The CreateQualificationType operation
creates a new Qualification type.
Every Qualification has a Qualification type. The creator of the type can assign Qualifications of that type to Workers, and grant requests for Qualifications of the type made by Workers. A Qualification can be considered a statement about a Worker made by the Qualification type's owner.
A Qualification type may include a Qualification test, a set of
questions a Worker must answer to request the Qualification.
The type may also include an answer key for the test.
Qualification requests for types with answer keys are granted
automatically by Mechanical Turk, using a value calculated from
the answer key and the Worker's test answers. If the
Qualification type does not have a test, or does not have an
answer key, the type's owner is responsible for polling for and
granting Qualification requests. (See
GetQualificationRequests.)
A Qualification type can be set up to grant requests automatically without a Qualification test. Requests for such a Qualification type are granted immediately with a default value, without prompting the Worker with a test.
Once a Qualification type has been created, it cannot be
deleted. You can disable the Qualification type by
calling the UpdateQualificationType
operation, to prevent Workers from taking the Qualification
test, and to prevent Requesters from creating HITs that use the
type in a requirement.
You may create an unlimited number of Qualification types.
The following example of a call to the
CreateQualificationType operation creates
a Qualification type.
http://mechanicalturk.amazonaws.com/onca/xml?Service=AWSMechanicalTurkRequester &AWSAccessKeyId=[the Requester's Access Key ID]&Version=2006-10-31 &Operation=CreateQualificationType &Signature=[signature for this request]&Timestamp=[your system's local time]&Name=EnglishWritingAbility &Description=The%20ability%20to%20write%20and%20edit%20text... &QualificationTypeStatus=Active
A request to the Mechanical Turk Service includes parameters that control its behavior and the data it returns. Required parameters must be included for the request to succeed.
CreateQualificationType accepts parameters
common to all operations. Some common parameters are required. See Common Parameters for more information.
The following parameters are specific to the
CreateQualificationType operation:
| Name | Description | Type | Value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Operation
|
The operation to call. To access the
| Required |
| ||
Name
|
The name of the Qualification type. The type name is used to represent the Qualification to Workers, and to find the type using a Qualification type search. The name of your Qualification type must be unique across all of your Qualification types. To other users, a Qualification type is known by the name of the type's owner as well as the name of the type. | Required |
A string | ||
Description
|
A long description for the Qualification type. On the Mechanical Turk web site, the long description is displayed when a user examines a Qualification type. The description must be less than or equal to 2,000 characters in length. | Required |
A string | ||
Keywords
|
One or more words or phrases that describe the Qualification type, separated by commas. A type's Keywords make the type easier to find using a search. The complete string of keywords, including commas and spaces, must be less than or equal to 1,000 characters in length. | Optional |
A string | ||
RetryDelayInSeconds
|
An amount of time after requesting a Qualification of the Qualification type a user must wait before the user can request it again. A user may wish to request a Qualification multiple times if they were not granted the Qualification from a previous request, or if a Qualification test offers a gradient score and the user would like a better score.
If
| Optional |
A number of seconds, as a non-negative integer | ||
QualificationTypeStatus
|
The initial status of the Qualification type. A Qualification type's status determines if users can apply to receive a Qualification of this type, and if HITs can be created with requirements based on this type.
If a Qualification type is
If a type becomes | Required |
| ||
Test
|
The questions for a Qualification test a user must answer correctly to obtain a Qualification of this type. The value of this parameter is an XML data structure. See the QuestionForm data structure for more information. (Note: A Qualification test cannot use an "external question" like a HIT can.) A Qualification test is optional. If omitted, a user may request the Qualification without answering any questions.
If | Optional |
XML data for the Qualification test, a QuestionForm data structure | ||
AnswerKey
|
The answers to the Qualification test specified in the If an answer key is provided for a test, Mechanical Turk will process requests for the Qualification automatically, assigning the user a Qualification with a value calculated from the answer key and the answers submitted by the user. The value of this parameter is an XML data structure. See the AnswerKey data structure for more information.
The answer key is optional. If an answer key is not provided with a test, you must process Qualification requests manually. The user's test answers will be included in the response from the | Optional |
XML data for the answer key, an AnswerKey data structure | ||
TestDurationInSeconds
|
An amount of time a user has from requesting the
Qualification to complete the Qualification test. If
the user does not submit test answers before this
duration has elapsed after requesting the
Qualification, the request is voided. The user
must then wait for the
If test retries are disabled (if
| Optional |
A number of seconds, as a positive integer | ||
AutoGranted
|
If
A Qualification type cannot have both a
| Optional |
A Boolean, either | ||
AutoGrantedValue
|
The Qualification value to use for automatically
granted Qualifications, if
If | Optional |
An integer |
A successful request for the
CreateQualificationType operation will have
a QualificationType element in the
response.
The QualificationType element contains a
Qualification type data structure. For a description of this
data structure, see the
Qualification Type Data Structure.