Swing Hacks

Add MP3 Support to JMF #74

Chapter 10, Audio

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377

HACK

a ZIP for other platforms. In both cases, there is an mp3plugin.jar file that

the install docs say you need to place in the ext/lib directory of any JRE you

want to provide the plug-in to. With the JAR in your classpath, you install

the plug-in with the following command:

java com.sun.media.codec.audio.mp3.JavaDecoder

On Mac OS X, the proper way to add JAR files to the class-

path is to put them in /Library/Java/Extensions, instead of

using the actual ext/lib directory, which is hard to find and

will be wiped out by system installers and updates anyways.

Simplicity Is Nice

Example 10-6 is the code for pretty much the simplest MP3 playing pro-

gram you can create. You will need to

import javax.media.* in addition to

the usual

java.io classes.

Those four lines in

main( ) do it all. The MediaLocator takes care of loading

and buffering the file as long as you can give it a URL. The player controls

the actual music output. It has the basic functions you would expect, like

start( ) and stop( ). If you compile and run this program with a test MP3

file, audio should start playing immediately.

Distribute Your Program

If you need to distribute your program, it’s best to include platform install-

ers and instruct users to install them first.

Licensing restrictions from Sun may apply here!

Example 10-6. A very basic MP3 player

import javax.media.*;

public class MP3Player ...