Understand audio field

The audio field enables your users to submit an audio input through your form, either by recording or by uploading an audio file that's stored in their device (computer, phone, or tablet). The following is how an audio field looks on a form:

• When a user accesses from a web browser:
  

  

• When a user accesses from a phone or tablet:
  

  

Size limits

• When a user accesses from a web browser, the audio field accepts a file of up to 30 minutes and doesn’t exceed 50 MB
• When a user accesses from an iPhone or iPad device, the audio field accepts a recorded audio of the duration set in your web browser and doesn’t exceed 50 MB. Once the timer is up, the audio recording stops automatically.
• When a user accesses from an Android device, the audio field accepts a recorded audio of the duration set in your web browser and doesn’t exceed 50 MB. Once the timer is up, the audio recording stops automatically.

The audio that your users submit through your form are stored in your account and are counted towards your account’s total storage limit. Visit your account's  usage details  page to view its current storage details.

Uploaded audio's name

When your users upload an audio file to this field, the file's name is set in the following format:

• The file's name is prepended by an underscore (_) and a system-generated number that uniquely identifies that file in your account
• The file's name will automatically be trimmed when it exceeds 150 characters
• Whitespaces and other special characters, excepting hyphens (-), will be replaced by an underscore (_).

On accessing from on a web browser

The following is an example of how an audio field looks when a user accesses from a web browser. Two icons appear in the audio field, as shown below. Your users can:

• Upload an audio
• Record an audio

Upload an audio file

To upload an audio file, your user can click the  Upload  icon in the audio field. This will launch the file browser where your user can select the required file. Alternatively, your user can drag and drop an audio file in the field.

With regard to uploading an audio file when accessing from a web browser, there are some format limitations:

If your user uploads an audio that's longer than the allowed duration that's set for that audio field, Zoho Creator will alert as follows. The following image shows an audio field that's set to accept an audio of up to 5 minutes.

If you user uploads a file that's not an audio, Zoho Creator will alert:

Record an audio

1. Select  Audio . This will display the recording screen within the pop-up window.
2. Click the  Microphone  icon, displayed at the bottom of the pop-up window. This will start the recording.
   
   • If it is the first time your user is accessing the audio field, they will be prompted to grant permission to use the computer's microphone.
   • They can either  Allow  or  Block .
   • If they select  Block , they will be prompted with the message  Allow access to media . They won't be able to record an audio till they  Allow  access to the microphone.
3. Click  Allow . This will start the recording immediately, and replace the  Microphone  icon with the  Stop  icon.
4. Click the  Stop  icon to stop recording. Alternatively, the recording will automatically stop when it reaches the allowed duration (set for that audio field).
5. Click the  Play  icon to play the recorded audio.
6. Click  Retake  to record again. This will clear the prior recording and display the  Microphone  icon, thereby letting the user start recording an audio again.
7. Click the  Check mark  button (displayed at the bottom of the pop-up window), once done recording. This will close the pop-up window and display the recorded audio in the audio field.

On accessing from a phone or tablet

When your users access the audio field on a phone or tablet, they can only record an audio. Uploading an audio file is not supported. The following given is what happens when your users tap on the audio field:

1. If it the first time your user is accessing the audio field, they will be prompted to grant permission to use the device's microphone.
   
   • Tap  Ok  to grant permission.
   • If your user taps  Don't Allow , they won't be able to proceed with recording an audio. Until they grant this access (in the app's permissions in the device's settings) they won't be able to record an audio for the audio field.
2. Tap  Ok . This will display a prompt at the screen's bottom.
3. Tap  Start Recording . This will display a 3-second timer and start counting it down. This is to let the user get ready for the audio recording.
4. (Once the timer finishes, the audio recording begins)
   
   • Time Elapsed  is displayed in the center of the device's screen.
   • The recording limit (allowed duration set for that audio field) is displayed below the  Time Elapsed .
5. Tap the  Pause  icon to pause the recording. Tap the  Microphone  icon to resume recording the audio.
6. Tap  Cancel , displayed on the top-left of the device's screen, to cancel the audio recording.
   
   • Tap  Discard Recording  to confirm this cancellation.
   • Tap  Cancel  to retain the recorded audio.
7. Tap  Done , displayed on the top-right on the screen, once done recording. Alternatively, the recording will automatically stop when it reaches the allowed duration (set for that audio field). This will close the audio recording screen and the recorded audio will appear in that audio field.
8. Tap on the audio field, then
   
   • Tap  Play Recording  to hear the recorded audio.
   • Tap  Record Again  to record the audio again. This will discard the prior audio recording.
   • Tap  Remove Recording  to remove the recorded audio.
   • Tap  Cancel  to retain the recorded audio as input in that audio field.

Features

You can perform the following customizations for the user experience of the audio field on a form:

• Set the allowed duration  up to which the uploaded or recorded audio can span
• Customize the  field name and field link name  of this field
• Make it  mandatory  for your users to upload or record an audio in this field
• Show the field only to the app’s admin  (and hide it from other users)
• Set the  field size
• Describe this field  using a tooltip or a help text

URL to download an audio

An audio stored in the audio field can be downloaded using the following URL:

where,

• domain  will be DC specific—for example, you'll need to use  creatorexport.zoho.com  if your account is in Zoho's US data center, and  creatorexport.zoho.eu  if in the EU data center.
• account_owner_name  contains the user name of the Creator application's account owner and the link name of the application.
• reportLinkName  is the link name of the report where the uploaded audio has been shown. (To know the report link name, click on  Report Settings ->Summary  from the edit mode of the report to get the reportLinkName).
• fieldLinkName  is the  link name  of the corresponding audio field. Click  here  to learn more about the script name for a field.
• fileName  is the corresponding file's name.  Learn more

For example, imagine that you've built an  Order management  application. In this application, you have created a form named  Feedback , where you collect feedback from your users via multi line and audio fields. You have given the choice of selection to your users to submit the feedback as text or record it as an audio. When you access the  Feedback  report, you may want to download the audio feedback files. To do this, you can configure a custom action such that when you click the button  Download audio , the audio file is downloaded. This custom action has the above URL format constructed as follows:

where,

• BaseURL  is a variable that refers to the URL you have constructed
• zoho.appuri  returns the application details in the format:
   /<account_owner_name>/<application_link_name>/
• input.<fieldLinkName>  returns the  filename  of each file stored in the corresponding audio field
• The  invokeUrl  Deluge task is used to redirect the user to the specified URL. This URL can be opened in the same window, new window, parent window, popup window, or iframe.

Now, when you access the  Feedback  report, you can see the  Download audio  button:

In the above image, Megan is the <account_owner_name> and order-management is the <application_link_name>