This is my fourth tutorial for how to build a ListView based Android app. In last tutorial, I have shown an example about how to build ListView with text, image, and button. In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to play sound with Android Mediaplayer. In my example code, I will set an event listener on the button which is put in ListView. When users click on the button, I will play the local mp3 file basing on which ListView button is clicked. After we finish, you will be able to build a Android music player which has a playlist. When users click play button in the playlist, you can play the corresponding mp3 file.

This is the 4th tutorial of my Android ListView Based App Tutorial series. The whole tutorial has 4 sessions:

• Android ListView App Template Guide: Start From Planning
• Android ListView App Template Guide: Loading Local JSON Configuration File
• Android ListView App Template Guide: Customize ListView Item Layout Style
• Android ListView App Template Guide: Play MP3 File From ListView Playlist
• Android ListView App Template Guide: Listen EditText Changes (Coming Soon)

Android provides a very powerful multimedia class to help us handle playing music task, the MediaPlayer which has all the functions to play a MP3 file. In Android, we can play a mp3 file in three ways:

• Play the mp3 file as Application Resource
• Play the mp3 file which is stored in sd card
• Play the mp3 file over internet

Play Sound File in Android App Resource Folder

First, I will talk about how to play mp3 files from local resource. We always play some predefined sound effect in this way. For example, we may want to implement some button click sound effect or animation sound effect. In this case, we will put the audio file in application’s /res/raw folder and all these audio file will be built in the Android app. To play the sound, we must know the sound resource file name. The following example source code will show you how to play a mp3 file as app resource.

MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(context, R.raw.music_file);
mediaPlayer.prepare();
mPlayer.start();

Android Play Sound File Stored in SD Card

In some Android applications, we may download the mp3 file from internet and save them in SD Card. In this case, we will find and play the audio file by URI. If you want to create an Android music player app, this will be the proper way to handle your music.

MediaPlayer mPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
Uri myUri = Uri.parse("file:///sdcard/mp3/example.mp3");
mPlayer.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
mPlayer.setDataSource(getApplicationContext(), myUri);
mPlayer.prepare();
mPlayer.start();

Play Audio File From Playlist

Now, let’s take about a real android project. I will provide a playlist which contains a list of English word. When users click on the play button in the ListView, I will play the audio file according to the selected English word.

First of all, I am gonna add a click event listener on that play sound button in ListView. Here is how I did it:

viewHolder.voiceButton.setOnClickListener(voiceButtonClickListener);

Next, I will show you the source code about the onClickListener. In this listener, I will find out the position of the item in the ListView where I click the play button. After I get the position index of ListView, I will find the corresponding English word audio file and play it with Android MediaPlayer class.

	private OnClickListener voiceButtonClickListener = new OnClickListener() {
		@Override
		public void onClick(View v) {
			if (mediaPlayer == null) {
				View parentRow = (View) v.getParent();
				ListView listView = (ListView) parentRow.getParent();
				final int position = listView.getPositionForView(parentRow);

				try {
					Uri mp3 = Uri.parse("android.resource://"
							+ context.getPackageName() + "/raw/"
							+ datas.get(position).word);
					mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
					mediaPlayer.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
					mediaPlayer.setDataSource(context, mp3);
					mediaPlayer.prepare(); // might take long! (for buffering, etc)
					mediaPlayer.start();
					mediaPlayer.setOnCompletionListener(onCompletionListener);
				} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
					// TODO Auto-generated catch block
					e.printStackTrace();
				} catch (SecurityException e) {
					// TODO Auto-generated catch block
					e.printStackTrace();
				} catch (IllegalStateException e) {
					// TODO Auto-generated catch block
					e.printStackTrace();
				} catch (IOException e) {
					// TODO Auto-generated catch block
					e.printStackTrace();
				}
			}
		}
	};

The above source code is a little bit complicated, isn’t it? Don’t worry about it. I will help you to explain how these Java code works line by line. The first part is how I get the item index in the ListView when users click a button in ListView.

View parentRow = (View) v.getParent();
ListView listView = (ListView) parentRow.getParent();
final int position = listView.getPositionForView(parentRow);

After I got the exact position index, I will find the English word audio file and create an URI for that audio file.

Uri mp3 = Uri.parse("android.resource://"
	+ context.getPackageName() + "/raw/"
	+ datas.get(position).word);

Here I still put all my audio file in Android resource folder /res/raw. If your audio file is located in SD card, you may change above code like this:

Uri myUri = Uri.parse("file:///sdcard/mp3/"
        + datas.get(position).word + ".mp3");

After I have the audio file URI, I can instantiate the MediaPlayer class and play the audio file in Android. Let’s check the example code.

mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
mediaPlayer.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
mediaPlayer.setDataSource(context, mp3);
mediaPlayer.prepare(); // might take long! (for buffering, etc)
mediaPlayer.start();
mediaPlayer.setOnCompletionListener(onCompletionListener);

Please remember that MediaPlayer may consume lots of resource in Android. Therefore, we have to keep as few MediaPlayer instance as we can. In my case, I only create a new MediaPlayer instance when users play the music. When the music stops, I will release the MediaPlayer instance immediately. That’s the reason why I add an onCompletionListener event in the end. Here is the source code of onCompletionListener.

private OnCompletionListener onCompletionListener = new OnCompletionListener() {

	@Override
	public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		mediaPlayer.release();
		mediaPlayer = null;
	}
};

Try The Android App

You can download and install this android app from Google Play, or scan the following QR code to download and install on your android phone simply. If you feel it is helpful, please support me by clicking the banner inside the app.

Scan the following QR code to download this app in Google Play easy and fast.

Get Full Source Code at $5.99

You will get whole Android App source code at $5.99. With this source code, you can do everything you want:

• Feed your own content;
• Monetize the app with your own AdMob publish id;
• Use the source code in your own project;
• Publish this app in your android develop account;