RackForms
v7.8.8
webcam
Latest Release: Build 958 - Arpil 18th, 2023
Home > Form Elements > Webcam
Webcam
In Brief: This element displays a live video feed from a valid hardware camera, and
lets you take a snapshot of that image and save it to a hidden field for file upload logic.
Dependencies: A video capture device.
Hints & Tricks:
Webcam access is usually heavily gated by the browser for security reasons.
Do not assume the camera will be available, and more importantly, do not assume a camera will even be present!
Here are a few hints to make sure your Webcam access works as soothly as possible:
- All modern browsers require your page to be hosted via HTTPS for the webcam to be accessible, though some will allow webcam access for local installations when
using localhost//.
- The camera used for multi-cam devices (phones, tablets) is dependent on the browser and operating system being used and cannot be changed. Some devices like phones
will default to the rear camera, while iPads will use the front-facing camera.
- When saving images to email or flat file, the name of the file will be the Name property of the element.
Note: The output of this item can be saved as a custom database item, email attachment, or sent to the entry viewer as a standard image item.
Options/Properties
Basic Attributes
Design Notes
These are notes you can input that help you and other production staff understand your confirmation elements logic and purpose. This text is never used in the live form in any way, it is only for internal development.
Webcam Options
Webcam Enabled?
On by default, can be used to quickly deactivate this feature on the form.
Preview Mode
When we take a snapshot we can display one of two actions to the user.
1. Show the screen shot below the preview. This is usually what we want, and is the default action. However, this can also be somewhat unruly for large preview sizes, especially on mobile devices. Thus, the second option may be a better fit.
2. Instead of showing a snapshot of the taken photo, we simply display a configurable message to the user.
Capture Message
If Preview Mode is set to Textual Message, this is the text shown to the user.
Action Message
This is the "action prompt" shown to the user just below the live preview.
Source Width / Height
This is the size of the live preview shown to the user. If no values are set, 320 x 240 is used.
Snapshot Preview Width / Height
This is the size of the live preview snapshot shown to the user. If no values are set, we use the same values are Source Width / Height.
This setting can be very handy for cases where we wish our snapshot preview to be a different size than our live preview, which is often the case for size-constrained devices like phones.
It's also key to note this field can be used as a constraint method. That is, if we only set one of the two fields, then only that value is used to set the maximum value that dimension can take. For example, if our preview shows at 640x480 we can set the width field to 320. This creates a preview image exactly half the size of our feed.
Destination Width / Height
This is the saved data size of any snap shot taken. This needn't be the same as the preview size, but if no value is set, is the same.
Destination Format
The format of the saved data. By default, JPEG is used.
JPEG Quality
If using JPEG as our destination format, the compression quality setting. 80 is the default.