Question

I’m creating pages for a small web-based game which must have some background music playing. Those pages should be compatible with most desktop browsers, including IE8 (but we can ignore the mobile browsers).

Of course I’d like to allow the user to stop the music. And this is where it gets tricky.

Here’s what I use currently (with jQuery) :

<audio id="main_audio" autoplay="autoplay" preload="auto" loop="loop">
    <source src="sounds/bgmusic.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" />
    <source src="sounds/bgmusic.ogg" type="audio/ogg" />
    <embed hidden="true" autostart="true" loop="true" src="sounds/bgmusic.mp3" />
</audio>
<div id="controls" class="controls">
    <a id="playpause" class="play">Play/Pause</a>
</div>
<script>
    function isPlaying(audio) {return !audio.paused;}
    var a = document.getElementById('main_audio');
    $('#playpause').on('click', function() {
        if (isPlaying(a)) {
            a.pause();
        } else {
            a.play();
        }
    });
</script>

This works fine in all browsers, but IE. (I’m on Windows XP so testing on IE8 currently.)
On IE8, the audio starts playing (which is good) but the controls don’t do anything so it’s impossible to stop the music (and restart it).

How can I make this script work for IE too? In other word, interact with the embed tag (but only in IE)?

Answer 1

Try next code:

<audio id="main_audio" autoplay="autoplay" preload="auto" loop="loop">
    <source src="sounds/bgmusic.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" />
    <source src="sounds/bgmusic.ogg" type="audio/ogg" />
    <embed id="main_audio_ie8" hidden="true" autostart="true" loop="true" src="sounds/bgmusic.mp3" />
</audio>
<div id="controls" class="controls">
    <a id="playpause" class="play">Play/Pause</a>
</div>
<script>
    var isPlaying = function(audio) {return !audio.paused;}
    var a = document.getElementById('main_audio');
    if(!(a.play instanceof Function)){
        a = document.getElementById('main_audio_ie8');
        isPlaying = function(audio) {return audio.playState==2;}
    }
    $('#playpause').on('click', function() {
        if (isPlaying(a)) {
            a.pause();
        } else {
            a.play();
        }
    });
</script>

Another variant (code must work if WMPlayer.OCX exist on system; checked on Win2K+IE6SP1+WMP7, WinXP+IE6SP1+WMP9, WinXP+IE8+WMP11):

<audio id="main_audio" autoplay="autoplay" preload="auto" loop="loop" volume="1.0">
    <source src="sounds/bgmusic.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" />
    <source src="sounds/bgmusic.ogg" type="audio/ogg" />
    <object id="main_audio_ie8" classid="clsid:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6" style="display:none;"> 
        <param name="URL" value="sounds/bgmusic.mp3" />
        <param name="uiMode" value="invisible" /> 
        <param name="autoStart" value="true" />
        <param name="volume" value="100" />
        <param name="playCount" value="2147483647" /> <!-- (Int32) 2^31-1==2147483647 - maximum allowed count (for 1 second length audio is equals to 68+ years) -->
    </object> 
</audio>
<div id="controls" class="controls">
    <a id="playpause" class="play">Play/Pause</a>
</div>
<script type='text/javascript'>
window.onload=function(){
    var isPlaying,a=document.getElementById('main_audio');
    if(a.play instanceof Function)isPlaying=function(audio){return !audio.paused;};
    else{
        a=document.getElementById('main_audio_ie8');
        isPlaying=function(audio){return audio.playState==3;};
        a.play=function(){this.controls.play();}
        a.pause=function(){this.controls.pause();}
    }
    document.getElementById('playpause').onclick=function() {
        if (isPlaying(a)) {
            a.pause();
        } else {
            a.play();
        }
    };
};
</script>