditions in the experiment. Separate the names with a comma, but no spaces (ex: var1,var2,var3). This variable works in conjunction with the variable above. Participants are randomly assigned to an experimental condition upon account creation. This variable defines the labels (names) of these experimental conditions. The names as they appear here are also how they appear in the database.
FEED_ORDER	Indicates how you would like the feed to be shown. Available values include: CHRONOLOGICAL: The posts will be shown chronologically on the feed/timeline. SHUFFLE: The feed posts will be shuffled on the feed/timeline.
CDN	(Optional) CDN URL. A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of interconnected servers that caches content near end users. Using a CDN can speed up webpage loading for data-heavy applications. In The Truman Platform, a CDN can be used to deliver your actor profile pictures and post pictures. In the default .env file, a CDN URL is provided, but it is for the default simulation. Therefore, if you change the simulation content (i.e. define new actors, posts, comments, etc.), you will need to: Remove this line from the .env file or Change the CDN URL to point to the CDN you are personally using to deliver the static content (pictures). Note: When setting up your CDN, ensure that the bucket that contains your content has a folder ./post_pictures (where all the post pictures are placed in) and a folder ./profile_pictures (where all the profile pictures are placed in).
REMOVE_FLAGGED_CONTENT	TRUE/FALSE When TRUE, flagged content (posts and comments) are entirely from timeline. When FALSE, flagged content appear with an overlay and gives participant the option to unflag the content.

How to change these components

These components can be changed in the .env file found in the project folder. It looks like the following when opened with a text file editor:

To change or define a variable, replace the value after the equals sign of the corresponding variable with your desired value.

• For example:

  • If you would like to change the site name to “FootballForums”, then you will need to change the line:

    • SITE_NAME=eatsnap.love to SITE_NAME=FootballForums

When changing variable names, there should be no spaces between the variable name, equals sign, and variable value. The following will not work because of spacing between the equals sign.

• SITE_NAME= FootballForums

• SITE_NAME = FootballForums

If your variable value has a space, enclose the value with quotes. For example:

SITE_NAME="Football Forums"