WoltLab Cloud Text-To-Speech Core (Audio Articles) 1.1.0

Extend your website with the possibility to also provide articles as audio versions! With this plugin you can offer your visitors an even better user experience and also increase the accessibility of your website by using the Google Cloud Text-To-Speech API.

If you want to give your visitors an extra way to enjoy your articles, then this plugin is for you! With the help of Google Cloud's advanced text-to-speech technology, your articles can now also be provided in audio format with natural-sounding voices. Do it like newspapers and news outlets like the Washingtonpost or Bloomberg and offer your visitors the possibility to listen to articles comfortably while working, driving or during other activities and enable people with visual impairments or reading difficulties to consume your articles more easily.

Please note that to use this plugin you need access to the Google Cloud Text-To-Speech API. Although Google provides a generous free tier to use the API, there may be a cost involved. It is mandatory (as of March 13, 2023) to add a credit card for registration. It is highly recommended to research potential costs before purchasing the plugin and using the API!

Functionality

After publishing an article, an audio file is automatically generated in the background for all content languages and saved locally on the server. If an article that has already been published is edited, the associated audio files are recreated so that they are never out of date. In the event that an audio version is faulty or has to be removed for other (e.g. legal) reasons, it can be temporarily deactivated or deleted via the admin control panel. Deactivated audio files are recreated when editing articles, but are not automatically reactivated. Deleted audio files are completely recreated and are therefore activated by default. When unpublished articles are created or edited, audio files are not generated to save API resources.

If the communication with the Google Cloud Text-To-Speech API fails, the use of the article system will not be disturbed with a blocking error, especially so that your written texts are not lost. If the creation of an audio file fails, it is automatically repeated twice within one minute and a third time after 5 minutes. If no audio file was created after three attempts, you should take a look at the error log.

Installation and Setup

After you have researched the Google Cloud Text-To-Speech API and have gained API access, you can create an API key and store it in the ACP. Ideally, leave the "Enable TTS" option disabled until you have made all the desired settings. You have the option of choosing between the voice types "Standard" and "WaveNet". Voices of the "Standard" type sound little or not at all natural, but offer a larger free contingent than voices of the "WaveNet" type, which have a relatively natural speech quality. Once you have decided on a voice, you can also adjust the speaking rate and voice pitch. It is recommended to take a look at the API documentation for this, or leave the settings at the default value.

After you have completed the general settings, you can make specific settings for the article system. You can choose whether audio files should be kept when an article is deleted (not recommended), whether the title of the article should be included in the audio file and whether a small note about the audio feature should be displayed below the audio player. You can edit this note using the appropriate language variables. You can also customize the presentation of the audio player and notice according to your wishes by making template changes and CSS adjustments.

Tip: Check your website's storage requirements regularly and make sure you have enough storage space to store audio files. Audio files are roughly comparable to file attachments and can be a few hundred KB or over 2MB in size. If you publish a lot of articles, especially multilingual ones, the audio files as a whole can take up a lot of storage space.

Additional Information

This plugin was created as a commissioned work and as the subject of an unpublished scientific paper. Whether this plugin is relevant for you depends on the goals you are pursuing with your website and the needs of your target audience.

Contact

If you still have questions, you can ask them in the comments section of the plugin. For support requests, please start a new conversation so I can take care of the problem as soon as possible. I currently do not offer support through any other platform.