HITs created with create_hit with externalQuestion using boto3, not visible at requester's account

Question

I'm a novice mturk user. I created HITs for crowdsourcing using external question hosted on a server. I wanted to know if there is a web interface where I can see progress of my HITs. I tried looking at the https://requester.mturk.com/manage and https://requestersandbox.mturk.com/manage. But I cannot see the HITs programatically created using boto3. Should I look somewhere else? If not what's the way to get this information?

Answer 1

I share your pain right now. As of June 2020, this situation hasn't changed. HITs that are NOT created through the MTurk web interface STILL do not display on the web interface. It's terrible. We have 3 options for seeing and managing the HITs:

1. Use scripting and boto3. <-- Best option for now.
2. Use the AWS CLI.
3. Use the AWS shell (aws-shell).

I think the best option is to make scripts that do exactly what you need. Chances are you'll need to do things more efficiently than you could using the AWS CLI only. aws-shell isn't easy enough to use, and it also looks unsupported for over a year at this point (judging by their official github issue tracker).

For what you're asking specifically you'll need to use the method list_hits() and possibly list_assignments_for_hit(). See https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/reference/services/mturk.html

Also I'm very new to this, so if it sounds like a barely or only sorta know what I'm talking about, that's correct. But I also wished there had been a straightforward answer to this question a couple weeks ago when I was sitting here dumbfounded.