SoundManager 2: Download

Revision History

A changelog of sorts.

• V2.97a.20130512 - multiShot for polyphonic HTML5 clients. createSound() no longer requires an id. Auto-reboot() into 100% HTML5 mode where supported. HTML5 unload tweaks.

  • Bug fixes

    • Init enhancement: If preferFlash: true but useFlashBlock: false (the default SM2 config) and flash timeout / blocked case occurs, SM2 will reboot reboot into 100% HTML5 mode if available so init can succeed. If flash block handling is enabled, user interaction will be required to whitelist the flash movie and init will be delayed until the SWF loads.

    • Correct reboot() to allow 100% HTML5 mode when Flash was previously required due to preferFlash: true. Previously, soundManager.audioFormats.mp3.required = false; soundManager.reboot() did not result in 100% HTML5 mode under Firefox. Now works as expected.

    • HTML5 unloading: Firefox was supposed to like assigning '' to Audio().url for canceling requests, unloading and destroying the decoder (perhaps only on <audio>, in retrospect?) - similarly, .src = null did not seem to work, possible request to ./ - undesirable.

      Now using more-conservative null URL for unload / destruct on webkit, iOS and others, and emptyURL for Firefox (user-customizable, 'about:blank' by default.)

    • More HTML5 safety checks so that buffered can't go beyond 100%.

    • Improve Flash 9 load() -> onload() failure case, when loading a non-404 (eg., HTTP 301 -> 200) with non-audio content. Improved messaging for Flash 8, Flash 9 + HTML5 with zero-duration (invalid / unsupported sound) case.

    • Fix flash-only (no HTML5 / useHTML5Audio: false) init case, e.g., running under IE 8.

    • HTML5: Fix legacy "overloaded" case when soundManager.play('someID', 'some.mp3'); is called twice, second call would fail. This shortcut method is deprecated, and not recommended for use other than a conveience when in development / testing.

  • API Updates

    • createSound() no longer requires an id property. If omitted, a unique id will automatically be generated for the new sound object with a prefix based on the SM2 setup option idPrefix.

      Specifying an id is useful if you want to look up the sound via getSoundById() - otherwise, you can simply use the object returned by the createSound() call.

    • multiShot + multiShotEvents for HTML5 Audio()-based sounds, allowing layered / "chorused" playback if play() is called and multiShot: true has been specified to either createSound() or play(). Behaviour should mimic that of Flash 9. If multiShotEvents: true is specified, onfinish() will fire for each instance. Does not apply to mobile clients (e.g., iOS and Android) which only allow one sound to be played at a time.

      Implementation summary: A new Audio(src) instance is created with an onfinish listener, and played immediately. It is unloaded and destroyed when playback finishes.

      Caveat #1: If a position argument is provided eg., play({ position: 1000 }), the cloned Audio() instance must wait for a HTML5 canplay event before a seek and playback can begin. This may mean playback *could* have a slight delay vs. playing without the position offset.

      Caveat #2: The from/to parameters used for "sound sprites", e.g., { from: 500, to: 1500 }, are not presently supported under multiShot.

      Caveat #3: multiShot is not supported where only a single audio instance can be playing at once, e.g., iOS (iPhone/iPad) and some Android devices.

      Secondary instances are "fire-and-forget", similar to the Flash 9 implementation, and fire no events other than onfinish(). They do not respond to position, volume etc. after playback has begun.

  • Miscellaneous

    • Remove debug-related complain() calls from -nodebug and minified script builds

    • Force data: URLs over to HTML5. Catch unsupported case under 100% HTML5 mode, preventing attempt to use Flash fallback.

    • Edge case: Fix error case if setup() called without arguments inline, before DOMReady / init etc.

    • Tweak soundManager.getSoundById() to not throw error if ID omitted. Improve language on "not found" messaging.

    • Warn on possible 32-sound channel Flash ceiling/limit, which can occur when Flash tries to begin playback and fails to start.

    • Documentation updates: How Clients Download Audio (Flash/HTML5 progressive download vs. byte streaming)

    • Improved API Examples page design, two-column layout with navigation

• V2.97a.20130324 - Fix for playlist/event chaining when using flashVersion = 8 with Flash Player 11.6.602.171. HTML5 iOS load() fix. Added Opus to audio formats. (Download archived version)

  • Bug fixes

    • Flash Player 11.6.602.171, released by Adobe on 02/26/2013, introduced an issue with SM2's default Flash 8 (flashVersion: 8) API-based JS/Flash interaction, where SM2 methods called from callbacks such as onfinish() would not work. This primarily broke methods used for playing sounds in sequence, serially loading a series of sounds and so on. (See discussion for more.)

      Note that this does not affect cases where soundManager.setup({ flashVersion: 9}) is being used; however, SM2 does use flashVersion: 8 by default.

      Specifically, Flash-initiated events (such as a sound finishing) make Flash -> JS calls to the SM2 API, which subsequently call user-specified event handlers. If the user-specified SM2 onfinish() handler immediately calls a SM2 method like play() that makes a JS -> Flash call, this call either silently fails or is blocked. Other JS + Flash libraries that use similar callback patterns may also be affected, if their SWF is built targeting the Flash 8 API.

      Suspecting a timing or recursion/stack issue, it was found that introducing a setTimeout(callback, 0) to user-specified SM2 callbacks like onfinish() restored sequential/playlist functionality.

      Flash Player 11.6.602.180, relased by Adobe on 3/12/2013, exhibits the same behaviour. To avoid additional hacks, SM2 applies this to all Flash 8-based API callbacks regardless of what version of Flash Player is installed. No regressions are anticipated as a result of this change.

      Alternately, this issue can be avoided by using soundManager.setup({ flashVersion: 9 }) as the Flash 9-based API does not appear to have this problem.

    • HTML5: Fix for iOS load() case when using an auto-load and looping pattern (related discussion).

  • API Updates

    • HTML5: Added check for Opus (OGG-based audio codec, audio/opus).

  • Miscellaneous

    • Added documentation for Serving To Clients, and Mobile Device Limitations.

    • Minor SM2 homepage + documentation CSS tweaks (design)

    • This SM2 release is tagged "Mahalo Edition" to say thank-you, and because some SM2 work was done while on vacation in Hawai'i. Also, some new demo sound recordings from the beach on Kaua'i were added.

• V2.97a.20130101 - Strict Mode. Android 2.3 HTML5 fixes, cleaner debug output, improved default flashblock handling. Confirmed compatibility with Firefox WMF-based HTML5 MP3 support. New reset() method, reboot() tweaks (Download archived version)

  • Bug fixes

    • HTML5: Reset last URL and load state for "singleton" (global HTML5 audio) case, on iOS + Android <= 2.3 for specific use case - createSound() -> play() -> destruct() -> createSound() -> play() with same URL/parameters.

    • HTML5: Fix for Android 2.3 / Nexus 7 - they work better with the singleton HTML5 audio() instance as well, same as iOS, for chained (i.e., playlist-style) playback cases.

    • soundManager.setup() now allows html5Test (regular expression, eg. /probably|maybe/i) to be passed. Was previously unrecognized/rejected.

  • API Updates

    • The SoundManager 2 core API (soundmanager2.js) now runs in Strict Mode, via "use strict";. This is scoped to a closure within soundmanager2.js, and should not cause issues when combined (rolled-up and/or minified) with other JavaScript code.

    • New soundManager.reset() method. Similar to reboot(), but also nukes any registered onready() and related callbacks. Based on pull request from Github user jabr. Chaining is now possible too, e.g., soundManager.reset().setup({onready:function(){console.log('reset() complete, reboot OK')}});. Call soundManager.beginDelayedInit() to re-init after a reset().

    • soundManager.setup({url:...}) + lazy-loading (dynamically-loaded JS) case: If setup() given a url parameter after DOMContentLoaded has fired, assume we should start right away. (Helps reduce need for beginDelayedInit() + "just works" for most users).

    • Don't init inline after document.readyState === 'complete' (improve lazy-loading case, wait for setup() with url instead).

  • Miscellaneous

    • Prerelease Firefox builds can play MP3 audio via HTML5 in some cases, as part of a move to support H.264 video (see Bugzilla #799318 for details). Firefox 20 (nightlies, and Aurora channel builds in January 2013) can get native MP3 support via Windows Media Foundation (OS-level codec support) components on Windows 8, Windows 7, and soon, Windows Vista. As of 12/2012, OS X support is planned, and Windows XP support is not. (Disclaimer: Vista, OS X and XP notes sourced from comments on Hacker News; see links).

      When enabled with media.windows-media-foundation.enabled = true under about:config, Firefox may be able to play MP3s via HTML5 and thus get "100% HTML5 mode" when soundManager.setup({preferFlash: false}) is used.

      At time of writing (12/30/2012), Firefox 20 (nightly) returns "" for canPlayType('audio/mpeg; codecs="mp3"'), a test commonly used to query for MP3 support under HTML5 and one which works in other modern browsers. Firefox's behaviour differs because it is trying to follow the MPEG spec, which does not include an explicit MP3 MIME type. Instead, canPlayType('audio/mpeg'), which is in-spec, presently returns a "maybe" when MP3 is supported under Firefox.

    • Improved SM2 console.log() debug output, aiming to be less "noisy". Core setup options are shown better at start-up, eg. "SoundManager V2.97a.20130101 (AS3/Flash 9) + HTML5 audio + preferFlash + html5PollingInterval (50ms) + flashBlock".

    • Christmas light demo: Tweaks for iOS + Android touch devices.

    • MP3 Player Button demo: Include HTML type (MIME hint) attribute, if specified.

• V2.97a.20121104 - HTML5 + iOS load fixes, Windows 8 App Store compatibility tweak, code pattern improvements (Download archived version)

  • Bug fixes

    • Fix HTML5 unload() -> play() case (re-use of same object without assigning new URL).

    • More global (iOS) HTML5 object unload() / play() re-use tweaks, improved handling of re-use and empty / load() cases

    • HTML5: Ensure instanceOptions are set after play() call results in load(). Noted instanceOptions not being set from within whileplaying().

    • Fix call signature for Flash 8 load method, was tying usePolicyFile (enables remote crossdomain.xml request for ID3/waveform data on 3rd-party domains) to precence of whileloading() due to driver error. Derp. :D

    • Windows 8 Store Apps (IE 10/"MSAppHost" in UA) don't support Flash or ActiveX, except for (at time of writing), three special ActiveX controls. Thus, new window.ActiveXObject('ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash') seems to work without error. However, an error is thrown if an <object> with a Flash ActiveX CLSID is appended to the DOM. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465143.aspx

  • Miscellaneous

    • Death to underscores! Removed legacy pattern of var _foo = ... for most private internals.

    • Better typeof x === 'undefined' -> x === undefined pattern per newer jslint rules.

• V2.97a.20120916 - Inline, deferred and lazy-load init improvements, HTML5 format / detection improvements, "re-use" load/play URL fix. (Download archived version)

  • API Updates

    • Init improvement: Don't fail if Flash URL is null in normal include + init case. Instead, show note in debug input and wait for soundManager.setup() with url param, then treat as delayed init case. Improved experience if including <script>, then trying to do setup() after DOM Ready (common jQuery case).

    • soundManager.setup({url:...}) + lazy-loading (dynamically-loaded JS) case: If setup() given url parameter after DOMContentLoaded has fired, assume we should start right away. (Helps reduce need for beginDelayedInit() + "just works" for most users)

    • Don't init inline after document.readyState === 'complete' (improve lazy-loading case, wait for setup() with url: instead)

  • Bug fixes

    • Fix 'audio/mpeg' canPlay() checks, was incorrectly returning false due to audio/mpeg; codecs="mp3" working and preventing audio/mpeg from being checked.

    • More paranoid Audio() handling for "bad" Opera (< 10) where new Audio() would throw not_enough_arguments (always required URL).

    • Safer HTML5 duration checks - null now assigned instead of undefined.

    • Improve durationEstimate under HTML5 during whileloading().

    • Flash 9/RTMP: Actually provide caption data to oncaptiondata().

    • Fix SMSound.play({url:...}) "re-use" case where new URL wasn't being assigned + loaded right away, and SMSound.url property was not being updated.

    • Correct load() and play() with new URL parameter, so that subsequent play() call uses new URL (and not URL assigned with original createSound() call).

    • Use seconds for SMSound.buffered (time ranges) whether HTML5 or Flash, since SM2 API uses seconds for setPosition() etc.

    • Correct play() -> pause() -> setPosition(0) -> play() -> pause() case where the latter wasn't firing due to invalid state.

  • Miscellaneous

    • New Cassette Tape UI Prototype/demo (experimental).

    • Tweaked documentation layout for legibility. Webfont (deja vu sans mono) from dejavu-fonts.org for code examples.

    • Improved lazy-load / deferred example based on new setup() logic

    • Added SMSound.buffered documentation

    • Added m4b extension as an mp4 format

    • Safer initial HTML5 support checks

• V2.97a.20120624 - New soundManager.setup() method, numerous HTML5 improvements for createSound(), load(), progress and reuse cases, and minor flash audio bug fixes (Download archived version)

  • API: New sugar-like stuff

    • New soundManager.setup() mixin-style method for assigning properties and common start-up callbacks. Collects top-level soundManager configuration properties and object collections - onready, ontimeout, defaultOptions, flash9Options and movieStarOptions - under a single method call.

      Upgrade / legacy note: This is a modern replacement for the direct property assignment method used in all previous versions - eg., soundManager.url = '/swfs/' - the old method continues to work for legacy support, but you should migrate to using the new method as it's much cleaner. All included demos use the new method where applicable.

      New soundManager.setup() method example

      soundManager.setup({
        // required
        url: '/path/to/swfs/',
        // optional
        flashVersion: 9,
        // convenience
        onready: function() {
          console.log('Ready to play sound!');
        },
        ontimeout: function() {
          console.log('SM2 start-up failed.');
        },
        // more custom parameters
        defaultOptions: {
          volume: 50
        }
      });

      See soundManager.setup() for details.

  • Bug fixes

    • Improve HTML5 audio load/playback reliability + stability on iOS, and for object reuse cases (play() -> load({url: ...}). Prior behaviour was making initial HTTP request when object was created (meta/preload, not necessarily loading entire file.) Request now only happens with preload/load/play-related calls.

    • HTML5: Firefox seems to have changed when unloading HTML5 audio, url = '' now loads hosting page HTML (boo) instead of null / no request. Changed to about:blank like everyone else. Also fixed boolean logic on isMovieStar assignment.

    • Add audio/mp3 and related MIME checks for flash, correct edge case where play({type:'audio/mp3'}) would use HTML5 when preferFlash = true, due to seeming lack of Flash support for the MIME type.

    • Fixed old Flash 8 onload() edge case where loading from cache might return incorrect didLoad: false result - corrected by checking for a non-zero sound duration.

    • Properly reset SMSound.id3 = {} with internal resetProperty and public methods like load().

    • Edge case fix: Don't attempt to remove flash unless reference exists (prevent false warning when reboot() called in 100% HTML5 mode.)

    • Correct empty options JS error on internal _setup_html5() when reusing HTML5 audio object per V2.97a.20120527 bug report

    • Fix minor false positive (undocumented error handler case) with HTML5 play() falsely reporting 32-sound ceiling edge case and calling SMSound.onplayerror() (if assigned) when using flashVersion = 9. Should only apply when flash 9 is being used for playback, and ceiling hit.

  • Miscellaneous

    • Finally assign + use SMSound.id (instead of sID), matching createSound({id: 'foo'}) pattern; maintain legacy sID property (ancient behaviour, originally intended to avoid potential namespace conflicts many years ago - now silly and not a concern.)

    • Improved handling of whileloading() vs. HTML5 onload (when using HTTP range/partial requests).

      HTML5 onload() (now triggered via native canplaythrough event) may fire early, followed by numerous HTML5 progress requests during playback as the audio object requests and buffers more audio ranges (eg., 0-10 seconds), eventually matching the total sound duration.

      Bytes loaded / total are not available, so bytesLoaded instead reflects a fraction of "duration loaded", between 0 and 1 as data is buffered in. Previously, whileloading events would not fire once onload had fired under HTML5.

    • New (undocumented, for now) buffered array on SMSound objects; list of objects following the pattern SMSound.buffered = [{ start: 0, end: 706 }] representing loaded time ranges (somewhat similar to HTML5 TimeRanges spec, but using static properties instead of method calls with an index parameter.) Array will initially be empty, zero-length. This can be looped through to show overlays of "loaded" time fragments on progress bars, for example.

      SMSound buffered is updated during whileloading() calls, where values are provided by the browser. For flash, will always be one item with { start: 0, end: SMSound.duration } assigned. Also stopped sending 1/1 values to whileplaying() at onload(), since HTML5 can fire onload() (via canplaythrough) very early followed by many progress (whileloading()) events.

      Support note: Not all browsers (eg., Safari 5.1.7) appear to provide buffer / TimeRanges data for HTML5 audio objects. At time of writing (06/2012), Firefox, Chrome Canary, IE 9 and Opera provide TimeRanges alongside progress events.

    • Upgraded demos to use to soundManager.setup({...}) for most configuration cases (vs. setting soundManager.url, soundManager.defaultOptions.autoLoad directly etc.)

    • Warn if soundManager.setup() called with url or flashVersion, and init has already fired (ie., flash options already set + movie already loaded) where changes will not take effect until soundManager.reboot().

    • Assign top-level soundManager properties (eg. soundManager.url) from soundManager.setupOptions at DOMReady time; this allows legacy soundManager.url = ... assignment to work, and helps to ensure legacy-style, directly-assigned top-level property values get written back to soundManager.setupOptions.

• V2.97a.20120527 - Fix for ontimeout() regression. GWT/JSNI compatibility, slow connection and Safari "background tab" SWF load handling improvements (Download archived version)

  • Bug fixes

    • Fix for ontimeout() regression seen when using lazy-loading / SM2_DEFER introduced with V2.97a.20120513; bug introduced when making edits to pass newer jslint rules regarding return within if...else blocks.

    • Replaced instanceof Function with "safer" typeof x === 'function' for onready(), ontimeout() and related callback argument checks as GWT + JSNI was passing arguments that failed the instanceof check. (Related bug report.)

    • Corrected another small regression for the ontimeout() -> onready() "recovery" edge case, ensuring "ready" does not fire after a timeout when init was unsuccessful.

  • Miscellaneous

    • Improved handling for special Safari page load case: When a new tab is opened that does not have focus, the Flash SWF does not load/init until the tab is brought to the foreground. SM2 now recognizes this special case and waits until window.onfocus() before attempting to do the JS/Flash part of init. Previously, it would fail with a timeout.

      Code written to originally handle Safari 3.1, which did not support document.hasFocus(), was modified and updated for this purpose. The Safari 3.1 logic previously deferred SM2's start-up in a similar fashion. (The old Safari 3.1 mousemove() focus-detection hack has been removed as Safari 4 has been out since mid-2009, and Safari 5 since mid-2010.)

    • SM2 init process will now delay and retry if no Flash response, and SWF has loaded > 0 and < 100%. Timeout will now happen only after delay and when SWF has loaded 100%. Should help prevent first-visit (non-cached) failure on very slow or laggy connections.

    • Added note about potential Firefox regression: Offline JS/Flash start-up (viewing HTML pages via file:// and/or c:/ and so forth), possibly not working as of Firefox 9 and newer (at time of writing, also up to and including Firefox 12), even despite special security whitelisting under Flash Player "trusted locations" preferences / control panel.

      After successful Flash -> JS call, SM2's "return" JS -> Flash call fails with unusual JS/Flash exception, "Error in ActionScript" error with no further detail. Offline viewing still works in other browsers.

• V2.97a.20120513 - Fixes for Android 2.3 playback, onPosition() in HTML5, Flash 9 double-play edge case. Minor new Flash 9-specific features (Download archived version)

  • Bug fixes

    • Android 2.3 playback fix (some sounds started only after 2+ play attempts due to Android not liking load() immediately followed by play()?)

    • onPosition() fix for HTML5 playback, items were mistakenly being removed.

    • Fix RTMP stream duration reporting via onmetadata() (wrong value was being returned, previously.)

    • Fix for Flash 9 double-play edge case found with pause() + setPosition() calls.

    • JSLINT validation per 04-15-2012 edition rules, mostly removal of multiple return statements within if ... else blocks and inverted loop tricks.

  • API updates

    • Enabled waveform/eq/spectrum data features for MovieStar (H.264/NetStream content.)

    • Added oncaptiondata() callback for caption data from Flash 9 (NetStream/RTMP-only, similar to onmetadata(). Contributor: GitHub user karma.)

    • Added SMSound.onplayerror(), presently for Flash 9 (non-MovieStar/NetStream) which can detect lack of available sound hardware or 32-channel ceiling as reasons for playback failure.

    • Added oncaptiondata() callback for caption data from Flash 9 (NetStream/RTMP-only, similar to onmetadata().)

  • Miscellaneous

    • Scaling added to 360 UI (via GitHub user tomasdev)

• V2.97a.20120318 - Minor updates. from / to and onplay() bug fixes, canPlayMIME() and canPlayLink() Flash-specific corrections. (Download archived version)

  • Bug fixes

    • Fix silly undefined"soundID" debug output message shown at SMSound.onload (now says SMSound._onload() as previously.)

    • soundManager.sounds = {} instead of [] on reboot (per bug report)

    • Fix logic for calling onplay(), was always non-truthy. D'oh!

    • Add missing typeof to fix html5 MIME check for playability tests

    • Don't apply width:auto to SWF (invalid per HTML5, allegedly: Related patch.)

    • Make soundManager.canPlayMIME() and canPlayLink() check flash support before returning (check after ontimeout() was returning truthy when flash required under Firefox, for example, for 'audio/mp3')

    • Fix play() "from" + "to" sound sprite playback issue: In some cases, previously-fired "to" events were re-firing due to not being removed, because an equality check was comparing against a potential "to" value of a string rather than a number. (eg., 0-700 followed by 1500-2000; playback would stop in second case, saying 700 had been reached. (Related bug report.)

    • Re-appeased the jslint gods, removed unused variables and two-statement reverse loop (for i=x; i--;) { } trickery.

  • Miscellaneous

    • The SoundManager project turned 10 years old, having originally launched in late 2001. Thanks for using it!

• Older Release Info

  For release and changelog history going back to 2010, see the archive page.