Soundcloud option doesn't work -- Flash Issue

Do you see Flash settings dialog asking you for permission to use Microphone? If not try going to http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/sett...
and setting the permission to "Always ask", then restart your browser and try again.

mrwhiz...

So we have had a similar problem. And it seems to be centered on Adobe Flash Player. And, sad to say, we have not found a consistent solution. In fact, INconsistency seems to be the core issue.

As I understand it, when the record button is clicked, Adobe Flash Player displays a (tiny) box at the top of the page asking you for permission to access the computer. TWO radio-boxes need to be checked in this order: a) REMEMBER and b) ALLOW. (Or a user can do what Tamer suggests by going directly to Adobe Flash settings; but that is way too complicated for our school clients.)

The problem is this ... a) it's a pain in the neck and b) it seems very flakey. We have not been able to determine a pattern. We have lots and lots of users and it was so bad we just disabled the whole module and functionality which is a shame, because this module has amazing potential. For us and for the thousands of students we work with.

Reading up on this we discovered that some of the problem may fall on Adobe Flash Player. But when we downloaded the latest version on all of our computers in here (10 Macs and 6 Early Jurassic Period PCs) we could not get a consistent behavior pattern. Sometimes the magic worked and sometimes it didn't. And we've had the same patterns out in the field. Details (FYI, we tried it with IE, Safari, Firefox and RockMelt(Chrome):

1. On some machines, the request box appeared, we checked Remember and then Allow and that persisted and each time we logged into the site to record from that machine, NO PROBLEM.
2. On some machines, the request box appeared, we checked Remember and then Allow and we could record. But subsequent logins required us to respond again to the permission request box and we were able to record.
3. On some machines, the request box appeared, we checked Remember and then Allow and that allowed us to record. Subsequent sign-ins did NOT allow us to record and no permission box appeared.
4. On some machines, the request box NEVER appeared, and we were not able to record.

That is a pain.

So we, too, would love some help on this. And we can empathize with your experience of not seeing nothing nohow, if you'll excuse my grammar. (By the way, sometimes this little Adobe box can be found by scrolling UP or by minimizing the browser window and there it will be behind

We'd love to have one easy, consistent process whereby a user could secure permission on the machine forever.

Any suggestions from the maintainers re Flash problems? Is there a better solution? Is there a way to establish the settings ahead of time without having to confound the user with this kind of inconsistency? (Nanogong is, I'm afraid, worse.) And it would be great if there was a non-Flash solution that would work on iPads, too?
thanks so much,

geoff

Mr Whiz...
Thanks for the reply. So it seems you are having a similar experience and that it is outside the module, i.e., that it seems more to do with Flash than the module. I am not a code person, per se, so I guess my question is whether there is a way to write something into the module that would either bypass that permission requirement of Flash or automatically Allow AND Remember access permission to be granted.

Our problem is that we work with schools. And often the network settings vis a vis Flash are weird OR the machines themselves don't have an updated version of Flash.

Perhaps the maintainers have some ideas for us.

cheers,

geoff

UPDATING here... We seem to be having better luck with Adobe Flash 11, but we'll know more in a couple of weeks. We are testing in some schools, but so far the results are not encouraging. Here's why:

• Seems that some machines are set up so that Flash settings are particular to the logged in user, not to the computer -- can't see having to have hundreds of kids reset the Flash settings every time they want to use this feature.
• We have one school that can't seem to see the Flash box, can't get the counter to move and following tamerz directions, nothing STILL happens. And we can't even see that the site was accessed on the Flash settings to even set the site at "always allow."
• So is there any easy work around on this whole Flash permissions thing? This is a terrific module, Soundcloud recorder works well and it feels as though, as Mr. Whiz posted, we are so so close to using this. Thoughts anyone?

geoff

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of this ? - It's driving me mad !

A huge thanks to MichaelK for fixing this (below).

I have found a solution to this issue.

The issue is in the recorder.js file from https://github.com/jwagener/recorder.js

First, here is a summary of the cause of the issue. The basic issue is that recorder.js has some special code that move the recorder.swf object on to the screen so that you can select the necessary Flash permissions. This code to relocate the flash object on screen when the record button is first pressed causes the inconsistent behavior across the different browsers.

The recorder.js code works fine in the examples on github, but Drupal includes this file in the head while the examples on github include the file in the body. This causes some things to get triggered in different orders and thus leads to the issue.

I was able to resolve this issue by updating the recorder.js file to the latest version from github, and then making a small change to its code. I have attached both the recorder.js file that I used and the patch to that file that I made.

Here is the complete patch in a single file including two extra changes:

1. Fixed an IE8 display issue with the Recorder.js code
2. Corrected the CSS code to match the new container id

michaelk,

Thanks for this effort. I am hoping that you are providing a solution to something that has long plagued us in our attempt to use this module.

I attempted to patch the .js file and got four "Hunk failed" messages, so clearly I am doing something wrong.

First I downloaded the most recent recorder.js file... I put it into a folder along with the recorder.patch file here. I use a Mac, so I used terminal, as I normally do ... I went to the folder with the .js file and the .patch file, gave the command patch < recorder.patch ... was asked 'File to patch:' and typed in recorder.js ... then got the hunk failures.

Can you help by telling me what I am doing wrong? How can I do what you suggest?

Thanks so much in advance. If we can clear this up, this will be of enormous importance to our educational partners... we are a small nonprofit using Drupal as digital classrooms in 40+ schools. THANKS!

geoff

Hi geoff,

If you use the patch in comment 11, you shouldn't need to copy the new recorder.js file over.

The patch in comment 11 is also against the 7.x-1.0-beta4 version of the module, so you might run into issues applying the patch if you are using a different version of the module.

Hope that helps!

michaelk....

Hmmm, OK, so this particular strand is for the 6.x-1.x-dev version of the module so hadn't realized the patch was for 7 version. There are a number of us using the 6.x version who have been plagued by how this module integrates -- or doesn't integrate -- with Flash.

Do you have a version of the patch that applies to the 6.x version? And if so, can you post it? AND can you let us know how to apply the patch? (or do we just replace the recorder.js file with the module with the patched version?)

I realize I am asking a great deal, but this would be enormously helpful for us at least to test. There is great need and interest in direct recording but we cannot supply it to schools if it is not consistent and our users, if it is not consistent.

So, repeating... this is a strand on the 6.x version. Any chance you could supply us with the patched version of recorder.js for the 6.x version of the module? AND do we just replace the patched recorder.js file with the one that we have in the current module?

Thanks in advance.

cheers,

geoff

Hi geoff,

The patch appears to apply correctly for 6.x-1.x-dev as well as 7.x-1.x-dev. There are instructions on how to apply a patch here: http://drupal.org/patch/apply

Hope that helps!

Michael,

Again, many thanks for your effort and courtesy. You are an example of why Drupal works.

Sadly, I have good news and I have bad news... First the good news. ... I knew how to do a patch, what I had not noticed was that this was a double patch in one file AND I had not initially understood that this was a patch for the contents of the actual module. So.... I did this (FYI for others who may have been confused.):

In terminal (Mac OS) ..... patch < recorder.patch
(Stripping trailing CRs from patch.)
can't find file to patch at input line 5
Perhaps you should have used the -p or --strip option?
The text leading up to this was:
--------------------------
|Index: css/audiorecorderfield.css
|===================================================================
|--- css/audiorecorderfield.css (revision 36)
|+++ css/audiorecorderfield.css (working copy)
--------------------------
File to patch: [...your location]/css/audiorecorderfield.css
patching file [...your location]/css/audiorecorderfield.css
(Stripping trailing CRs from patch.)
can't find file to patch at input line 17
Perhaps you should have used the -p or --strip option?
The text leading up to this was:
--------------------------
|Index: js/recorder.js
|===================================================================
|--- js/recorder.js (revision 36)
|+++ js/recorder.js (working copy)
--------------------------
File to patch: /[...your location]/js/recorder.js
patching file /[...your location]/js/recorder.js
YWP7:audiorecorderfield geoffgevalt$

So it clearly worked fine......

HOWEVER, audiorecorderfield, sad to say, still doesn't work. I get no Flash permission box. It does not move. I feel I have regressed. I will try it on several other machines but so far it fails in both Chrome and Firefox so on first blush, this patch does not seem to solve the issue, at least the issue I have. (And yes, I went to the link suggested by one of the maintainers here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/sett... and reset the settings.... AND I updated to latest version, etc., etc.

This is a great module. When it works.

It's very sad to me that I've devoted all this time to it and still, a year later, I cannot get it to work.

gosh, aren't computers fun.

Thanks again for your efforts. cheers,

geoff

Make sure you clear you cache after applying the patch, or you might be getting an old cached version of the CSS and JS files.

I have tested the patch in Chrome, Firefox, IE8, IE9, and Safari. All of those browsers are now working for me. Obviously I am working in Drupal 7, so there might be other differences at play.

Basically, the issue is just a display issue, so you might be running into an issue where your custom theming is breaking this module's display code (CSS and JS).

You might analyze the page using Chrome developer console to see if you can figure out why it isn't displaying correctly for you. This module basically just adds a div to the very end of the body, and then styles that div to be hidden offscreen until you click the record button. Then it centers the div onscreen, so you can give Flash permissions to access the microphone, and then it hides the div again.

One other thing you could try is seeing if the examples on https://github.com/jwagener/recorder.js work correctly in the browsers you need to support. Here is the link to the basic example from that page: http://recorderjs.ponyho.st/examples/example-1.html

If those do work correctly, then you know that your issue is specific to your Drupal site.

Thanks, Michael,

We'll keep trying. The example you sent me to works fine. I got the access request box. And it worked. So that would indicate something the matter on the site, and will try your Chrome suggestion. Not sure what issues there could be EXCEPT that we have to run with CSS optimized for IE8 to work properly. But I'll test.

Thanks for the heads up on the cache by the way. I thought of that late last night and tried again and did get some progress -- I got a blank Flash access request box. No options visible. I would have updated but we lost power and today, well, I'm onto some other things.

The mystery, really, is why did it work before BUT now doesn't? AND why is it inconsistent? And clearly I'm not the only one suffering from this problem.

many thanks. I will bang my forehead against the wall a few more times and will be more diligent in my responses.

geoff

Michael,

You may have run screaming into the woods by now, but here goes. I've attached a couple of screenshots.
I have been unable to find anything in the css which would indicate an issue. We are using a Ropple Theme and, as I mentioned, we had this working fine for a while. Whether it was one of the gazillion updates of Flash or an update of Mac operating system or updating of Drupal or advent of new modules, I don't know. I wonder, for instance, if we are running into problems with other modules such as the toolbar, collapsible blocks, vertical tabs....

I have gone through every mathematical scenario with Flash Player settings both on the Adobe level and the Mac level. I have searched dozens of forums. I have set allow for everything on the site and no change.
What I get is a blank space where the box should be; this stays put as I scroll up and down. See blank box png...

If I "right click" the mouse and click settings, I get the box I am looking for, and it responds, except when I click close, the blank box remains.

And audiorecorder does not work.

Anyone else have any clues on this? The underlying question is why does this not work. And now I see why Steve Jobs hated Flash.

thanks,

geoff

So I'm going to leave my last reply up there... just for the record.

Here's what I ended up doing. While I really wanted to go screaming into the woods, instead I went back to the beginning. I deleted the module, patched. I uploaded a new version of the module and everything else. And now it works. We'll test tomorrow in other OS and other browsers.

I think the patch is flawed. You kept saying that it was set up for the 7 version of the module and there may be something that doesn't work in 6.

And in terms of our problems in the interim, it could have been many things... Flash or the module; perhaps we had remnants of the original original module (intended repetition) that were competing with the April beta5-dev version. Who knows.

But we established, by the way, that it was NOT related to any of the aforementioned modules (toolbar, vertical tabs, collapsible blocks).

All part of several nights work with Drupal, I suppose.

My final advice to everyone with similar problems is to start over; delete the module, upload the latest version AND adjust your privacy/permission settings on Adobe (http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/sett...) and Flash Settings for Mac (or PC) to "ask me first", as had been suggested by a post by one of the maintainers, and when you use the module and are asked for permission to access microphone (and save file to local computer), click "Remember" and then "allow" and it will work the next time without even asking.

geoff

Hi,

Sorry I did not see this sooner. I would love to get your help in urging the maintainers to help resolve this issue in both 6 and 7 and help find a solution to the fact that this fine module does not work on an iPad: https://drupal.org/node/1865338

I, too, am running into the "nothing-happens" issue in the 7.x version. I am running a development site as I attempt to figure out how I can migrate several sites, including a multi-site configuration, to Drupal 7 and the fact that the audiorecorder 7.x version does not appear to work at all, I am stymied.

this is a powerful and important module for us. We are a nonprofit working with kids and have found that audio recording really helps the learning process. Sadly, I have reached out to the maintainers, even in person, but haven't gotten much response. I realize they are busy, but... we'd be glad to help if we could.

This is the sad part of open source. Folks create wonderful modules that help a community such as ours with limited knowledge, resources and time. I see these developments as a gift. But then things change, module developers get busy, and we are in limbo. The way of the world, I realize, but I wish there were a group of developers out there who'd jump on some of these great modules and assist in the bug fixes/maintenance to ensure consistency.

Perhaps I ask and expect too much. But I do hope this module is repaired. It is great when it works. The dilemma is in Flash. And I realize that HTML 5 hasn't completed its integration of sound, but that is probably where the future lies...

g

Is this module maintained? Anyone know of another module for recording audio file in d7?