With several major features now in µAudio 0.7, I wanted to preview what’s coming up.
1) Static JavaScript. Instead of using the *.js.php which I have been using, javascript templates are being parsed by a small JS templating engine and stored as static files. This should significantly cut down on the amount of time spent processing php. Each file is stored as filename-hashcode.js.
2) Bootstrapper. People have told me a) They don’t think it’s fair to count the size without jQuery (it probably isn’t) and b) They don’t want to load jQuery on every pageload. To that end, the default install will now include a tiny bootstrapper (hopefully under 200 Bytes) that doesn’t load the player until and unless someone actually wants to use them.
3) Single audio player. For legacy browsers, there will only be one player, the awesome Sound Manager 2 player. User interface will be provided via jQuery based controls. Using a single “invisible” player allows a consistent JavaScript interface for all the players, and, should help to
4) <audio> tag based player. This will probably be beta only in 0.7, but I want to move towards using the native browser implementation instead of flash. Using a javascript interface and sound manager means it should be a seamless user experience, and the only difference is whether the JavaScript is calling the sound manager js or the <audio> tag.
I’ll be at WordCamp in San Francisco this weekend, anyone who wants to bend my ear about a feature can do so. Twitter at jwriteclub to get together.
Who's Lookin'
How is it going with 0.7?
Christopher:
Are you available for consultation and customization of your player? I fell in love with the original WordPress Audio Player, but Martin Laine of 1PixelOut seems to have disappeared.
I will soon launch a blog called musicofnature.org, and we (my team) want a player just like the 1PixelOut player, but upgraded like yours, and that can read and display ID3 tags (including the “Comment” tag, where our mp3 files contain important descriptive metadata). We also want the players to load automatically (as the 1PixelOut player does), so that our followers can see at a glance where the audio is when scrolling through blog posts.
Lang Elliott
NatureSound Studio
Love the simplicity of the audio player. Is there a way to amend the code to make one player close when another is opened?
This sounds like exactly what my site needs. As it is, I’m doing a poor job of turning Soundmanager2 into a playlist…
Any idea when 0.7 will be released?
what’s with the 0.7 release?
Hi.
I was wondering if are having any plan to release a new version of the excellent µAudio plugin?
I am also trying to get the player to work with regular jQuery, but nothing happens when I add var mAjQ = jQuery; to the top of microAudio.js.php.
I have checked that I load jQuery 1.3.2 in the theme, so that should not be a problem.
Just built our new site and am using your plugin to play small audio files in about/glossary – works great!
BUT
Safari on iPhone doesn’t show the player and doesn’t play the mp3′s – any way to fix that??
@Andreas:
The version in trunk uses WordPress’ built in jQuery, so it should work better.