Experiment and Session Inheritance

Experiment & Session Configuration: Duplication, Inheritance, and Context-Sensitivity

1. Duplicating Experiments

When preparing similar, iterative, or follow-up studies, entire experiments can be duplicated with a single click:

• Action: "Duplicate experiment" (Experiment duplizieren) located in the floating action bar and left navigation sidebar of the experiment.
• Scope: Copies all basic and advanced settings, treatments (including participant targets), quota definitions, milestones, tags, and experimenter permissions.
• Permissions: Available to users with edit permissions on the experiment who also have experiment creation rights (can_create_experiment or Admin).
• Result: The new experiment is created with a (Copy) suffix, and edit mode opens immediately.

---

2. Context-Sensitivity (Dynamic Field & Tab Visibility)

To keep setup focused and avoid input confusion, configuration forms dynamically adapt to the selected experiment type (present, online, survey) and admission mode (classic, qr_code, waiting_room, survey):

In Experiment Settings:

• Laboratory In-Person Experiment (present with classic or QR admission):
  • Tab 5 ("Survey & Queue") is completely hidden.
• Synchronous Online Experiment (online):
  • Tab 5 is labeled "Online Waiting Room & Live".
  • Only panels relevant to waiting room parameters, lottery draws, live queues, chat, and device restrictions are displayed.
• Online Survey (survey):
  • Tab 5 is labeled "Survey & Privacy".
  • Only survey configuration panels (target URLs, tokens, timeout, rotation strategy), device restrictions, and privacy policies are displayed; waiting room and live draw panels remain hidden.
  • Room/location selection and physical setup/cleanup duration fields are hidden.

In Session Settings:

• The list of available admission types (admission_type) is pre-filtered based on the parent experiment's type (e.g. only classic and qr_code are offered for in-person studies).
• Online & Survey Sessions:
  • Room selection is hidden (default room Internet is automatically assigned).
  • Cash payout option (cash_payout_active) is hidden.
  • Setup and cleanup time buffers are hidden.
• Survey Sessions:
  • Team assignment boxes, reserve seats, category pickers, and physical session text boxes are hidden.
• Waiting Room Sessions:
  • Waiting room settings (opening lead time, lottery duration, show-up fee, quota mode, target URLs) are dynamically exposed.

---

3. Automatic Inheritance of Experiment Settings into New Sessions

When creating a new session (SessionsController#new), parent configuration values from the experiment are automatically inherited into the new session's attributes and pre-filled in the form:

Inherited Attributes:

• General: Public title (public_name), admission type (admission_type), registration deadline (registration_deadline), duration (duration), needed participants (needed), group size (group_size).
• Finance & Payouts: Payment type (payment_type_id), donation payment type (donation_payment_type_id), voucher pool (voucher_pool_id), session payout (session_payout), show payout amount (show_session_payout), rounding mode (session_round_up), payout increment (session_payout_increase).
• Online & Surveys: Token source (token_source), survey duration timeout (survey_timeout_minutes), external destination URL (external_survey_url), device restrictions (allow_smartphones, allow_tablets).
• Waiting Room & Queue: Opening and closing times, reading buffer, draw duration, show-up fee, draw mode, draw delay, and queue compensation/limits.
• Instructions: Room description, participant restrictions, and special instructions.

Visual Form Indicators:

• Every inherited form field is marked with a retweet icon (glyphicon-retweet).
• Hovering over the icon displays a tooltip: "Inherited from experiment settings. Can be overridden for this specific session."
• Values are pre-populated and fully editable, allowing experimenters to accept experiment defaults immediately or customize values per session as needed.