Audio plays across pages

[steve.ledger]

This is in response to a post in another thread by member Dirtwad.

► http://www.talkgraphics.com/showpost...22&postcount=7


Attached is a *.web file showing a simply way to add one piece of music which plays automatically and continuously even if you then go to another page on the site.

Additional information:
See Gary's workbook for adding audio as flash

[Dirtwad]

Wow thanks for the fast response!

I know how to place the audio file into the placeholder on the page and went through the tutorial just incase I was missing something.

But for some reason when I click on a button to view a different page the audio stops. Does it matter that I am using Xara 5. I believe your example was made with XWD because it is a .web extension.

I was able to open your .web example file in Xara 5 and when I tested it, it played the music without stopping but for the life of me, I cannot figure out why the audio does not work for me when I try to build the same thing in Xara 5.

[steve.ledger]

My example is doable in X5 in exactly the same way and play across all pages as shown, even in an X5 preview.
Did you download and test?
You can open the .web in X5, ignore the version warnings.

[slavelle]

Hey dirtwad, just to back up what Sledger has suggested: I just completed a site doing the same thing. Basically one huge iframe inside of another main page with a player.

I created two Xara Files for my example - mostly for the simplicity of not having to worry about the "bigger picture" while I worked on the main site design. Xara file one (outsideFrame.xar is what I call it) is the very top header which holds the music player + the iframe placeholder large enough to hold the longest page of the main site. This file is exported as index.htm and it's related index_htm_files

The second file is the main site. It could work on its own or inside that iframe because all of the navigation and everything is in there. I export this as masterpage.htm (and the other pages after). No real reason for the name except I don't want it to ever accidentally be the default page.

I did this all as an afterthought to my main design - only discovering the way around the music playing across all the pages AFTER I designed most of the site. So it was easier to do this as one file called inside of another in my case than the way Sledger has it all in a single file.

There are issues with iframes but the most pronounced one for me when doing a whole site like this is the inability to link directly to an internal page and have it come up with the iframe outside of it. As a result, you have to go to the home page first and navigate to that page if you want the music to continue playing.

Also, from a "title tag" perspective, you can put them in the pages that are shown through the iframe, but the address bar/title bar will not reflect the move from page to page. I don't know what this does to SEO since the tags are present, but don't show to the human eye anywhere - I'd think the bot would still "get it" but I can't really tell. And a ctrl-refresh will take you to the home content of the frame. At least that's how it's worked for me. Not a fan, but it's what the client wanted.

And the analytics might be non-granular as well. I haven't gotten to look into that aspect of it yet, but I have a feeling I'm not going to like what I see.

Hope this helps.

[Dirtwad]

Thank you for your help in responding and Sledger for the file upload. I have made several attempts over the last few days to understand and make it work. There must be something simple that I am missing here.
I do not understand what you are saying about a page within a page and these parts of your post are greek to me:

Basically one huge iframe inside of another main page with a player.

This file is exported as index.htm and it's related index_htm_files

The second file is the main site. It could work on its own or inside that iframe because all of the navigation and everything is in there.

There are issues with iframes but the most pronounced one for me when doing a whole site like this is the inability to link directly to an internal page and have it come up with the iframe outside of it.

Hope this helps.

Could you kindly explain what you mean in the above quote. Maybe if I understood the "inside and outside of a frame" I could grasp it all.

The audio still stops playing when I go to another page. If I paste the same audio file on every page it will restart the audio from the beginning when I go to a new page.

Thank you for your help!

[steve.ledger]

If I paste the same audio file on every page it will restart the audio from the beginning when I go to a new page.

No, this is wrong and show's you haven't (yet) grasped what Scott and myself are trying to help you with.

If you look at the .web file I created for you, you can see that the audio placeholder is on one page only (the small orange rectangle on the index page)
The large orange placeholder is the <iframe (look at the placeholder code please)
You will see that the iframe code initially loads page 1 (src=page1.htm) - however the page 2 and page 3 links will also load *inside* the iframe placeholder because they are set to 'Open link in:' myframe
This myframe is the name given to the <iframe. You can see this by looking at the iframe code of the large orange placeholder (<iframe name=myframe)

So what in actual fact is happening, is that you never really leave index.htm, the other pages are displayed *inside* the iframe area (page within a page) - so the audio doesn't have to start and restart, it just plays once.

[steve.ledger]

Here's the same file as .xar (Xtreme version 5) with some additional notes to help you.

I have not included the *.swf audio file, you can get that from the earlier attachment.

Let me know how you go

[Dirtwad]

Awesome! Thank you! Now I grasp what you guys are saying.

I did not know I could type anything into the 'Open Link In' drop down. I just thought I had to select from the choices given.

The audio is working fine now, however, I am still wondering where you are seeing the "Iframe Code" that is suppose to show the name of the large orange place holder.

[QUOTE=sledger;362199]

This myframe is the name given to the <frame. You can see this by looking at the iframe code of the large orange placeholder (<iframe name=myframe)

(Sorry Man - I cannot even get the Quote code right)

Thanks big bunches - I hope to contribute to this forum soon.

[steve.ledger]

I am still wondering where you are seeing the "Iframe Code" that is suppose to show the name of the large orange place holder.

[1] Select large orange rectangle
[2] Press Ctrl+SHIFT+W
[3] Select 'Placeholder' tab
[4] In the section 'Replace with HTML code: you will see:

<iframe name=myframe src=page1.htm width=100% height=100% scrolling=no frameborder=0></iframe>

[neodelito]

Ha ha nice trick sledger, iframes are very use full, thanks for share...
i use iframes in the past for hide external links in my domain.