Video Files on Appsheet - Upload file from App the...

Koichi_Tsuji · 06-20-2020 01:58 AM

To film video natively on the app and save the video files to the cloud storage straight-away is one of the awaited features to have.

Saving video and audio file such as MP4, MP3 can be done by simply set up the data field type to “File” Then we have link to the those files with hyperlink but not able to view on the appsheet app.

This is super easy tricks.

Apart from file type data field, add virtual column with show type.

Set category to “Video”

And put the simple expression of text([Video File]), which will automatically create the public URL to access to the saved file and can be consumed in Show type column.

App seting is that s all.

By doing so, we dont need to host the video/audio files in Youtube or other place, and als we don t need to employ any other third party service. Just done by simple column set ups.

@Kirk_Masden

Koichi_Tsuji

At this moment, file picker on I phone not allowing to select MP4 files. I have asked support appsheet to investigate.

Kirk_Masden

Thanks for this tip. I need to look into it!

Kirk_Masden

I just tried it for an mp3. It works quite well. There are a couple of problems, though:

On my iPhone, the app goes to a black screen to play the video but on my Android phone it plays within the app.
On the Android phone, it would be nice if there could just be a bar for the audio – the space required for a video is not necessary.

Still, this is a very helpful tip for me. I hope the AppSheet platform will provide more support for playing mp3s inside of apps in the future. We need to have the same user experience in both Android and iOS.

By the way, it would also be nice to be able to play mp3s in the background . . . without a progress bar.

Koichi_Tsuji

Thanks Kirk. Yes, I agree. Mp3 player bar indicator height is too high.

I hope someone in Appsheet dev team review those post and post some feedback.

Harry_Holmes

Great tip works brilliant on desktop. Did you get anywhere with finding out why MP4s can’t be uploaded on iOS app

neemias

I have an issue like that... when i try pick the file... .mp4 or other files like .kml, .kmz... Is there a solution for this issue at moment?

jmalones

It's now 2023. Any update on this?

Kirk_Masden

I don't think so. I've been waiting.

Fabian_Weller

Thank you @tsuji_koichi this is again a very clever workaround. Happy to have you here in the community

Danny_Reyes

Thanks very much @tsuji_koichi
We could share short video toturials with our apps users.

Koichi_Tsuji

Thank you for sharing your experience.
Good to hear my tips and tricks may help your life even a bit.

Dario

I also want to thank you for this tip, its a good feature. Additionally, what I have found is the following,

When you play a video or music file when using appsheet on mobile, the file will stop playing when you navigate to a different view, but if its on a tablet or PC (with tablet mode / externally opened) the media will keep on playing. This is the same whether the video is played from your cloud storage folder or an Embed from Youtube. The only workaround for this on mobile is to open the file and then click the back button on your mobile.
Even though the mutimedia player on appsheet has controls for looping, afaik there is no way to tell the audio / video file to loop, or to auto play. It would be nice if this was possible for files that we ourselves have stored on the cloud (and not dependent on Youtube changing how they handle auto play / embed codes etc). Maybe this feature is there and I just havent read about it yet?

Koichi_Tsuji

I believe you need to post a feature request to get that function.

Arthur_Rallu

Hi, some of you might be interested in helping us test a new related feature.
See Wanted: Testers for Video Capture on Android devices.

Kirk_Masden

Hi @Arthur_Rallu ! Hi @tsuji_koichi !

I’m coming back to this after putting it on the back burner for a long, long time. Today I tested a little app in which I have a “file” type column. It was very easy for me to upload little mp3 files from my computer and from my Android device via the app but not from my iPhone. On my iPhone, media files (mp3s and mp4s and other audio files) were greyed out. Was I doing something wrong or is that a current limitation of AppSheet on iOS?

Koichi_Tsuji

I remember I personnely dicussed with AppSheet team before, but file picker on iOS is not currently recognizing the mp4 / mp3 type of file to upload. So yes, there is limitation for iOS.

Kirk_Masden

Thanks for the quick response. All the more reason for AppSheet to workout some way of recording and saving audio and video within iOS. Perhaps that will come after everything gets worked out on Android phones (apparently, testing is underway now, though I am not participating).

teambelair

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Are the videos still playable correctly on iOS if it was uploaded via Android?
Using this file and show column trick, is the manual sync needed?
Thanks!

Kirk_Masden

I think the answers are “Yes” and “Background sync should work.” At least, this is what I remember of my experience playing with this.

DoubleT

Can I still use this method now?
I tried but failed.

Koichi_Tsuji

Yes, it should be working.

DoubleT

@tsuji_koichi

Thank you, sir. I can use it now. I set something wrong myself. sorry to disturb your times.

Thanks again for sharing such tips and tricks.

Koichi_Tsuji

No problem.

Luciano_Dias1

Helped me a lot! Thank you @tsuji_koichi

Fernando_Lopez1

For a couple of weeks ago this problem occurred, videos do not play on iphone devices

Here is my test:

Table: VIDEOS

Link to video 1: https://www.learningcontainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/sample-mp4-file.mp4
Lonk to video 2: https://file-examples-com.github.io/uploads/2017/04/file_example_MP4_640_3MG.mp4

Appsheet table VIDEOS Structure:

Virtual Column: VIDEO SHOW COLUMN

Virtual Column: VIDEO VC VIDEO

The result on EDITOR: WORKING WELL

The result on ANDROID device: WORKING WELL*

The result on IPHONE device: NOT WORKING

So you can see on IPHONE devices IS NOT WORKING, a couple weeks ago IT WAS WORKING WELL.

Can you help me please?

@tsuji_koichi @Fabian @JCadence @Steve

Thanks a lot guys

Koichi_Tsuji

Highly likely due to the bug on new iOS app. What is your app version? 14.3.3 ?

Fernando_Lopez1

Thanks @tsuji_koichi for so quick answer.

I had the 13.10 version

I’ve just update to 14.3.3 version

But THE PROBLEM CONTINUES

What do you think it might be?

Thanks again

Koichi_Tsuji

Should be bug with iOS app
Better to contact to AppSheet support to report this.

Fernando_Lopez1

Thanks @tsuji_koichi , I will

Koichi_Tsuji

@Arthur_Rallu
@mandar

Fernando_Lopez1

One more question @tsuji_koichi , Does your sample is still working?

Koichi_Tsuji

No, it is not working on my Iphone, which it is working on emulator.

Arthur_Rallu

Thank you for flagging this.

mandar1

Hi, looks like the file you are trying to play is not playable on desktop safari either: https://www.learningcontainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/sample-mp4-file.mp4

I tried adding [https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/BigBuckBunny.mp4]and it was playable. This might be helpful: html - Failed to Load Resource, Plugin Handled Load on iOS - Stack Overflow (Also, as a note, please always use https links)

Gardener76

@tsuji_koichi does this method work when someone else uploads the video, or is it saved as a link to a local file (on phone)?

Koichi_Tsuji

I don’t think so.

Centto

Is there any resolution to this? We are having the same issue.

Jay1

Can confirm this still appears to be a bug on iOS. I can get it to work on web, etc. just fine so my column settings are correct. Only happening with iOS.

Scott_Nesbitt

I am trying to get an MP4 (hosted on Drive) to play in Chrome on my Windows laptop. I see the following in the app, but it will not play. Any idea why, and how to fix it?

Video Files on Appsheet - Upload file from App then view on App (No third party services)