Default to camera form input

App Development
1

Hi,

I am trying to build a page, only available for mobile devices which contains a form for the user to take a photo and click submit.

Rather than present the user with options to locate the image file, I want to offer only the default option of camera and submit, ideally already triggering the camera on load to reduce clicks. Specifying front or rear camera would be great.

I have found separate ways in JavaScript to activate the camera but any advice on how to do this on a form submission would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

2

Hi @emileg,

Have you tried our new Attachments field?

Once added to a form, edit the field to see further field options. One of the available options is selecting the default capture mode for device cameras.

See this update post for a bit more detail - https://docs.tadabase.io/categories/updates/article/multi-file-uploads

3

Hi Tim,

This is great, I hadn’t tried this before and it looks like a really nice feature.

Is there any way to specify front or rear camera in this?

4

Also, @tim.young will this always save a local copy on the user’s device?

5

@emileg

There’s no way to specify front or rear camera, at least none that I’m aware of.

I’m actually not sure if it will always save a local file on the device, I’ll have to test this. Let me know if you get to it first, I’d be happy to hear the answer.

6

@tim.young testing on Android:

  • I have to touch ‘Drop files here to upload’,
  • Then the camera opens up,
  • I take a photo,
  • Click the tick to accept,
  • Then it uploads the photo to the form,
  • And then I click the Save button on the form.

A copy was saved in my phone’s storage.

The feature is really nice, but it would be ideal if:
1 - It didn’t save a local copy of the image.
2 - Reduce number of clicks - I’m thinking probably via JavaScript

Let me know if I missed anything about the feature in the steps I followed.

Thanks!

7

Sounds like you’ve got it!

I have seen a solution before where the camera automatically opens, that would reduce a click. @Lee or @Chem might have more information here. It’s probably also possible to auto submit the form but I’d have to look into it further.

I also just tested this on iOS and interestingly, it does NOT save a local copy.

8

@tim.young, thanks for testing on IOS, that’s good and interesting. (for all I know it’s just my phone, or an Android thing).

Any tips on a solution to automatically open the camera and/or submit the form would be gratefully received!

Thanks all.

9

Also, although not related to my use case, I was interested in the ‘Microphone’ capture type, assuming it can be used to record voice notes, however, on my Android device, this just opens up the camera; have I misunderstood?

10

@Lee/@Chem, in addition to the above, I’m wondering if it’s possible to select ‘front camera’ when the camera opens up?
Thanks!