Integration and usage

The best way is maybe to look at the source code of the demo pages, but if you want more details, see below.

Player integration  

Integrate the player into your webpage may not be difficult. Just copy the player's .swf onto your website by ftp, and copy this code were you want it to appear :

<object id="mp3player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="player.swf" width="220" height="30" style="vertical-align: bottom;">
<!-- MP3 Flash player. Credits, license, contact & examples: http://pyg.keonox.com/flashmp3player/ -->
<param name="type" value="application/x-shockwave-flash" />
<param name="codebase" value="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" />
<param name="movie" value="player.swf" />
</object>

Or (exactly the same code but easier and better to copy/paste) :

<object id="mp3player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="player.swf" width="220" height="30" style="vertical-align: bottom;"> <!-- MP3 Flash player. Credits, license, contact & examples: http://pyg.keonox.com/flashmp3player/ --> <param name="type" value="application/x-shockwave-flash" /> <param name="codebase" value="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" /> <param name="movie" value="player.swf" /> </object>

Comments :

• the comment line is required by the licence
• you may change the occurence of "mp3player" by another name, but be sure to adapt the change in your scripts.

Usage 

Now that your player's code is in your page, you may want to feed it with some sounds.If your sound is encoded in 32kbps, just create an html link like :

<a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.mp3player.SetVariable('url', 'mysound.mp3');">my link</a>

That's all !

Some explanations :

• "javascript:void(0);" => prevent the reload of the page when user click the link
• onclick= => tell that the action must be evaluated when the user click the link
• document.mp3player.SetVariable('url', => tell flash player (identified with "mp3player" id) that we want to replace the url
• mysound.mp3 => sound file to play (usefull !). This may be a full url (like http://pyg.keonox.com/flashmp3player/sounds/007_014_02.mp3), or a relative (like example given) url, like "sounds/002_002_01.mp3".
• my link => text to be displayed. It could be any other html element, like a picture ('<img src="my_pic.gif" />', for example)

But your sound file may be encoded in a different bitrate than the default 32kbps (see "Encoding issues"). Say, if your file is encoded in 56kbps, your link should look something like :

<a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.mp3player.SetVariable('my_bitrate', 56 );window.document.mp3player.SetVariable('url', 'soundfile2.mp3');">my link</a>

Examples

HotPotatoes examples  

Sample file n°1: Exercise - source

Sample file n°2: Exercise - source

Encoding issues

Please note (that's very important), that this Flash MP3 player is designed to play 32Kb/s MP3 files by default.
Bitrate : Average number of bits that one second of audio data will transmit.
This, because 32Kb/s is the better compromise between speech sound quality, and bandwith capacity for slow connexion (modem users).

Of course, you may change this values:

• by javascript
• by using a custom <param> tag
• by modifying the source .fla.

If you have MP3 files and you don't know wich bitrate is used, you can play it in a standard player (like winamp, foobar2000, or windows media player, etc.) and check the sound properties. If you need to encode an MP3 file (e.g: from a .wav source), I suggest you to use DbPowerAmp

Please note that this Flash MP3 player won't work with MP3 files encoded at variable bitrate ("VBR"). You must use a fixed bitrate and a sample rate multiple of 11,025Hz (e.g: 11KHz, 22KHz, 44KHz).