how to detect end of audio file using jquery and html5

Question

I've got this jquery code and html to work OK for an English language training site.

$(document).ready(function() {
  $("p").hover(
    function() {
      $(this).css({"color": "purple", "font-weight" : "bolder"});
    },
    function() {
      $(this).css({"color": "black", "font-weight" : ""});
    }
  ); 
  $("p").click(function (event) {
    var element = $(this);
    var elementID = event.target.id;
    var oggVar = (elementID +".ogg");   
    var audioElement = document.createElement('audio');
    audioElement.setAttribute('src', oggVar); 
    audioElement.load();
    audioElement.addEventListener("load", function() { 
        audioElement.play(); 
    }, true);
    audioElement.play();    
  }); 
});

<div>
  <p id="one"> this is the first paragraph</p>
....   
  <p id="four"> this is the fourth paragraph</p> 
....   
</div>

the problem is that if text is clicked on while an audio file is playing (or double clicked) then the second file (or the same file) starts playing. So I end up with two files playing simultaneously. I need to prevent this. I think that the 'ended' event is relevant but, despite looking some examples, I can't see quite how to detect if a file is playing and wait until it's finished before allowing a second file to start (or even prevent it from playing at all). Any help would be much appreciated :)

Answer 1

You can add event listeners for the ended and playing events. Also, why creating a audio tag via javascript? I would just create an empty hidden audio tag:

<audio id='myAudio' autoplay='autoplay'></audio>

You have two options:

• disable/enable the button/link when audio is playing/stopped (preferred imho)
• ignore clicks when already playing

Then add two eventlisteners to it:

var playing = false;

$('#myAudio').on('playing', function() {
   playing = true;
   // disable button/link
});
$('#myAudio').on('ended', function() {
   playing = false;
   // enable button/link
});

$("p").click(function (event) {
   if(!playing) {
      var element = $(this);
      var elementID = event.target.id;
      var oggVar = (elementID +".ogg");   
      var audioElement = $('#myAudio')[0];
      audioElement.setAttribute('src', oggVar); 
      audioElement.play();
   }

});