jQuery: How do you preload sound?

Question

I have a website that plays sound when you click a button.

This is how I do it

function PlaySound(soundfile) {
    $('#soundContainer').html("<embed src='/uploads/sounds/" + soundfile + "' hidden=true autostart=true loop=false>");
}

How do you preload the sound file beforehand?

Thank you.

Answer 1

1. Make an AJAX request to it. If your server issues proper caching headers (like Expires) it will be stored in the browser cache.

2. The ugly way:

soundfile = new Image(); 
soundfile.src = /uploads/sounds/" + soundfile;

Answer 2

There is no such thing as <embed>.

You could use an HTML5 <audio> element without autoplay, and later make it start playing with its play() method.

Answer 3

There are so many better ways to play sound with JavaScript. For my favorite, check out SoundManager. With it, you can simply call soundManager.load to load the sound file preemptively.

Answer 4

just thinking in the top of my head, can you make an ajax request for the sound file, but dont show the button until file is 100% loaded.

$(document).ready(function() {
    $.ajax({
        url: "soundfile.mp3",
        success: function() {
            $("#play_button").show();
        }
    });
});