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z-Tree: Tips & Tricks |
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Licencing Installation First Steps Programming Layout Running a session Printing Other Tips Future improvements |
First StepsTesting
How do I test a treatment I programmed before running a session?You test a treatment by running it. You set up an environment in which you can run the treatment (see below) and then you run it until it is correct. To test z-Tree in a lab, just put the files ztree.exe and zleaf.exe into a network directory that is accessible by the computer of the experimenter and by the computer of the subjects. To run the treatment that has to be tested, first start ztree.exe on the experimenter computer. Then, start zleaf.exe on the subjects' computer. To test z-Tree outside of the lab, you can also run several z-Leafs on a single computer (you can even run them on the experimenter computer). You only have to give different names to the different z-Leafs. You can achieve this by creating shortcuts to zleaf.exe in the explorer: Menu > File > Create Shortcut. Please see Tutorial, pages 13 to 16, for further instructions. How can I create different z-Leaves to test a treatment with several clients on a single computer?You create a shortcuts for each zLeaf you want to start. You
have to conduct the following steps: 1. Click at the z-Left icon in the explorer. 2. In the "File" menu select "Create Shotcut". 3. In the "File" menu select "Rename" and give the shortcut a good name. You can for instance number the leafs: zleaf1, zleaf2,... 4. In the "File" menu select "Properties". A dialog opens. 5. In this dialog first click at the tab "Shortcut". 6. You have to enter the name into the command line which you find in the field "Target". So, if your zLeaf is located in the directory L:\zleaf, in this field you will find the text L:\zleaf\zleaf.exe. If you want to use the name leaf2 you enter into the field target the line L:\zleaf\zleaf.exe /name leaf2.Note: The option "name" is preceeded by a slash. You may use any combination of letters and numbers as name (in the example leaf2. However, spaces are not allowed. PS: You can also use other command line options as "size" which determines the size of the zLeaf. 
Testing with overlapping z-LeavesIf you want to test a program with more than one client on one computer, it is sometimes difficult to find out which zLeaf belongs to which client. A good idea is to start the clients slightly overlapping. This works particularly well if you can run a test on a screen that is larger than the screens of the clients. You can, for instance, start three z-Leaves in the following way: zleaf /name normal /size 640x480 /position 20,0 In this way each of the the z-Leaves can be fetched with the mouse.
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