Bulk Uploading for Audio Prompts

Introduction

The Audio Manager allows you to upload your own human-recorded audio files for any or all prompts in an survey. While you can upload your recorded audio files one-by-one to the desired prompts, you may want to upload files for multiple prompts all at once.

This guide describes how to bulk upload audio prompts in the Audio Manager, which includes the following steps:

1. Exporting all prompt filenames

2. Renaming your audio files to match your target prompts

3. Adding these renamed audio files to a .zip archive

4. Uploading the .zip archive to apply the renamed audio files

5. Testing your new audio prompts

Note: Bulk uploading is meant to make multi-file uploads of audio prompts efficient. However, this will work even if you are uploading for only one.

This guide assumes that your Insight survey has at least two or more prompts.

Prerequisites

1. All of your intended custom audio prompts, recorded in a compatible file format. See Audio Prompts to decide for which prompts you'd like to record an audio file. If you do not already have a preferred recording application, Plum recommends the free Audacity application to record audio: http://www.audacityteam.org/download/

2. A spreadsheet application. Examples include Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. You will use this to view a .csv spreadsheet.

3. A .zip application. Many current operating systems have built-in .zip utilities. A free alternative is 7-Zip. You should be familiar with how to create a .zip archive using your chosen application.

4. Review the docs on Audio Prompts. Terms and user interface elements discussed here are similarly covered in this documentation.

Recommendations

1. Finish building your Insight survey first. Once finished, you will likely have a finalized list of prompts in the Prompt Table. This would allow you to bulk upload for all prompts in one effort – or as few efforts as possible.

Step 1: Export a spreadsheet of prompt filenames

Log in to Insight. In the Survey Manager, select the desired survey. In the Survey Editor, select the gear icon, then select Prompts. The Audio Manager will be displayed as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Audio prompts in the Audio Manager.

Select the tab for the desired language, then select Export CSV. Save the .csv spreadsheet in a memorable location, and open it in your chosen spreadsheet application. The spreadsheet should contain a filename column and a prompt column as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The exported list of audio prompt filenames.

These filenames correspond to each prompt in your survey. Your audio file must use the same filename as its intended prompt.

Step 2: Rename your audio files

Read the spreadsheet to locate each prompt that will receive an audio file. Figure 3 provides an example of how the prompts listed in the Audio Manager and the spreadsheet compare.

Figure 3: Prompts in the Audio Manager compared with the exported .csv spreadsheet. Select this image to zoom in.

Confirm the prompt's filename, and rename the desired audio file to match it exactly*. This allows the Audio Manager to identify which prompt should receive that audio file from your bulk upload.

*Note: The file type does not have to match, but it must be compatible with Insight. See Audio Formats for more information.

Step 3: Add your audio files to a ZIP archive

Add the renamed audio files to the same folder or directory, then add them to a .zip archive. Save the .zip archive in a memorable location.

Step 4: Upload the ZIP archive

Select Upload Zip. In the File Upload window, navigate to the folder or directory containing the .zip archive, select it, then select Open.

The .zip archive will be uploaded, and the Audio Manager will apply each renamed audio file within to the prompt with a matching filename. All other prompts will remain unchanged.

How do I know the upload(s) worked?

Look for the following icons to distinguish prompts:

• TTS: Default prompt type. Indicates no audio file is attached.
• Audio: These prompts have an uploaded audio file attached. Look for these.

Note: Any uploaded recordings will override any text entered for a survey's prompt field.

Step 5: Test the prompts

In the Prompt Table, review the list of audio prompts. Select the Play button on each one, and listen to the entire playback to confirm that each prompt uses the correct audio file and that the audio plays as desired. Figure 4 provides an example.

Figure 4: Select the Play button for each prompt that has it. Listen to the playback to ensure that each prompt works as intended.

Finally, create a deployment with the survey and dial the number of your deployment to test it. During your test calls, select each option connected to your prompts and ensure that each audio prompt plays back as intended.

Troubleshooting

If any audio prompts fail, open the survey in the Survey Editor, go to the Audio Manager, and check the following in order:

1. Was an audio file uploaded to the correct prompt? Carefully check the filenames you used for each audio file. They must be entered exactly as given in the .cvs spreadsheet, and each filename is linked to a specific prompt in your application.

2. Is the audio file in a compatible format and file size? Review the guidelines described under Audio Prompts and verify that your audio files match them.
3. Does a failing prompt play any audio at all when you select the Play button? If not, try reuploading the desired audio file. File damage could also prevent playback.

Conclusion

If no issues are found, you've successfully bulk uploaded audio prompts for your survey.