Audio file plays over itself - ios

Question

I'm building an app with multiple view controllers and I have coded an audio file to play at the start up of the app. That works fine and when I click on the button to view a different screen the audio file still plays without skipping a beat just like it's supposed to but my problem arises when I click on the button to go back to the main screen. When I click to go back to the main screen the audio file plays over itself reminding me of the song Row Row Your Boat. The app is re-reading that code that tells itself to play the audio file thus playing it all over again. My problem is that I can't figure out how to make it not do that. I have coded the app to stop the audio when clicking on the start game button, which is what I want it to do but not until then. I just need help getting the app to not play the audio file over itself when going back to the main screen. The audio file is coded to play infinitely until the "start" button is clicked. If anyone can make since out of what I'm trying to say then please help me code this thing correctly. Thanks to anyone who can make it work right.
Here my code:
-(void)viewDidLoad
{
NSString *introMusic = [[NSBundle mainBundle]pathForResource:#"invadingForces" ofType:#"mp3"];
audioPlayer0 = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:introMusic] error:NULL];
audioPlayer0.delegate = self;
audioPlayer0.numberOfLoops = -1;
[audioPlayer0 play];
}

Answer 1

The problem is that you start a sound in a local variable when your view is loaded, start it playing on endless repeat, and then forget about it. Then you close the view controller, leaving the now-forgotten audio player playing. Next time you invoke the view controller, it's viewDidLoad method creates another audio player and starts that one playing too, and then forgets about that one. Every time you open a new copy of that view controller, you'll start yet another sound player, adding another voice to your round of "row, row, row your boat."
The naive solution is to put the code that starts the sound player in the app delegate. Set up the AVAudioPlayer as a property of you app delegate. Create a startPlaying method and a stopPlaying method. In your didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method, call startPlaying.
It's cleaner app design not to put app functionality in your app delegate, but instead create a singleton to manage sound play. (Search on "iOS singleton design pattern" to learn more.) Create an appDidLaunch method in the singleton, and call appDidLaunch from didFinishLaunchingWithOptions to start playing your sound. That way the app delegate doesn't need to have app specific logic in it, but simply calls appDidLaunch and goes on it's way.
EDIT:
If you want to call a method in the app delegate, and your app delegate is declared as:
#interface AppDelegate : UIResponder <UIApplicationDelegate>
Then you'd call it from another file like this:
First, import the app delegate's header:
#import "AppDelegate.h"
And the actual code to call your app delegate's stopPlaying method:
//Get a pointer to the application object.
UIApplication *theApp = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
//ask the application object for a pointer to the app delegate, and cast it
//to our custom "AppDelegate" class. If your app delegate uses a different
//class name, use that name here instead of "AppDelegate"
AppDelegate *theAppDelegate = (AppDelegate *)theApp.delegate;
[theAppDelegate stopPlaying];

Answer 2

Here's some example code to wrap an AVAudioPlayer in a singleton -
BWBackgroundMusic.h
#interface BWBackgroundMusic : NSObject
// singleton getter
+ (instancetype)sharedMusicPlayer;
/* public interface required to control the AVAudioPlayer instance is as follows -
start - plays from start - if playing stops and plays from start
stop - stops and returns play-head to start regardless of state
pause - stops and leaves play-head where it is - if already paused or stopped does nothing
continue - continues playing from where the play-head was left - if playing does nothing
replace audio track with new file - replaceBackgroundMusicWithFileOfName:
set background player to nil - destroyBackgroundMusic
NOTE:- change default track filename in .m #define */
// transport like methods
- (void)startBackgroundMusic;
- (void)stopBackgroundMusic;
- (void)pauseBackgroundMusic;
- (void)continueBackgroundMusic;
// audio source management
- (void)replaceBackgroundMusicWithFileOfName:(NSString*)audioFileName startPlaying:(BOOL)startPlaying;
- (void)destroyBackgroundMusic;
#end
BWBackgroundMusic.m
#import "BWBackgroundMusic.h"
#import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h> // must link to project first
#define DEFAULT_BACKGROUND_AUDIO_FILENAME #"invadingForces.mp3"
#interface BWBackgroundMusic ()
#property (strong, nonatomic) AVAudioPlayer *backgroundMusicPlayer;
#end
#implementation BWBackgroundMusic
#pragma mark Singleton getter
+ (instancetype)sharedMusicPlayer {
static BWBackgroundMusic *musicPlayer = nil;
static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
dispatch_once (&onceToken, ^{
musicPlayer = [[self alloc] init];
});
//NSLog(#"sample rate of file is %f",[musicPlayer currentSampleRate]);
return musicPlayer;
}
#pragma mark Initialiser
- (id)init {
//NSLog(#"sharedMusicPlayer from BWBackgroundMusic.h init called...");
if (self = [super init]) {
// self setup _backgroundMusicPlayer here...
// configure the audio player
NSURL *musicURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/%#", [[NSBundle mainBundle] resourcePath], DEFAULT_BACKGROUND_AUDIO_FILENAME]];
NSError *error;
if (_backgroundMusicPlayer == nil) {
_backgroundMusicPlayer = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:musicURL error:&error];
}
if (_backgroundMusicPlayer == nil) {
NSLog(#"%#",[error description]);
} else {
[self makePlaybackInfinite];
[_backgroundMusicPlayer play];
}
}
return self;
}
#pragma mark Selfish methods
- (void)makePlaybackInfinite {
// access backing ivar directly because this is also called from init method
if (_backgroundMusicPlayer) {
_backgroundMusicPlayer.numberOfLoops = -1;
}
}
- (CGFloat)currentSampleRate {
NSDictionary *settingsDict = [self.backgroundMusicPlayer settings];
NSNumber *sampleRate = [settingsDict valueForKey:AVSampleRateKey];
return [sampleRate floatValue];
}
#pragma mark Transport like methods
- (void)startBackgroundMusic {
// plays from start - if playing stops and plays from start
if (self.backgroundMusicPlayer.isPlaying) {
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer stop];
self.backgroundMusicPlayer.currentTime = 0;
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer prepareToPlay];// this is not required as play calls this implicitly if not already prepared
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer play];
}
else {
self.backgroundMusicPlayer.currentTime = 0;
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer prepareToPlay];
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer play];
}
}
- (void)stopBackgroundMusic {
// stops and returns play-head to start regardless of state and prepares to play
if (self.backgroundMusicPlayer.isPlaying) {
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer stop];
self.backgroundMusicPlayer.currentTime = 0;
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer prepareToPlay];
}
else {
self.backgroundMusicPlayer.currentTime = 0;
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer prepareToPlay];
}
}
- (void)pauseBackgroundMusic {
// stops and leaves play-head where it is - if already paused or stopped does nothing
if (self.backgroundMusicPlayer.isPlaying) {
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer pause];
}
}
- (void)continueBackgroundMusic {
// continues playing from where the play-head was left - if playing does nothing
if (!self.backgroundMusicPlayer.isPlaying) {
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer play];
}
}
#pragma mark Content management
- (void)replaceBackgroundMusicWithFileOfName:(NSString*)audioFileName startPlaying:(BOOL)startPlaying {
// construct filepath
NSString *filePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/%#", [[NSBundle mainBundle] resourcePath], audioFileName];
// make a url from the filepath
NSURL *fileUrl = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:filePath];
// construct player and prepare
NSError *error;
self.backgroundMusicPlayer = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:fileUrl error:&error];
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer prepareToPlay];
[self makePlaybackInfinite];
// if startplaying then play
if (startPlaying) {
[self.backgroundMusicPlayer play];
}
}
- (void)destroyBackgroundMusic {
// stop playing if playing
[self stopBackgroundMusic];
// destroy by setting background player to nil
self.backgroundMusicPlayer = nil;
}
#end
To use simply call [BWBackgroundMusic sharedMusicPlayer]; This will instantiate the singleton if not already instantiated, start the player automatically, and will loop infinitely by default.
Furthermore you can control it from any class that imports BWBackgroundMusic.h
For example to pause the player use
[[BWBackgroundMusic sharedMusicPlayer] pauseBackgroundMusic];