I made a demo featuring background music that goes through the whole course (doesn't change from slide to slide). The user can chose from four songs to listen to and can adjust the volume, and the song continues playing through every slide and loops when it completes. I've also added instructions on how to make this work to the module. I don't know whether someone else has already posted something like this (I couldn't find anything), but hey if so here's one more! Demo ------- I've put together a second demo that shows a different way to do this. This second version performs the same actions as the first one, but without needing to edit the output files every time you publish! It saves a lot of headaches when you need to edit something in the course because now you don't have to drop the music files into the output folder and you dont have to edit the html file every time you publish! Demo 2 I've also attached the second version .story file. Its called Background_Music_Version_2.story. If anyone needs help getting either versions of this to work I'm more than happy to assist :)

Hi Marcee, Since opening the html document is causing you problems I would suggest going with the Version 2 option. 1. Create a variable in storyline called 'Location'2. Create a folder on your desktop, it can be called whatever you'd like. 3. Put all of the music files you want to play in your course in this folder4. create a new file in the folder called 'index.html'. This file can just be blank5. Back in your storyline, create a new slide that the learner will never see6. Create a web object in that slide and link it to the folder you just created with the blank index.html file in it. Make sure to set the web object to load automatically. 7. Publish your file (dont zip) and open the output folder8. Check under story_content/WebObjects folder and copy the name of the web object folder in there. It will be a series of random characters like 'W7auf51LmL'9. In storyline set default value of the 'Location' variable to the path whole path 'story_content/WebObjects/[web object name]'10. Create a trigger that executes javascript when your project starts. 11. paste this javascript into your trigger, it will edit the story.html file for you: //load the scripts dynamically into the head of the documentfunction add_line() { var line = document.createElement("audio"); var head=document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]; line.type = "audio/mp3"; line.src=""; line.id="bgSong" ; line.autoplay = true; line.loop = true; head.appendChild(line);}//but we only want to add these once!if(document.getElementById('bgSong')==null){ add_line();var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');audio.volume = 0.5;} 12. Now you can play your songs with a trigger like this: var player = GetPlayer();this.Location= player.GetVar("location");var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');audio.src= location + "SONG1.mp3";audio.load();audio.play(); remember to change 'SONG1.mp3' to whatever the music file you added was named. You can adjust the volume (for narration or sound effects or whathaveyou) with this trigger var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');audio.volume = 0.6; That should get it working for you, let me know if you run into any more problems!

The reason I set up the audio.src="BrightlyFancy.mp3" was because I made this particular project have multiple songs that can be switch between. In my file I put that line into a JavaScript trigger in the .story file and used the "Execute JavaScript" trigger to switch between songs. If you have just one song you'd like to play, you can just add: <audio src="BrightlyFancy.mp3" id="bgSong" preload="auto" autoplay loop></audio> To your story.html file, where "BrightlyFancy.mp3" is the name of the audio file you'd like to play. Make sure it is located within the <Body> tags and outside of the <script> tags Don't forget to add your audio file to the root of your output folder or else your course wont be able to find your audio file. Hope this helps! If you need to add more control over the background music (more than just having it loop through the whole course) let me know and I can help you get it working! :)

Hi Jane, It is possible to stop the music and resume it while the video is playing. If you execute this javascript trigger it will mute the music: var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');audio.volume = 0.0; and to resume the music: var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');audio.volume = 1.0; The file you shared is actually the zipped output file, what I need is the test_background_music.story file. The file that you open in Storyline to edit the course is the file I need. I cannot open any zip files into Storyline.

If you want to stop the song you can run this trigger at the end of the scene or beginning of the next scene. var player = GetPlayer();this.Location= player.GetVar("location");var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');audio.src = " ";audio.load();audio.play(); This will set the song to nothing, so it wont play anything. If you want to change the music use the same trigger and set audio.src to loctation + the name of your song. You can control when and what song is playing throughout the course. I hope this helps! Let me know if you need any assistance getting it to work :)

Hi Jane, sorry it took so long to respond: I had never considered the returning to course or jumping around the menu! I think that the easiest way to get around this is to drop the javascript triggers into the slide master so they run on every slide in the background. The problem with that though, is that if it runs on every slide then the song will restart every time the trigger fires. BUT I think there is a way around this! So firstly, any of the javascript triggers you are using should be pasted into every slide master main page that you use in the course. That way no matter where the learner jumps in the music should continue start playing. Secondly, we're going to need to edit the javascript so that it checks to see if there is already music playing before starting this song. This will help us avoid the problem of the song restarting every time the trigger runs. You'll want to change this: //load the scripts dynamically into the head of the documentfunction add_line() { var line = document.createElement("audio"); var head=document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]; line.type = "audio/mp3"; line.src=""; line.id="bgSong" ; line.autoplay = true; line.loop = true; head.appendChild(line);}//but we only want to add these once!if(document.getElementById('bgSong')==null){ add_line();var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');audio.volume = 1.0;}var player = GetPlayer();this.Location= player.GetVar("location");var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');audio.src=Location+"SONGNAMEHERE.mp3";audio.load();audio.play(); To this: //load the scripts dynamically into the head of the documentfunction add_line() { var line = document.createElement("audio"); var head=document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]; line.type = "audio/mp3"; line.src=""; line.id="bgSong" ; line.autoplay = true; line.loop = true; head.appendChild(line);}//but we only want to add these once!if(document.getElementById('bgSong')==null){ add_line();var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');audio.volume = 1.0;}var player = GetPlayer();var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');this.Location= player.GetVar("location");if (audio.duration > 0 && !audio.paused) {// If song is playing and not paused then do nothing}else {audio.src=Location+"Happy.mp3"; audio.load();audio.play();} This should check if the audio is playing or not, and if not then it will load the song again. I haven't tested this yet and unfortunately I can't get around to it until later this week probably, so this is just a theory so far. I hope that it works though! Let me know if there's any problems with this and I can try to help as much as I can.

Background Music Demo | Articulate

203 Replies

LeslieMcKerchie
Staff
11 years ago
Awesome Jackson, thanks for popping in to assist Adam here.
JacksonHamner
Community Member
11 years ago
You're right, I was confused with what I did in the past to make this happen. What I did was not stop the audio but turn the volume all the way down.

So this trigger should stop the music from playing:

var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');
audio.volume = 0.0;

When you want the audio to start playing again you can set the volume back up.
AdamGagne-dd85a
Community Member
11 years ago
Perfect. Thanks again.
PraveenDIxit-75
Community Member
11 years ago
Thanks Guys for Javascripting

I am not a developer I don't know javascript.

Could you please provide me the javascript code for audio on / off on a single Storyline button.

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Praveen
LeslieMcKerchie
Staff
11 years ago
Looks like you found a good group to inquire with Praveen :) Good luck with your project.
JaneJordan1
Community Member
10 years ago
Hi Jackson

I have followed your background_music_version_2.story and loaded the java script as you had although I only have one song to play - however it didn't work - I know I must be missing something but not quite sure what it is

I have attached my file hoping you can help.

Jane

test_background_music.zip6.9 MB
JacksonHamner
Community Member
10 years ago
Hi Jane,

Would you be able to share your .story file so I can see how you've set up your triggers? That would help me pinpoint the error much easier.

I can see in your output files that the trigger adding the <audio> tag is working, but the trigger adding the src value for the audio tag didn't since the src="" is still empty. I would start by looking at that trigger to see if there is a problem with the code.

Since you are only using one song I would just hard code the song name into the audio tag when its initialized so you don't have to set up additional triggers. If you can share your .story file I can help you set up the script to do this
- JaneJordan1
  Community Member
  10 years ago
  Hi Jackson
  
  Here is the output file.
  
  Jane
ChristiePollick
Community Member
10 years ago
Hi, Jane! I see that you replied to Jackson via email, and I wanted to note that if you try to add an attachment when replying via email, unfortunately, it will not appear here in the thread to be accessible.

I also wanted to clarify that what Jackson would like to see is the .story file (or the source file itself) rather than the published output file, and the easiest way to share that would be to stop over into the forum/the thread, and click on the grey "ADD ATTACHMENT" button in the bottom left corner of the reply box. You will be able to browse for your file from there, and it will appear here in the thread. Please let us know if you have any other questions! :)
JaneJordan1
Community Member
10 years ago
Hi Jackson

here is my source file - if you wouldn't mind taking a look at what is missing to make the background music JS work.

Is it also possible to have the java script not execute on one slide or scene in the project, I will have video inserted and it already has background music?

thank you much appreciated

Jane
test_background_music_-_Storyline_output.zip6.9 MB
JacksonHamner
Community Member
10 years ago
Hi Jane,

It is possible to stop the music and resume it while the video is playing. If you execute this javascript trigger it will mute the music:

var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');
audio.volume = 0.0;

and to resume the music:

var audio = document.getElementById('bgSong');
audio.volume = 1.0;

The file you shared is actually the zipped output file, what I need is the test_background_music.story file. The file that you open in Storyline to edit the course is the file I need. I cannot open any zip files into Storyline.

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Background Music Demo

203 Replies

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