How to download the original audio or video files from questfox?

How to download the original audio or video files from questfox?

This post is only valid for the data captured until October 2020. Since November 2020 we will no longer store multimedia files on our servers. Read the details on how to connect your project with your own SFTP client here: https://questfox.wordpress.com/2020/11/01/clients-sftp-server-integration-for-audio-files/

questfox allows you to record audio and video files. Usually these are immediately transcribed and saved as text, but there is also the option to save the spoken word or recorded video as a multimedia file on the questfox server.

It should be noted that the use of multimedia recordings generates huge amounts of data that go far beyond what is common in market research. A 10 second video usually generates more data than the survey of 1000 people answered by click and text.

Of all types of recording, automatic transcripts are saved as text. But it will always be necessary to hear or view the files in their original format. This memo explains how to do this with the questfox Filemanager.

Each page created in the questfox with audio or video files is saved in its own folder, which contains the name of the project in coded form. Within a folder there are then the respective pages in the continuous numbering. So if an audio file is saved on page 5, then it can be found in the folder Q5. The file folders are only created with the first saved Multimedia element. If you still change the folder structure in the running project, even though audio data has already been received, a little caution is required, as questfox always writes into the current folder.

From the folders you can download the files individually or collectively. While this is comparatively easy with audio data, special considerations have to be made especially for video files. Overall, the question is whether the amount of data is too large to be downloaded in a browser session download. Almost every browser lets you down in case of hundreds of megabytes. For these cases, we offer a separate access to the files, which is realized with a kind of FTP tool. For the vast majority of users, the download is readily possible.

So here’s the way to the audio data of your project:

At the top level, select the Project Space and select the File Manager

Click on the folder “Survey Uploads”

There select the project. To do so one must know the questionnaire ID, which is assigned to the folder. The survey ID is the code that can be found behind the questfox link in the project overview (in the red box BID = CODE OF THE SURVEY).

In questfox File Manager there is then a separate folder per ID.

When opening this folder, various folders may be displayed, each of which may contain audio or video data. The arrangement is in the numerical order of the questionnaire.

With a right mouse click you can open the menu and save the data first as Zip and then right click on Download to download it to your device as ZIP. Please note that you must have the appropriate permits from the people who you recorded before using the data in a different context.

If there is little data, usually a whole project can be downloaded at once. With extensive data, there are sometimes difficulties with videos here. In these cases, we offer direct access to these folders via our own tool (similar to ftp). Ask your questfox partner about this feature,

Attention: The data can be so extensive that the browser session does not allow the download and stops without error message.

The file names themselves are coded and contain an indication of the format at the end. Voice stands for voice files. Video for motion picture files.

Depending on the source device different formats are written. questfox currently has the ability to encode in .ogg and .webm.

If you have difficulty playing the files, we recommend the VLC Player, which handles more than just the proprietary formats of some producers. Download at https://www.vlc.de/  

In the hope of enabling new ways of voice and video interviews. Good luck with the new survey options inside of questfox.

Pretty soon there will be an update allowing you to take care of your upload folder on your side. We will offer the option to use your personal SFTP Server.

Update November 2020: This is how you connect to SFTP: https://questfox.wordpress.com/2020/11/01/clients-sftp-server-integration-for-audio-files/

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