Sonix Tutorial: Sonix | Zapier – How to Create a Zap that will automatically transcribe files when placed in a Dropbox folder

Sonix Tutorial – Sonix | Zapier – How to Create a Zap that will automatically transcribe files when placed in a Dropbox folder

: Hello, everyone. My Name is David Nguyen, and I'm one of the folks here at Sonix. Today, we're going to show you how to automate your workflow with Sonix by using Zapier. We're going to make a zap that watches a folder in your Dropbox account. And when you upload an audio or video file to that folder, we'll have Sonix automatically transcribe that file for you. It's super easy, and it should only take a few minutes.

How to create a zap in Zapier

: So, first thing you want to do is click on make new zap button or make a zap, same thing. And you're going to be taken to this page. It looks confusing, but it's actually not. There are two parts to a zap. The first part is the trigger and the second is an action. So, in this instance, Dropbox is going to be a trigger because we're going to watch a folder on Dropbox. And every single time a file is placed in that folder, that triggers an action, which is we're going to transcribe the file by Sonix.

: So, you want to first set up the trigger. So, you're going to search for Dropbox. Obviously, I know it's right here, but we're just going to go through the search box, and you're going to choose new file and folder. Click that, save and continue.

Linking your Dropbox account to Zapier

: Now, you're gonna have to link your Dropbox account to Zapier. So, what you're going to do is you're going to click connect an account. And you're going to log in to Dropbox. Click sign in, get the authorization, and it should look something like this. My information is a little blurred out right now. So, you click test just to make sure everything works. It does. And then, you click save and continue.

Choosing a folder you want Sonix to ‘watch’

: Now, you have to choose a folder that you're going to watch. Please do not choose the route folder. That's not a good idea. So, I just created a folder that's called Sonix Uploaded Audio. Include file contents, yes. If you don't see your folder in there, especially if you just created it and want to see in this page, please click refresh fields, and it will appear in that dropropdowndown.

: Now, click continue. And what it's going to do is it's going to look inside of that file or, excuse me, inside that folder for a file. In this case, it found File A, which is entitled Pete Combs Recording Tips, and there's all this metadata that's attached to it. This looks good because this file is in that folder. And then, you're going to click continue. Cool. So, you have the trigger, a new file in a folder in Dropbox.

Setting up the action to automatically transcribe a file

: So, the action is going to be under Sonix. So, you want to search for Sonix. It looks something like this. And what we want to do is transcribe a file. So, click save and continue. And now, we have to connect to our Sonix account to Zapier. So, you want to click Connect an Account.

Where to find the API key

: So, what we need from you is an API key. If you click on Sonix Preferences, it's going to open up the preferences page witin Sonix. On that page, you'll see an API key. Copy that, paste it here, click yes, and continue. It should look something like this. Click test just to make sure everything works. Success. So, now, click save and continue. Cool.

Extra settings with the zap

: Each zap has a few extra settings that you need to configure. One of them as language. What language are all the audio files in that folder going to be? So, there is an edge case here, which is if you have both English files and, say, Spanish files that you are uploading, you need to actually make two zaps, apps one for all the English files and one for all the Spanish files. And just to make life easier, you should put them in separate folders. So, for our file, Pete Combs Recording Tips, it was actually spoken in English with an American accent. So, you want to click on that. File URL.

Going through the metadata in the file to find the direct media link

: So, now, you have to go through the metadata of that file, and what you want it to do for File URL is the direct media link. That looks like this. It's a pretty long filename, but it's encoded by Dropbox. So, that's what you want to click. It's going to look something crazy like that. And then, finally the name. This is how you want the transcript to show up once it's fully uploaded and transcribed in Sonix.

: So, usually, you would select this, choose the file name, and then you could say uploaded via API or via Zapier. That's just a good way, so that you know which files were automatically uploaded through Zapier and which files were manually uploaded by you through our uploading system. And then, you click continue.

: And then, you have an option right here to run a test with Sonix. Basically, transcribe the file that it found in that folder that you created. So, you can click that. It will send the test the Sonix. It will send that files to us, and we'll automatically transcribe it, but we'll skip that test for now. Then, you click finish.

Name your zap

: And we're not quite done yet. What you need to do is name your zap. So, in this case, it would be Upload to Dropbox – Transcribe with Sonix. There's sometimes a folder that you could put it into to stay organized. And then, you need to turn on your zap. Here we go.

: But that's it. It was super simple. Now, you can upload any file you want into that folder, and have it be transcribed by Sonix. If you have any other questions, please reach out to us at [email protected]. All right. See you guys.
Automatically convert audio to text with Sonix