Developer Sandbox
A simulated environment to test your HITs.
About the Sandbox
The Mechanical Turk Developer Sandbox is a simulated environment that lets you test your applications and Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) prior to publication in the marketplace.
Benefits:
- Free to use for registered Mechanical Turk requesters. Fees will not be withdrawn and payments are not made to Worker accounts.
- Has functional parity with the production website.
- Requires only a URL change to configure your application to work against the developer sandbox or the production website.
Sandbox FAQs
How do I use the MTurk Developer Sandbox?
How do I configure my application to use the MTurk Developer Sandbox?
To use the MTurk Developer Sandbox during development and testing, set the URL service endpoint in your code to point to the sandbox endpoint: https://mturk-requester-sandbox.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
To use the MTurk Developer Sandbox for testing HITs using external questions, set the destination URL for the form action to be:
- https://workersandbox.mturk.com/mturk/externalSubmit
To switch your application to the production MTurk system, set the URL service endpoint to: https://mturk-requester.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
To switch your HITs using external questions to the production MTurk system, set the destination URL for the form action to be:
- https://www.mturk.com/mturk/externalSubmit
Example using Python:
import boto3
region_name = 'us-east-1'
aws_access_key_id = 'YOUR_ACCESS_ID'
aws_secret_access_key = 'YOUR_SECRET_KEY'
endpoint_url = 'https://mturk-requester-sandbox.us-east-1.amazonaws.com'
# Uncomment this line to use in production
# endpoint_url = 'https://mturk-requester.us-east-1.amazonaws.com'
client = boto3.client(
'mturk',
endpoint_url=endpoint_url,
region_name=region_name,
aws_access_key_id=aws_access_key_id,
aws_secret_access_key=aws_secret_access_key,
)
# This will return $10,000.00 in the MTurk Developer Sandbox
print(client.get_account_balance()['AvailableBalance'])
Example for HITs using external questions:
Set the form action URL to your desired environment:
<body>
<!-- This POST method is posting to the sandbox worker site-->
<form method="POST" action="https://workersandbox.mturk.com/mturk/externalSubmit">
<!-- This POST method is posting to the production worker site-->
<!--<form method="POST" action="https://www.mturk.com/mturk/externalSubmit">-->
<input type="hidden" id="assignmentId" name="assignmentId" value="">
What features of MTurk are not supported in the MTurk Developer Sandbox?
The following features of MTurk are disabled in the MTurk Developer Sandbox environment.
- Your Account Balance is a static amount ($10,000) that will not change when you approve work or pay bonuses in the MTurk Developer Sandbox.
- You cannot transfer money to or from your MTurk Developer Sandbox account.
- Workers do not earn money for work done in the MTurk Developer Sandbox.
What are the guidelines and policies for the MTurk Developer Sandbox?
- HITs and Qualifications that are inactive in the sandbox for more than 60 days will be permanently deleted.
- Load or performance testing your MTurk application using the MTurk Developer Sandbox is not allowed. If you have a special need, please contact us here to specify your special circumstance. You will be contacted by a member of our team to discuss your requirements.
Have a question about the Application Program Interface (API) or Command Line Tools (CLTs)? Post your questions and comments in the developer forum.
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