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Developers

Loud Owl can play question sets that you write. A set is one small text file. This page says what goes in the file and how to add it to the app. You don’t need to be a programmer, but you do need somewhere on the web to put a file.

How it works

  1. Write the file. It holds the set’s name and its questions.
  2. Put the file on a website, so it has a web address.
  3. Make a QR code of that web address.
  4. Scan the code in Loud Owl, and add the set to a Library.

Write the file

A question set is a JSON file. JSON is plain text with a few rules: names and text go in straight double quotes, a list goes in square brackets, and commas separate the items. Any text editor can write it. Give the file a name that ends in .json, such as family-quiz.json.

This is the smallest set the app takes:

{
  "name": "Our Family Quiz",
  "questions": [
    {
      "question": "What is the largest planet?",
      "answer": "Jupiter"
    }
  ]
}

A set needs a name and at least one question. Each question needs a question and an answer. Everything else on this page is optional, so leave out what you don’t use.

Write each name exactly as it’s shown here, capitals included: funFact, not funfact. The app skips a name it doesn’t know and doesn’t warn you.

What a set can have

What a question can have

Here is a set that uses most of them:

{
  "formatVersion": 1,
  "name": "Our Solar System",
  "description": "Planets, moons, and the Sun.",
  "subjects": ["science-space"],
  "minAge": 8,
  "createdByName": "The Rivera Family",
  "questions": [
    {
      "question": "What is the largest planet?",
      "answer": "Jupiter",
      "category": "Planets",
      "difficulty": "easy",
      "funFact": "More than 1,000 Earths could fit inside it.",
      "deepDiveTitle": "The giant next door",
      "deepDive": "Jupiter is a **gas giant**.\n\n- It has no solid ground\n- It has more than 90 moons",
      "references": [
        {
          "title": "Jupiter",
          "source": "NASA",
          "url": "https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "Which planet is closest to the Sun?",
      "answer": "Mercury",
      "category": "Planets",
      "difficulty": "easy"
    }
  ]
}

Formatting a Deep Dive

All the text in a set is shown just as you write it, with one exception: deepDive can use these marks.

Nothing else works: no HTML, pictures, or tables. Inside JSON text, write the end of a line as \n, so a blank line is \n\n, as in the set above.

Narration and pictures

Without recordings, your device’s built-in voice reads each card. A question can name recordings and pictures of its own:

These addresses must start with https://. The app saves the recordings and pictures when the set is added, so keep each picture small, about 200 KB or less. The app has nowhere to show a picture’s credit yet, so use pictures that don’t need one: your own, or ones in the public domain.

Check the file

The full definition of the format is a JSON Schema at loudowl.app/content/schema/question-set-v1.json. It lists every name a file can use. An editor that reads JSON Schema, such as Visual Studio Code, checks your file as you type when the file names the schema: 

{
  "$schema": "https://loudowl.app/content/schema/question-set-v1.json",
  "name": "Our Family Quiz",
  "questions": [
    {
      "question": "What is the largest planet?",
      "answer": "Jupiter"
    }
  ]
}

These are the mistakes we see most:

Put the file on a website

The app downloads your file from the web, so the file needs a web address. Two things matter:

A school’s website, a personal website, or any host that serves files as they are will do. To check, open the address in a web browser: you should see the file’s text and nothing else.

Make a QR code

Make a QR code that holds the file’s web address and nothing more. Any QR code maker will do. Print the code, or show it on another screen.

Scan the code in Loud Owl

  1. Open Settings and tap Scan QR Code, under Import your own. It’s also at the bottom of Discover, under Bring your own.
  2. The first time, your iPhone or iPad asks whether Loud Owl may use the camera. Allow it.
  3. Point the camera at the code. The app downloads the file and shows the set: its name, its description, and its questions.
  4. Tap Add to Library. The set is ready to play.

If the app can’t open your set

The scan screen says what went wrong, and nothing is added. When the file itself has a mistake, tap Details for set makers to see which one, such as “Question 3 is missing an answer.”

Contact us

Stuck on a file? Email support@loudowl.app with the file’s web address and what the scan screen says.