Question

I am using php to generate javascript that creates and plays sounds
like:

$playsound .= "var $sound = new Audio('http://$siteurl/sounds/$sound.ogg'); soundplayer($sound $whentostart, $whentostop);   ";

soundplayer is a javascript function that takes the sound name, and durations of when to start and stop as parameters.

The problem I have is I have groups of soundplayer(with params) that I want to play together…ie certain groups play sounds at the same time. Then other groups that I need to start at some interval after.

For example:
This group plays:
soundplayer(with params)
soundplayer(with params)

Some time between say 1 to 4 seconds

Then this group plays:
soundplayer(with params)
soundplayer(with params)

then repeat for as many groups

What can I do in either jquery or javascript to wrap each function call to soundplayer() groups to get each group to play with specific intervals in between?

Answer 1

You can do that with either setTimeout (chaining) or setInterval (which repeats until you stop it).

In JavaScript, and conceptually, to keep things simple:

// Put the things you want to do in a function
function doThingsInOrder() {
    doOneThing('someArgument');
    doAnotherThing();
    doAThirdThing('someArgument');
    // Maybe one of them should be delayed a bit
    setTimeout(doADelayedThing, 200); // 200 = 200ms = 1/5th second
}

// Call the function every four seconds, forever
setInterval(doThingsInOrder, 4000);

That’s the setInterval version. The setTimeout version just involves doThingsInOrder calling itself via setTimeout at the end:

// Put the things you want to do in a function
function doThingsInOrder() {
    doOneThing('someArgument');
    doAnotherThing();
    doAThirdThing('someArgument');
    // Maybe one of them should be delayed a bit
    setTimeout(doADelayedThing, 200); // 200 = 200ms = 1/5th second

    // Set up next call
    setTimeout(doThingsInOrder, 4000);
}

// Start the process off
setTimeout(doThingsInOrder, 4000);