Audio Transcriber

This project is a web application that allows users to upload an audio file, which is then transcribed using the Rev.ai Speech-to-Text API. The transcribed text is saved to a .txt file on the server. The application includes a frontend that enables users to download the transcription once it's ready.

Features

• Frontend: React application for uploading audio files with polling to check transcription status and enabling download of the transcription file.
• Backend: Node.js with Express for handling file uploads and interacting with Rev.ai.
• Transcription: Uses Rev.ai API for converting audio to text.
• Webhook: Configured to receive transcription results.
• Docker: Containerizes the application for easy deployment.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or later)
• Docker
• Rev.ai API Key
• ngrok Auth Token (handled internally by the application)

Installation

Backend

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/nantes/audioTranscriber.git
   cd audioTranscriber/backend

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Create a .env file in the backend directory with the following content:

   REV_AI_API_KEY=your_rev_ai_api_key
   NGROK_AUTHTOKEN=your_ngrok_auth_token

   Replace your_rev_ai_api_key with the API key provided by Rev.ai, and your_ngrok_auth_token with your ngrok auth token.

4. Run the backend locally:

   npm start

   The backend will be available at http://localhost:3000.

Frontend

1. Navigate to the frontend directory:

   cd ../frontend

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Run the frontend locally:

   npm start

   The frontend will be available at http://localhost:8080 by default.

Docker

1. Create a .env file in the root of your project directory (if not already created) with the following content:

   REV_AI_API_KEY=your_rev_ai_api_key
   NGROK_AUTHTOKEN=your_ngrok_auth_token

   Replace your_rev_ai_api_key with the API key provided by Rev.ai, and your_ngrok_auth_token with your ngrok auth token.

2. Build Docker images:

   Navigate to the root of your project directory and run:

   docker-compose build

3. Start the application:

   docker-compose up

   This will start both the backend and frontend services. The application will handle ngrok integration internally.

How It Works

1. File Upload: Users upload an audio file through the React frontend.
2. Transcription Request: The backend sends the file to Rev.ai for transcription.
3. Polling: Once the upload is complete and Rev.ai responds, the frontend begins polling every 5 seconds to check if the transcription is complete.
4. Webhook: Rev.ai sends the transcription result to the configured webhook URL.
5. Download: When the transcription is ready, the frontend enables the user to download the .txt file containing the transcribed text from the transcriptions folder.

Notes

• The transcriptions folder is where the transcribed text files are saved.
• The frontend performs polling to check for transcription status updates every 5 seconds.
• Ensure that Docker is properly installed and running on your system for containerized deployments.
• The backend listens on port 3000 and the frontend listens on port 8080 by default.
• The .env file is required both for local development and Docker deployment to provide necessary environment variables.

Acknowledgements

• Rev.ai for the Speech-to-Text API
• Docker for containerizing the application
• React and Express for the frontend and backend frameworks