I have been trying to get help with a solution for several weeks from one of your support people who does not seem to fully understand the problem nor my request. He has closed my ticket saying that the help he provided was working as "intended." Perhaps it is working as HE intended, but he has not been addressing MY intention. He has provided a lot of attention to this and I am grateful for that, but he doesn't seem to understand my simple request and so things keep going in circles.
I wish to create a custom button that calls 2 events: 1) start the slider; 2) manually triggers an audio file to play. This is for mobile phone use, so the audio must be triggered by user interaction.
Please let me know how I can get further help from your company.
I'm John from the Dev Team and co-founder of Kreatura.
We have been monitoring your request recently. I can assure you that we would offer you a solution if there was a way. However, you cannot play audio like this on mobile devices I'm afraid.
Mobile operating systems and their web browsers have restrictions in place and require user interaction to play an audio file. That means we cannot offer background playback, the OS wants us to show the native player (that might be a fullscreen overlay window in cases) and have you press their play button.
Adding a custom button that would work on desktop is also subject to the restrictions. The native player cannot be hidden, it's appearance and behaviour varies between devices and cannot be changed. There are some exceptions, tablets tend to be more permissive on this matter. Our supplied code works on desktop and newer tablets, but on other mobile devices there is simply no way achieving what you want. These restrictions affect every developer and every product, it's not LayerSlider related.
What you're asking is not simple at all. On the contrary, we would have to exploit OS weaknesses in order to provide any kind of solution, which goes against the will of device makers and is a very unstable ground, which can change at any time.
I sincerely believe that we did our best and what's humanly possible to help you in this matter. However, such a feature cannot exists without the necessary background from manufacturers, and this case has already went over and beyond our support obligations.
Thank you for your very swift reply and attention to my concern.
I do appreciate the time you have taken to provide me with a thorough explanation of why you do not believe you can help me with my request.
I know it probably sounds like I'm just in "the denial stage" when I say this, but I am certain that something is just not getting communicated properly here, as I know that what I am asking for is possible with mobile technology. and top-shelf sliders such as yours. If you read on, I promise that I can demonstrate undeniably that what I am asking for IS POSSIBLE.
But to begin with, let me make sure that we are on the same page regarding intentions. Note that you stated,
"Mobile operating systems and their web browsers have restrictions in place and require user interaction...."
Once again, let me stress that is exactly what I have been trying to get help with. I AM trying to create a user interaction solution here.
You also state,
"that means we cannot offer background playback..."
I am not asking for background playback. I am asking for the button to call an event to play an audio file.
Also,
"the OS wants us to show the native player (that might be a fullscreen overlay window in cases) and have you press their play button"
Please allow me to prove that the audio can be called on a mobile phone from a slider button and DOES NOT REQUIRE any display of a native player other than the slider itself. You can see the proof of this by viewing on your mobile phone some other sliders on this same website. Please view....
You'll see that the slider appears and is stopped on the first slide. Upon pushing the play button the slider begins to play and the audio begins to play. The audio plays on mobile because the button specifically calls the audio which is located on a static/global slide (USER INTERACTION), and not because the audio plays automatically from the timeline.
I imagine that you may take offense at my referrals to what "Revolution Slider can do" as I suppose they are your main competitor. But I only bring this up as an example of proof that what I am asking to do IS POSSIBLE when you say,
"These restrictions affect every developer and every product, it's not LayerSlider related."
Or, am I to understand that your position is that the technique used in my other sliders "exploits OS weaknesses" and creates "unstable ground"? Do you still believe that adding a start media event call to the button cannot be accomplished in a responsible way? I hope by demonstrating how my objective is something that can be done technically speaking, you will reconsider looking at how your event callbacks can provide the same simple functionality of triggering an audio file to play from within the slider.
FYI... you may be wondering why I am not just using Revolution Slider throughout the website. The reason is that when placed in a pop-up (as is the Puddles Slider that we've been testing on), the RevSlider has some redraw issues, whereas Layer Slider does not.
Thank you for your time and your serious consideration of my argument.
Despite my best effort, you don't seem to understand what user interaction, background playback and other terms really mean in the context of web development. There are tricks to circumvent browser restrictions, but it really is unstable ground. The fact that Slider Revolution using one changes nothing, we don't want to rely on unstable solutions that can break in any OS/browser update.
If you read the linked article and discussions in my previous post, you can see that they confirm our reasoning. With the current circumstances we can't offer you a solution to this problem I'm afraid.
I respect your company's decision to not develop something that you believe would create an unstable or compromising situation. Accordingly, I am understanding that there is absolutely no way to play an audio file in a LayerSlider on most mobile phones under any circumstance. If this is not true, please clarify.
Or perhaps you can offer another solution of how I can launch in a pop-up a presentation that plays audio. I appreciate the effort that Attila provided, but the code he sent to me does not play audio on any mobile phone I tested.
There are a lot of WordPress plugins for media playback. If you manage to find one that works on mobile, then you can use the LayerSlider API to sync the audio and the slider together. However, I'm not sure if there is any plugin that would be sufficient for your needs.
I have been trying to get help with a solution for several weeks from one of your support people who does not seem to fully understand the problem nor my request. He has closed my ticket saying that the help he provided was working as "intended." Perhaps it is working as HE intended, but he has not been addressing MY intention. He has provided a lot of attention to this and I am grateful for that, but he doesn't seem to understand my simple request and so things keep going in circles.
I wish to create a custom button that calls 2 events: 1) start the slider; 2) manually triggers an audio file to play. This is for mobile phone use, so the audio must be triggered by user interaction.
Please let me know how I can get further help from your company.
Thank you,
Dear Earl,
I'm John from the Dev Team and co-founder of Kreatura.
We have been monitoring your request recently. I can assure you that we would offer you a solution if there was a way. However, you cannot play audio like this on mobile devices I'm afraid.
Mobile operating systems and their web browsers have restrictions in place and require user interaction to play an audio file. That means we cannot offer background playback, the OS wants us to show the native player (that might be a fullscreen overlay window in cases) and have you press their play button.
Adding a custom button that would work on desktop is also subject to the restrictions. The native player cannot be hidden, it's appearance and behaviour varies between devices and cannot be changed. There are some exceptions, tablets tend to be more permissive on this matter. Our supplied code works on desktop and newer tablets, but on other mobile devices there is simply no way achieving what you want. These restrictions affect every developer and every product, it's not LayerSlider related.
What you're asking is not simple at all. On the contrary, we would have to exploit OS weaknesses in order to provide any kind of solution, which goes against the will of device makers and is a very unstable ground, which can change at any time.
I sincerely believe that we did our best and what's humanly possible to help you in this matter. However, such a feature cannot exists without the necessary background from manufacturers, and this case has already went over and beyond our support obligations.
For reference, here is Apple's own iOS developer documentation. See the "User Control of Downloads Over Cellular Networks" article.
You can also find a lot of developer discussion on this matter by searching "ios html audio play stakcoverflow" on Google.
Thank you for your understanding!
Best Regards,
John | Kreatura Dev Team
Hello John,
Thank you for your very swift reply and attention to my concern.
I do appreciate the time you have taken to provide me with a thorough explanation of why you do not believe you can help me with my request.
I know it probably sounds like I'm just in "the denial stage" when I say this, but I am certain that something is just not getting communicated properly here, as I know that what I am asking for is possible with mobile technology. and top-shelf sliders such as yours. If you read on, I promise that I can demonstrate undeniably that what I am asking for IS POSSIBLE.
But to begin with, let me make sure that we are on the same page regarding intentions. Note that you stated,
"Mobile operating systems and their web browsers have restrictions in
place and require user interaction...."
Once again, let me stress that is exactly what I have been trying to get help with. I AM trying to create a user interaction solution here.
You also state,
"that means we cannot offer background playback..."
I am not asking for background playback. I am asking for the button to call an event to play an audio file.
Also,
"the OS wants us to show the native player (that might be a fullscreen
overlay window in cases) and have you press their play button"
Please allow me to prove that the audio can be called on a mobile phone from a slider button and DOES NOT REQUIRE any display of a native player other than the slider itself. You can see the proof of this by viewing on your mobile phone some other sliders on this same website. Please view....
http://mosquitoes.staging.wpengine.com/life-cycle/eggs ... or any of the other sliders on the life cycle page.
You'll see that the slider appears and is stopped on the first slide. Upon pushing the play button the slider begins to play and the audio begins to play. The audio plays on mobile because the button specifically calls the audio which is located on a static/global slide (USER INTERACTION), and not because the audio plays automatically from the timeline.
I imagine that you may take offense at my referrals to what "Revolution Slider can do" as I suppose they are your main competitor. But I only bring this up as an example of proof that what I am asking to do IS POSSIBLE when you say,
"These restrictions affect every developer and every product, it's not LayerSlider related."
Or, am I to understand that your position is that the technique used in my other sliders "exploits OS weaknesses" and creates "unstable ground"? Do you still believe that adding a start media event call to the button cannot be accomplished in a responsible way? I hope by demonstrating how my objective is something that can be done technically speaking, you will reconsider looking at how your event callbacks can provide the same simple functionality of triggering an audio file to play from within the slider.
FYI... you may be wondering why I am not just using Revolution Slider throughout the website. The reason is that when placed in a pop-up (as is the Puddles Slider that we've been testing on), the RevSlider has some redraw issues, whereas Layer Slider does not.
Thank you for your time and your serious consideration of my argument.
Earl
Despite my best effort, you don't seem to understand what user interaction, background playback and other terms really mean in the context of web development. There are tricks to circumvent browser restrictions, but it really is unstable ground. The fact that Slider Revolution using one changes nothing, we don't want to rely on unstable solutions that can break in any OS/browser update.
If you read the linked article and discussions in my previous post, you can see that they confirm our reasoning. With the current circumstances we can't offer you a solution to this problem I'm afraid.
Best Regards,
John | Kreatura Dev Team
John,
Again, thank you for your fast response.
I respect your company's decision to not develop something that you believe would create an unstable or compromising situation. Accordingly, I am understanding that there is absolutely no way to play an audio file in a LayerSlider on most mobile phones under any circumstance. If this is not true, please clarify.
Or perhaps you can offer another solution of how I can launch in a pop-up a presentation that plays audio. I appreciate the effort that Attila provided, but the code he sent to me does not play audio on any mobile phone I tested.
Thanks,
Earl
There are a lot of WordPress plugins for media playback. If you manage to find one that works on mobile, then you can use the LayerSlider API to sync the audio and the slider together. However, I'm not sure if there is any plugin that would be sufficient for your needs.
Best Regards,
John | Kreatura Dev Team
Thanks for your thoughts on that.