How to delete still available HITs using boto3 client

Question

I have some published HITs available to workers. Now I want to delete them although they haven't been finished by the workers. According to this documentation, it is not possible: https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/reference/services/mturk.html#MTurk.Client.delete_hit

Only HITs in reviewable state can be deleted.

But using the command line interface it seems to be possible: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSMechTurk/latest/AWSMturkCLT/CLTReference_DeleteHITsCommand.html

My question is, can I somehow accomplish the command line behaviour of deleting not reviewable HITs using boto3 client?

Answer 1

The partial solution is to set an 'Assignable' HIT to expire immediately. I use this script for cleaning up the Mechanical Turk Sandbox:

import boto3
from datetime import datetime

# Get the MTurk client
mturk=boto3.client('mturk',
        aws_access_key_id="aws_access_key_id",
        aws_secret_access_key="aws_secret_access_key",
        region_name='us-east-1',
        endpoint_url="https://mturk-requester-sandbox.us-east-1.amazonaws.com",
    )

# Delete HITs
for item in mturk.list_hits()['HITs']:
    hit_id=item['HITId']
    print('HITId:', hit_id)

    # Get HIT status
    status=mturk.get_hit(HITId=hit_id)['HIT']['HITStatus']
    print('HITStatus:', status)

    # If HIT is active then set it to expire immediately
    if status=='Assignable':
        response = mturk.update_expiration_for_hit(
            HITId=hit_id,
            ExpireAt=datetime(2015, 1, 1)
        )        

    # Delete the HIT
    try:
        mturk.delete_hit(HITId=hit_id)
    except:
        print('Not deleted')
    else:
        print('Deleted')