react-howler

A React.js wrapper for howler.js (audio player).

ReactHowler has no UI, you have to provide your own UI.

Props can be passed to control playback and react to events such as end, load, play, ...

howler.js

howler.js is an audio library for the modern web. It defaults to Web Audio API and falls back to HTML5 Audio.

Usage

npm install --save react-howler

import React, { Component } from 'react'
import ReactHowler from 'react-howler'

class App extends Component {
  // This sound file may not work due to cross-origin setting
  render () {
    return (
      <ReactHowler
        src='http://goldfirestudios.com/proj/howlerjs/sound.ogg'
        playing={true}
      />
    )
  }
}

For a full working example please see it in App.js

Demo

http://khoanguyen.me/react-howler/ or

git clone http://github.com/thangngoc89/react-howler
npm install
npm run example:react
open http://localhost:3000

Props

Prop	Default	Description
src		The sources to the track(s) to be loaded for the sound (URLs or base64 data URIs). These should be in order of preference, howler.js will automatically load the first one that is compatible with the current browser. If your files have no extensions, you will need to explicitly specify the extension using the format property. Updating the src prop on the fly will destroy any currently playing howler instance and create a new one with the new src. Updating other props while keeping the src the same will maintain the current howler instance.
preload	true	Set to true to begin downloading the audio file if it is not loaded yet.
playing	true	Set to true or false to pause or play the media. Setting to true on initial load will play the audio immediately after it is loaded
loop	false	Set to true or false to enable/disable loop
mute	false	Set to true or false to mute/unmute current audio
volume	1.0	The volume of the specific howl, from 0.0 to 1.0
rate	1	The initial playback rate (speed)
html5	false	Set to true to force HTML5 Audio. This should be used for large audio files so that you don't have to wait for the full file to be downloaded and decoded before playing.
format	[]	howler.js automatically detects your file format from the extension, but you may also specify a format in situations where extraction won't work (such as with a SoundCloud stream).
xhr	{}	When using Web Audio, howler.js uses an XHR request to load the audio files. If you need to send custom headers, set the HTTP method or enable withCredentials (see reference), include them with this parameter. Each is optional (method defaults to GET, headers default to null and withCredentials defaults to false). For example: <ReactHowler src="sound.webm" xhr={{ method: 'POST', headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer:' + token, }, withCredentials: true, }} />
onPlay	noop	Called when audio starts or resumes playing
onPause	noop	Called when audio is paused
onVolume	noop	Called when volume is changed
onStop	noop	Called when audio is stopped
onLoad	noop	Called when audio is loaded (buffered)
onLoadError	noop	Called when an error occurs whilst attempting to load media
onEnd	noop	Called when media finishes playing
onSeek	noop	Called when the sound has been seeked. The first parameter is the ID of the sound. onSeek(id)
onPlayError	noop	Called when the sound is unable to play. The first parameter is the ID of the sound and the second is the error message/code. onPlayError(id, errorCode)

Methods

duration([id])

Get the duration of the audio source. Will return 0 until after the load event fires.

• id: Number optional The sound ID to check. Passing an ID will return the duration of the sprite being played on this instance; otherwise, the full source duration is returned.

load()

When preload is true this is automatically called. When setting preload to false, you can call load() manually before playing sounds (useful for lazy loading large files on slow networks). If you attempt to play a sound that's not loading or loaded with preload react-howler will automatically call load().

Tip: If you're calling load() manually, check the load status with howlerState()

seek([seek])

Get/set the position of playback for a sound.

• seek: Number optional The position to move current playback to (in seconds).

howlerState()

Check the load status of the Howl, returns a string unloaded, loading or loaded.

This is an alias for Howler's state() function

stop([id])

Stops playback of sound, resetting seek to 0.

• id: Number optional The sound ID. If none is passed, all sounds in group are stopped.

rate([value], [id])

Speeds up/down an audio playback. Calling with no arguments will reset all howls to default rate.

• value: Number optional The playback rate. If empty, will default to 1.
• id: Number optional The sound ID. If empty, all sounds in group get updated.

Other howler.js methods

If you need to use other howler.js methods that are not included in this wrapper you can access the howler instance directly via howler

import React, { Component } from 'react'
import ReactHowler from 'react-howler'

class App extends Component {
  getHowler () {
    this.player.howler
  }

  getDuration () {
    this.player.duration()
  }

  getSeek () {
    this.player.seek()
  }

  setSeek () {
    this.player.seek(0.5)
  }
  // This sound file may not work due to cross-origin setting
  render () {
    return(
      <ReactHowler
        src='http://goldfirestudios.com/proj/howlerjs/sound.ogg'
        playing={true}
        ref={(ref) => (this.player = ref)}
      />
    );
  }
}

Howler global core methods

Howler global methods are avaiable in window scope. Please refer to howler's documentation

Usage:

window.Howler.mute(true) // Mute all sounds

Linting

This project uses standard code style.

npm run lint

Audio files in examples

sound.ogg

Taken from howler.js demo page Sound file direct link: sound.ogg

sound2.ogg

Fingerstyle Bass line over an Am chord progression By Serolillo (Own work) [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

License

MIT