Posted by Gilles Kohl on 12/27/06 09:49

On 26 Dec 2006 23:34:56 -0800, "Klemens" <klemid@gmail.com> wrote:

>I'm looking for a simple Windows-based MP3 player which allows me to
>set bookmarks within my self-recorded MP3 audio books and jump directly
>to them afterwards. Would also help if there is an API function for one
>of the well-known players which I can use in self-written player shell.

As I have an interest in audiobooks myself (most MP3 players and
software do not handle their special requirements well) I gave this a
quick whirl.

Windows Media player should do the trick - it is not necessarily the
simplest one around, but has the advantage of already being there in
most cases.

Media player can be embedded as an ActiveX control - I ignore what
your programming language of choice is, but here are the steps to
recreate the small "feasibility study" I did in C#/Visual Studio 2005.
Any language/environment that supports ActiveX controls should work
though.

Create a new Windows Forms project.

Right-click the toolbox and select "Choose Items ...", get yourself a
cup of coffee, walk the dog, wash dishes,clean the house, and
eventually return to your computer to see if the "Choose Toolbox
Items" has finally finished exploring the registry. Switch to the "COM
Components" tab, and check "Windows Media Player" (System32\wmp.dll).
Click OK.

Drag the media player icon (should appear under "General" in the
toolbox) to your form.

Add a button "Get Position" (buttonGetPosition), a button "Set
Position" (buttonSetPosition), a button "Select Media"
(buttonSelectMedia) a textbox (textBoxPosition), and an
openFileDialog1.

Replace the code for the form (Form1.cs) with the following:

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace Mp3PositionTest
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}

private void buttonSelectMedia_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
openFileDialog1.CheckFileExists = true;
openFileDialog1.DefaultExt = "mp3";
if(openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
axWindowsMediaPlayer1.URL = openFileDialog1.FileName;
}
}

private void buttonGetPosition_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
textBoxPosition.Text =
axWindowsMediaPlayer1.Ctlcontrols.currentPosition.ToString();
}

private void buttonSetPosition_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
axWindowsMediaPlayer1.Ctlcontrols.currentPosition =
Double.Parse(textBoxPosition.Text);
}
}
}

The sample lets you select an MP3 file to play (it uses the
openFileDialog for this), the thing to retain is that you have to
assign a filename with path to the URL property.

When you click "Get Position" the current position
(axWindowsMediaPlayer1.Ctlcontrols.currentPosition) is retrieved (as a
double) and displayed as a string in the textbox.

Conversely, when you click "Set Position", the textbox contents is
converted back to a double (make sure it can be, there is no error
handling for the sake of clarity here) and assigned to the
currentPosition property.

That's it - this should get you started with your own bookmark
handling.

Regards,
Gilles [MVP].

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