Question

Here’s a simple question that to my surprise, I can’t find the answer to: How do I play a system sound in XAML?

I have an event trigger attached to a button. The trigger displays a message, and I want it to play the Windows Notify sound. I have found several references on how to play sound files, but nothing on how to invoke a system sound.

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

The SystemSounds class provides some system sounds, they have a Play() method. To use this in XAML you would either have to resort to some whacky hacks, implement lots of custom logic or use Blend Interactivity to define your own TriggerAction which can use a SystemSound and play it.

The Interactivity method:

public class SystemSoundPlayerAction : System.Windows.Interactivity.TriggerAction<Button>
{
    public static readonly DependencyProperty SystemSoundProperty =
                    DependencyProperty.Register("SystemSound", typeof(SystemSound), typeof(SystemSoundPlayerAction), new UIPropertyMetadata(null));
    public SystemSound SystemSound
    {
        get { return (SystemSound)GetValue(SystemSoundProperty); }
        set { SetValue(SystemSoundProperty, value); }
    }

    protected override void Invoke(object parameter)
    {
        if (SystemSound == null) throw new Exception("No system sound was specified");
        SystemSound.Play();
    }
}

<Window 
        xmlns:sysmedia="clr-namespace:System.Media;assembly=System"
        xmlns:i="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity">
        ...
        <Button Content="Test2">
            <i:Interaction.Triggers>
                <i:EventTrigger EventName="Click">
                    <i:EventTrigger.Actions>
                        <local:SystemSoundPlayerAction SystemSound="{x:Static sysmedia:SystemSounds.Beep}"/>
                    </i:EventTrigger.Actions>
                </i:EventTrigger>
            </i:Interaction.Triggers>
        </Button>

(I do not know if SystemSounds.Beep is the one you are looking for.)

David Veeneman’s Note:

For others researching this issue, the Blend Interactivity referred to in the answer requires a reference to System.Windows.Interactivity.dll, which is found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Expression\Blend\.NETFramework\v4.0\Libraries\