I have reached my technical limit once again…
Is this even possible?
I have a lot of sermons I want to give friends in our country of service access too in an easily accessible format. I’ve tried various methods and settled on SAB.
All I want is a list of categorised sermons, streamable and potentially downloadable in SAB.
Then some query suggested Firebase Blaze as a free(ish) service. I’ve offered my CC and uploaded my sermon files.
Big Questions
How do I get them into SAB?
Should I cancel my firebase account and go somewhere else?
Hi Ross,
Can you explain a bit more how you want user’s to interact with the app–what the user experience should be?
I’m assuming the sermons are all mp3s or .webm…
You would need to decide if you want the users to access them like an audio-only app–perhaps with a “cover” picture / title image for each one and/or you can create one or more SFM files that explain more about the sermons / categorize them and link to the specific sermons (via markup format). Using a contents menu would be helpful.
Then you would need to add the audio files to your SAB project under the specific books and set up the file source to be your web service. You could include a few sermons in the APK / AAB itself and have the others streamable or downloadable. I haven’t done any audio file hosting myself, but others in the community have and can hopefully help with the Blaze question.
Hi Andrew,
I appreciate you getting back to me!
Yes, the app really would be a central collection point with all sermons easily accessible - listed, categorised by book or topic (formatted in an SFM file), and click on-able – to either download or stream. The sermons on Blaze are all mp3.
Really, I need help to navigate Blaze. I have managed to upload to a ‘bucket’ but so far it escapes me as to how to get them into SAB easily. Perhaps ‘easily’ isn’t the word I will land on - I may need to get an individual link from Blaze for each sermon, I’m guessing - but hoping against!
I guess what I am hoping for is a link to place in the Media/Audio url space that will then populate SAB internally so I can reference by letter like A1, A2 etc - the same way that I can refence Youtube videos as V1, V2 etc in an SFM file.
Hi @Ross_Webb, I can share what I’ve done for sharing audio files for an audio Bible.
Storage: I use Cloudflare’s R2 Object Storage. This gives you 10GB of free storage with free access to that storage. So, as long as your sermon archive is less than 10GB, you shouldn’t have any fees for this service.
1a) Setup a free account with Cloudflare.
1b) Open the R2 Object Storage section from the menu bar and create a bucket.
1d) Go back to the R2 Object Storage main page and click on the “Settings” tab. Here you will find your “Public access” links. This might be a long and convoluted Cloudflare address. You can also set it to your own domain if you have a custom domain.
Telling SAB where your audio files are:
2a) In the “Media” tab, click “Audio”.
2b) In the “Audio” page, click the “File Source” tab and then click “Add File Source…”
2d) In the “Access Method” drop down, choose whether you want users to stream the files every time, download them, etc.
2e) In the “Web Address” bar, paste the “Public access” link from Cloudflare (step 1d above) and click OK.
Telling SAB what your audio files are called: Once you’ve told SAB where to find your files, you just need to “add” the audio files to the relevant books. This is explained in the SAB help guide 2. Building Apps. In SAB 12.5, the relevant help guide page is page 137, section 15.5.15 “The Audio Files Tab”.
Ben Clark via SIL Scripture Software
yeti April 17 Hi @Ross_Webb, I can share what I’ve done for sharing audio files for an audio Bible. Storage: I use Cloudflare’s R2 Object Storage. This gives you 10GB of free storage with free access to that storage. So, as long as your sermon archive is less than 10GB, you shouldn’t have any fees for this service. 1a) Setup a free account with Cloudflare. 1b) Open the R2 Object Storage section from the menu bar and create a bucket. 1c) Click on your new bucket and upload your audio files. 1d) Go back to the R2 Object Storage main page and click on the “Settings” tab. Here you will find your “Public access” links. This might be a long and convoluted Cloudflare address. You can also set it to your own domain if you have a custom domain. Telling SAB where your audio files are: 2a) In the “Media” tab, click “Audio”. 2b) In the “Audio” page, click the “File Source” tab and then click “Add File Source…” 2c) In the File Source popup window, choose “Download from the internet” 2d) In the “Access Method” drop down, choose whether you want users to stream the files every time, download them, etc. 2e) In the “Web Address” bar, paste the “Public access” link from Cloudflare (step 1d above) and click OK. Telling SAB what your audio files are called: Once you’ve told SAB where to find your files, you just need to “add” the audio files to the relevant books. This is explained in the SAB help guide 2. Building Apps. In SAB 12.5, the relevant help guide page is page 137, section 15.5.15 “The Audio Files Tab”. Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond. In Reply To Ross_Webb April 15 Hi Andrew, I appreciate you getting back to me! Yes, the app really would be a central collection point with all sermons easily accessible - listed, categorised by book or topic (formatted in an SFM file), and click on-able – to either download or stream. The sermons on Blaze are all mp3. Really,… Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond. To unsubscribe from these emails, click here.
Fantastic. Thanks for taking the time Ben. I’ll give it a go!
Ross
Ben Clark via SIL Scripture Software
yeti April 17 Hi @Ross_Webb, I can share what I’ve done for sharing audio files for an audio Bible. Storage: I use Cloudflare’s R2 Object Storage. This gives you 10GB of free storage with free access to that storage. So, as long as your sermon archive is less than 10GB, you shouldn’t have any fees for this service. 1a) Setup a free account with Cloudflare. 1b) Open the R2 Object Storage section from the menu bar and create a bucket. 1c) Click on your new bucket and upload your audio files. 1d) Go back to the R2 Object Storage main page and click on the “Settings” tab. Here you will find your “Public access” links. This might be a long and convoluted Cloudflare address. You can also set it to your own domain if you have a custom domain. Telling SAB where your audio files are: 2a) In the “Media” tab, click “Audio”. 2b) In the “Audio” page, click the “File Source” tab and then click “Add File Source…” 2c) In the File Source popup window, choose “Download from the internet” 2d) In the “Access Method” drop down, choose whether you want users to stream the files every time, download them, etc. 2e) In the “Web Address” bar, paste the “Public access” link from Cloudflare (step 1d above) and click OK. Telling SAB what your audio files are called: Once you’ve told SAB where to find your files, you just need to “add” the audio files to the relevant books. This is explained in the SAB help guide 2. Building Apps. In SAB 12.5, the relevant help guide page is page 137, section 15.5.15 “The Audio Files Tab”. Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond. In Reply To Ross_Webb April 15 Hi Andrew, I appreciate you getting back to me! Yes, the app really would be a central collection point with all sermons easily accessible - listed, categorised by book or topic (formatted in an SFM file), and click on-able – to either download or stream. The sermons on Blaze are all mp3. Really,… Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond. To unsubscribe from these emails, click here.
Hi Ben,
I appreciate the blow-by-blow, but I think I must be missing something yet. I have moved my files to CloudFlare R2 Object storage, and have made my files public using the R2.dev subdomain. I have got my public link which works in the browser if I append one of the uploaded file names to it.
I have added the public link to SAB (without an appended file name), selected access method and pressed OK.
Then I went to the next tab (Audio Files). Alas, no files populated there, and the add audio files button just wants to add local audio files. So my question is, where do I find the files to reference in my SFM file?
Should we go offline on this, or might this be instructional…?
Ross
Hi Ross,
Yes, you’ll need to have the files “added” locally, but then change their file source to be your CloudFlare location you set up. In the Audio Files tab, using Ctrl-A to select all the files, right-click and use Change Source…
If you like, you can leave some of the sermons’ Source to be in the APK so users have some to start with. Set the initial book to be one with audio. Be sure to check Media > Audio > Audio Toolbar “Show Audio toolbar when the app is launched” to make it obvious to the users that there’s audio.
Thanks for the clues Andrew. I’m assuming that if I wanted to include a bunch of sermons in one page, say to categorise them, I’d have to form the urls myself and include them as hyperlinks in the SFM text file?
Ross
