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Special Access Permissions

The most general way to share a protocol with other users and to provide the necessary permissions is to set the access status of the protocol to "Public."  This allows all ProtoGenie users to access that protocol and the right to make a copy of it for their own purposes.  In some cases, a researcher may be willing to share a protocol with others even before his/her research is complete.  Others may prefer to wait until after the research is completed and instead of throwing the software away make it available to other ProtoGenie users.  

However, there are situations that require "Special Access Permissions."  There are three such situations: Person-to-Person, Remote Access for Demonstrations, and Remote Access for Online Applications.  For each of these situations, see below. 

Person-to-Person Permissions
If you would like to give one or more specific individuals the right to use your protocol with or without restrictions and you do not want to make it available to all ProtoGenie users, do the following:

1.  Log on to ProtoGenie.  
2.  In the Startup Page, select "Access Your Personal Library." 
3.  In your list of protocols, click on the title of the protocol you wish to share.  4.  In the User Action Menu, click on Users. 
5. On the Permissions Page (see below) under Protocol Options, check that the "Private" option is checked.  Note that there may be special circumstances in which your Protocol is Public, but your intended special user is not a member of ProtoGenie and you do not wish to require that the intended user sign up and log in.  In this case, leave this option on "Public."
6. Under "Add a User to Your Protocol" type in the person's email address and under that specify the access options you wish him/her to have  Options are: Run, Edit Copy, Edit, Users, Results, Backup, and Delete.  Generally speaking, one would not check the Edit permission unless the situation involved a collaboration or team effort because this option allows the added user to make changes in the original copy.  Run means execute, only.  Edit Copy means that the added person can make a copy and change it at will.  Users allows persons with that permission to look at and  modify the designated user list.  Results gives the authorized person the ability to view the results of sessions conducted with that protocol.

Remote Access for Demonstration
In certain situations, you may want to enable another professional to execute a protocol to demonstrate some feature or to get expert feedback on the suitability of the protocol for certain population groups.  In these situations, you can "make" a special URL that can be run only in execution mode, which you can send to the intended user.  To make a special URL for execution mode, do the following:
1. Log into ProtoGenie, 
2. Click on the protocol in your Personal Library of Protocols that you wish to provide access to in demonstration mode. 
3. Click on the words "Get URL" in the top menu.
4. Under the dropdown menu labeled "Group," select the experimental group to which the demonstration run will apply.
5. Under the dropdown menu labeled "Log in?," select "Have the Subject Login to Existing ProtoGenie."
6. Click on "Generate URL."  A long URL beginning with http will appear in the window below the "Generate URL" button.
7. Highlight this URL and copy it using Ctrl/C or right mouse button and select "copy."
8. Paste this URL into a message to send to the person to whom you want to demonstrate the Run mode of the selected protocol.
9. Upon receipt of the URL, the intended viewer will paste it into the "Open" field of his/her browser and press "Go."  This will bring up the first page of the protocol run. 

Remote Access for Online Applications

Self-administered on-line surveys
These are basically questionnaires that you compose on ProtoGenie in the usual way and then ask for volunteers (usually on-line) from a target population to complete the questionnaire at their own computer stations and submit it on-line to the ProtoGenie Database.  Care must be taken in selecting and reaching the population you wish to survey and in screening that population to fit your study.  Since there is no direct supervision, clear and complete instructions are very important.

Self-administered on-line experiments  
These are experiments that you compose on ProtoGenie then ask for volunteers (usually on-line) from a target population to execute the protocol at their own computer stations and respond on-line.  Care must be taken in selecting and reaching the population you wish to survey and in screening that population to fit your study.  Since there is no direct supervision, clear and complete instructions are very important.  The great advantage of this new form of experiments is access to virtually unlimited pools of subjects.  The most severe problem is control.  Consequently, creative designs that provide controls or compensate for the lack of control are critical.

Using Direct Access URLs
To conduct an on-line survey or experiment, you will generally create a "Direct Run-Time URL" on ProtoGenie that remotely located respondents and subjects will open on their own systems.