Playing Sound with button clicks - App

In this article, we will doing an app that plays sounds when you click on button. Many hots apps that have been downloaded just leverage upon this simple idea. Get a funny/interesting sound, press a button (helps if you have an image for the button) and play the sound.

In this article, let's have an app that plays cute baby sound whenever a user clicks on a button. Create a new view-based application in xcode, then design a UI similar to the below in InterfaceBuilder. Take note that the images are actually buttons, where you just have to specify the image property of the button. The rest of the controls are basically labels.

In my app, I have four buttons. Of course one will do if that is a really cool sound, for eg. vuvuzela. Copy the below code as your ViewController.h file

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#include <AudioToolbox/AudioToolbox.h>

@interface SysSoundViewController : UIViewController {
CFURLRef soundFileURLRef;
SystemSoundID soundFileObject;
}

@property (readwrite) CFURLRef soundFileURLRef;
@property (readonly) SystemSoundID soundFileObject;

- (IBAction) playASound;
- (IBAction) vibrate;
@end

Explanation:
We declare a CFURLRef which is a reference to a object representing access to a URL. It is useful as long as the resource you are accessing can be done via a URL. This CSURL object will later hold the URL to our sound files.

CFURLRef soundFileURLRef;

SystemSoundID represents a System Sound object.

SystemSoundID soundFileObject;

We next declare two Actions for linking to our buttons later on. One to play a sound, the other, to vibrate the phone.

- (IBAction) playASound;

- (IBAction) vibrate;

Copy the following code next for the ViewController.m file.

#import "SysSoundViewController.h"
@implementation SysSoundViewController

@synthesize soundFileURLRef;
@synthesize soundFileObject;

CFBundleRef mainBundle;

- (void) viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
// Get the main bundle for the app
mainBundle = CFBundleGetMainBundle ();
}

// Respond to a tap on the System Sound button
- (IBAction) playASound {
// Get the URL to the sound file to play
soundFileURLRef  = CFBundleCopyResourceURL (mainBundle,CFSTR ("a"),CFSTR("wav"),NULL);
// Create a system sound object representing the sound file
AudioServicesCreateSystemSoundID (soundFileURLRef, &soundFileObject);
AudioServicesPlaySystemSound (self.soundFileObject);
}
// Respond to a tap on the Vibrate button
- (IBAction) vibrate {
AudioServicesPlaySystemSound (kSystemSoundID_Vibrate);
}

- (void) dealloc {
[super dealloc];
AudioServicesDisposeSystemSoundID (self.soundFileObject);
CFRelease (soundFileURLRef);
}
@end

Explanation:

The CFBundle allows you to use a folder hierachy called a bundle to organize and locate serveral kinds of resources like images, sounds or executable code. In our case, it represents the folder hierachy we have in the 'Resources' folder. Essentially, it provides us access to our Resources folder.

CFBundleRef mainBundle;

The viewDidLoad is the method that is called whenever the View loads. In it, we call the viewDidLoad of the parent class i.e. UIView.

- (void) viewDidLoad {

[super viewDidLoad];

Returns the application's main bundle. Or folder.

// Get the main bundle for the app

mainBundle = CFBundleGetMainBundle ();

}

Action linked to button.

// Respond to a tap on the System Sound button

- (IBAction) playASound {

CFBundleCopyResourceURL returns the location of the resource of name "a" and type "wav" from the mainbundle (Resource folder). Of course ensure that you have a “a.wav” audio file under ‘Resources’.

// Get the URL to the sound file to play

soundFileURLRef  = CFBundleCopyResourceURL(mainBundle,CFSTR ("a"),CFSTR("wav"),NULL);

AudioServicesCreateSystemSoundID creates a system sound object from the specified URL (first argument) and outputs it to the &soundFileObject. Notice that there is a & before soundFileObject. What that means is that we are passing the soundFileObject object reference to the method, such that when the method returns, it actually refers to a initialized soundFileObject.

// Create a system sound object representing the sound file

AudioServicesCreateSystemSoundID (soundFileURLRef,&soundFileObject);

Finally, AudioServicesPlaySystemSound plays a short system sound of 30 secs or less. 'self' simply means 'this'. The current object's soundFileObject.

AudioServicesPlaySystemSound(self.soundFileObject);

}

For this particular Action, we can the same methodAudioServicesPlaySystemSound but the argument passed is different. When we provide the kSystemSoundID_Vibrate argument to it, it will invoke a brief vibration.

// Respond to a tap on the Vibrate button

- (IBAction) vibrate {

AudioServicesPlaySystemSound(kSystemSoundID_Vibrate);

}

Releases and disposes of the soundFile and soundFileURL objects.

- (void) dealloc {

[super dealloc];

AudioServicesDisposeSystemSoundID(self.soundFileObject);

CFRelease (soundFileURLRef);

}

 

Ensure that you link the buttons to the Actions as described in earlier tutorials and soon, you are on your way to doing your own vuvuzela app!

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