A Final Word

In this column we continued our first two installment on the FlashSound JavaScript API, Embedding Sound with Flash, Part I: The Basics, and Embedding Sound with Flash, Part II: Playing Variations. This column rounded up this miniseries on the FlashSound JavaScript API. We focused in this column on stream files. We showed you how to start a stream from any random frame number. We taught you how to pause a stream and how to continue a paused track. We discussed at length different properties of the FlashSound object that can be used for checking the status of the embedded SWF. These properties can show you if a SWF is completely loaded, what its loaded percentage is, and whether the player is ready. We explained the dependency of your code on the player version. We showed you how to set the minimum player version number, what to do if the version is substandard, and how to degraded the sound gracefully when the player is not adequate. Finally, we showed you how to suppress or reveal error messages, and when you might want to have these JavaScript error messages.

In this column you have learned:

• How to hide the embedded SWF
• How to play a stream sync SWF
• How to start a stream from a designated frame
• How to pause and play a stream
• How to check if a track is playing
• How to test if the player is ready
• How to find the loaded percentage of a SWF
• How to verify that a SWF is completely loaded
• How to check for the player version
• How to set the minimum player version number
• How to suppress error messages

You could download the Flash Player, the FlashSound JavaScript API, and the two SWF examples we used in this column: earsonly and scale music. You could also find these files in one zipped file.