is there a clean way to play an mp3 sound in the compact framework 3.5

Question

I know & use the p/invoke method to play wav sounds, & there are ways of calling windows media player to play an mp3 sound, but its slow & cumbersome, is there an easy way to simply play short mp3 file... mainly for application prompting & audible cues for when you are not looking at the screen.. (not music) thanks!!

Answer 1

CF Framework 3.5 now includes support for playing .WAV files:

Namespace System.Media.SoundPlayer

Short WAV files for cues and sound-effects might even play faster than MP3s since they're "ready-to-play"...

Answer 2

If you are looking for a way to play mp3s:

public class Sound
{
    [DllImport("aygshell.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern IntPtr SndPlaySync(string pszSoundFile, uint dwFlags);
    [DllImport("aygshell.dll")]
    private static extern uint SndOpen(string pszSoundFile, ref IntPtr phSound);
    [DllImport("aygshell.dll")]
    private static extern uint SndPlayAsync(IntPtr hSound, uint dwFlags);
    [DllImport("aygshell.dll")]
    private static extern uint SndClose(IntPtr hSound);
    [DllImport("aygshell.dll")]
    private static extern uint SndStop(int SoundScope, IntPtr hSound);

    const int SND_SCOPE_PROCESS = 0x1;
    private static Random _random = new Random();

    // init startup path... where you'll hold temp mp3s
    private static string _startupPath;
    public static string StartupPath
    {
        get { return Sound._startupPath; }
        set { Sound._startupPath = value; }
    }

    private enum SND
    {
        SYNC = 0x0000,
        ASYNC = 0x0001,
        NODEFAULT = 0x0002,
        MEMORY = 0x0004,
        LOOP = 0x0008,
        NOSTOP = 0x0010,
        NOWAIT = 0x00002000,
        ALIAS = 0x00010000,
        ALIAS_ID = 0x00110000,
        FILENAME = 0x00020000,
        RESOURCE = 0x00040004
    }

    public static void PlaySound(string fileName)
    {
        PlaySound(fileName, null);
    }

    public static void PlaySound(string fileName, WaitCallback callback)
    {
        SndStop(SND_SCOPE_PROCESS, IntPtr.Zero);
        ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(playSoundProcess, 
            new object[] {fileName, callback });
    }

    private static void playSoundProcess(object o)
    {
        object[] par = (object[])o;
        string fileName = (string)par[0];
        WaitCallback callback = (WaitCallback)par[1];
        SndPlaySync(fileName, 0);

        try
        {
            File.Delete(fileName);
        }
        catch
        { }

        if (callback != null)
            callback.Invoke(fileName);
    }

    public static void ClearSounds()
    {
        SndStop(SND_SCOPE_PROCESS, IntPtr.Zero);
        try
        {
            string[] oldFiles = Directory.GetFiles(StartupPath, "*.mp3");
            foreach (string f in oldFiles)
                File.Delete(f);
        }
        catch
        { }
    }



    public static void PlaySound(byte[] mp3, WaitCallback callback)
    {
        string temp = string.Format("{0}\\{1}-{2}.mp3", StartupPath, DateTime.Now.Ticks, _random.Next());
        using (FileStream fs = File.Create(temp))
        {
            fs.Write(mp3, 0, mp3.Length);
        }

        PlaySound(temp, callback);
    }
}