FAQ

Q: If I have questions, suggestions, or problems using the API, where can I go?
A. We have support forums where you can get in touch with us.

Q: Can I use this on a site that uses MySQL and PHP?
A. Yes! In fact, you can use this on any site, regardless of technology. Snapvine Talking Photo API works on the client-side, and only requires you add a single line of JavaScript to your site. It's as easy to setup as Google Ad Sense.

Q: My site represents each photo in multiple sizes. How can I allow users to record a single piece of audio to go with a set of image sizes?
A. To associate a single recorded audio and playbar with multiple image sizes, use "direct tagging". This is explained in the Advanced API Guide.

Q: Our sites are multi-lingual, with user bases spanning three primary languages: English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Can you make internationalized versions of the player for us? We can provide you with translations.
A. We currently do not have localization capability in this release. However, this is planned for future release.

Q: I don't want to add voice to photos. I would like to build some other kinds of voice applications. Can I do that?
A. Yes! This Snapvine API provides recording, playback, hosting and serving of audio and you can easily customize the experience. This is explained in the Advanced API Guide.

Q: Will our users have the option of recording by their computer mic?
A. Our API automatically presents your users with a chice to record using their PC microphone or by dialing an ordinary phone number. It's up to them to decide how they want to record.

Q: What is the maximum length a voice clip can be? Are there any performance hits or other behaviors for long ( > 5 min) voice clips?
A. Our current max length is 10 minutes, though we are planning to make that limit go up. During recording you may note that it takes a little longer for the recording to be ready. This is because we transcode and normalize the audio. It should still be pretty quick. For playback you should not notice any difference as we stream the audio. Playback should start basically immediately regardless of the length.

Q: Is there a fee to our users for calling in to record?
A. No. All calls to record by phone are ordinary phone calls and therefore do not charge any extra fees. The phone numbers we use are ordinary local numbers and we have over 17 countries represented so far. If your user dials a number long-distance, their carrier may charge long distance fees.

Q: Is there a fee to license this API?
A. No. The Snapvine Talking Photo API is free to use. We reserve the rights to serve advertisements in the future though. Please see our terms of service for more information.

Q: Sometimes I see images with the player or recorder, and sometimes I don't. I followed the instructions and put the script in the header. I have more than one script in the header.
A. Put the script in the header, but just before </body> tag. Reason being is that other onLoad scripts overwrite ours. So by putting at the very bottom of the header will address this issue.

Q: Why do I have to change all my images to have a div surrounding them?
A. The short answer is that this makes it more likely our UI will layout properly. You can experiment with our DOMs, but we suggest starting with a surrounding div. More detailed answer: when we find an image that is tagged as voice-enabled we add our UI after the image's parent element. If the image's parent is a div, this tends to work out well.

Q: What I really want, is to provide a DOM element (much as I can for the in-line recorder), so that I can control how and where the "record" button is inserted into my page. The problem is more then just the record button, it's the entire player. What if I wanted to put it on top of the image, instead of below? I'd like to just put it where I please...
A. This level of customization is on our roadmap, but does not exist at this moment. Check back for updates.

Q: When I do a recording and click save, the widget seems to hang. What am I doing wrong?
A. Make sure you attach snapvine.html file on your site. For example your site is http://www.xyz.com, make sure you have http://www.xyz.com/snapvine.html active. It contains the JavaScript for many procedural calls, including save. And make sure that the svtpCallback JavaScript variable in your codes is set to this url.

Q: I updated the Talking Photo API codes on my site and it works, but now the audio have all disappeared! What's going on?
A. There are several things to check:

1. Verify that your page contains the API codes. There should be a block of javascript variables you obtained when signing up and a Snapvine API tag (see the next hint).
2. Make sure you are using our production API. If you are hitting a test server then there is no guarantee that Talking Photo data will be preserved.
3. Check the API javascript tag. It should look like <script src='www.snapvine.com/talking_photo_api.js'></script>.
4. Make sure you can access this JavaScript. Load the url from the script tag in your browser and check that your browser shows the JavaScript.
5. Verify that your images are tagged. See the API docs for more details, but each image should either be tagged with a "snapvine_tp" class. If you are using custom classes, make sure your svtpDomPatterns variable is set correctly.
6. Turn on debug mode. Do this by setting a JavaScript variable: svtpDebugEnabled = true; on your page. Then load your page in Firefox (support for debugging in other browsers coming soon) and watch the console output in your favorite debugger (Firebug works well). If the API is loading correctly you will see output indicating what images are tagged. If you don't see anything, there is likely an error in your JavaScript..
7. Still stuck? Visit our support forums.

For additional support, please check out the support forums.