Play Sound Multiplatform

Summary

• The object is to play a simple WAV sound both in Windows and Linux (Sync and ASync)
• There are lots of libraries to do this in a complicated way, but this code should suffice for simple use

Download Component

Download from the lazarus CCR here (playsoundpackage)

Installation of component

• Download all the 'playsoundpackage' package files from the Lazarus CCR repository and copy the whole folder structure to an empty folder of your lazarus components folder.
• Install the package (open it, Compile then Install it) and TPlaysound will appear on your 'LazControls' components tab
• Drop onto a form, set properties and you are good to go.
• PlayCommand property is populated automatically by testing which will work with your system.
• Opening the demo application will give you a good idea how to set the additional properties and use the component.

Version

• As reported in the IDE. Initial version is 0.0.2

License

• LGPLv2

Code

• Here is the Uses clause in the Implementation section:

..other units..
FileUtil{$IFDEF WINDOWS},mmsystem{$ELSE},asyncprocess,process{$ENDIF},StrUtils
..other units..

• Declare a type:

TPlayStyle = (psAsync,psSync);

• Declare some variables:

{$IFNDEF WINDOWS}
SoundPlayerAsyncProcess:Tasyncprocess;
SoundPlayerSyncProcess:Tprocess;
{$ENDIF}
fPathToSoundFile:String;
fPlayStyle:TPlayStyle;

• And a worker function:

procedure PlaySound(Const szSoundFilename:String);

• And a couple of constants:

CONST C_UnableToPlay = 'Unable to play ';
{$IFNDEF WINDOWS}
 // Defined in mmsystem
  SND_SYNC=0;
  SND_ASYNC=1;
  SND_NODEFAULT=2;
{$ENDIF}

• Now you are good to go:

fPlayStyle := psASync;
fPathToSoundFile:='mysound.wav';
If FileExistsUTF8(fPathToSoundFile) then PlaySound(fPathToSoundFile);

• Here's the PlaySound procedure

procedure PlaySound(const szSoundFilename: string);
var
  flags: word;
  szNonWindowsPlayCommand: string;
begin
  szNonWindowsPlayCommand := '';
{$IFDEF WINDOWS}
  if fPlayStyle = psASync then
    flags := SND_ASYNC or SND_NODEFAULT
  else
    flags := SND_SYNC or SND_NODEFAULT;
  try
    sndPlaySound(PChar(szSoundFilename), flags);
  except
    On E: Exception do
      E.CreateFmt(C_UnableToPlay +
      '%s Message:%s', [szSoundFilename, E.Message]);
  end;
{$ELSE}
  // How to play in Linux? Use generic Linux commands
  // Use asyncprocess to play sound as SND_ASYNC
  // Try play
  if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('play') <> '') then
    szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'play -q';
  // Try aplay
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('aplay') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'aplay -q ';
  // Try paplay
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('paplay') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'paplay';
  // Try mplayer
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('mplayer') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'mplayer -really-quiet ';
  // Try CMus
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('CMus') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'CMus ';
  // Try pacat
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('pacat') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'pacat -p ';
  // Try ffplay
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('ffplay') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'ffplay -autoexit -nodisp -loglevel quiet';
  // Try cvlc
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('cvlc') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'cvlc -q --play-and-exit ';
  // Try canberra-gtk-play
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('canberra-gtk-play') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'canberra-gtk-play -c never -f ';
  // Try Macintosh command?
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('afplay') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'afplay';
  // Try mpg321
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand = '') then
    if (FindDefaultExecutablePath('mpg321') <> '') then
      szNonWindowsPlayCommand := 'mpg321 -q';
  // proceed if we managed to find a valid command
  if (szNonWindowsPlayCommand <> '') then
  begin
    if fPlayStyle = psASync then
    begin
      if SoundPlayerAsyncProcess = nil then
        SoundPlayerAsyncProcess := Tasyncprocess.Create(nil);
      SoundPlayerAsyncProcess.CurrentDirectory := ExtractFileDir(szSoundFilename);
      SoundPlayerAsyncProcess.Executable :=
        FindDefaultExecutablePath(Copy2Space(szNonWindowsPlayCommand));
      SoundPlayerAsyncProcess.Parameters.Clear;
      SoundPlayerAsyncProcess.Parameters.Add(szSoundFilename);
      try
        SoundPlayerAsyncProcess.Execute;
      except
        On E: Exception do
          E.CreateFmt('Playstyle=paASync: ' + C_UnableToPlay +
            '%s Message:%s', [szSoundFilename, E.Message]);
      end;
    end
    else
    begin
      if SoundPlayerSyncProcess = nil then
        SoundPlayerSyncProcess := Tprocess.Create(nil);
      SoundPlayerSyncProcess.CurrentDirectory := ExtractFileDir(szSoundFilename);
      SoundPlayerSyncProcess.Executable :=
        FindDefaultExecutablePath(Copy2Space(szNonWindowsPlayCommand));
      SoundPlayersyncProcess.Parameters.Clear;
      SoundPlayerSyncProcess.Parameters.Add(szSoundFilename);
      try
        SoundPlayerSyncProcess.Execute;
        SoundPlayersyncProcess.WaitOnExit;
      except
        On E: Exception do
          E.CreateFmt('Playstyle=paSync: ' + C_UnableToPlay +
            '%s Message:%s', [szSoundFilename, E.Message]);
      end;
    end;
  end
  else
    raise Exception.CreateFmt('The play command %s does not work on your system',
      [szNonWindowsPlayCommand]);
{$ENDIF}
end;

• Destroy the process objects in your Destroy procedure:

{$IFNDEF WINDOWS}
FreeAndNil(SoundPlayerSyncProcess);
FreeAndNil(SoundPlayerAsyncProcess);
{$ENDIF}