Stream Online Audio and Play in Background Windows 1

Today I’m going to introduce how to stream online audio and play it in the background through BackgroundTasks.

Requirements:

This blog is using to create basic windows 8.1 application, so you should be familiar with XAML and C#.

Instructions

So Friend, Let’s start, how to stream online audio and play it with you application.

1. 
   Define MediaElement,
   
   1. 
      <MediaElement x:Name="myMedia"
      

2. 
   Assign the source file to media element
   
   1. 
      string audioSourceUrl = "http://server12.mp3quran.net/maher/002.mp3";
      
   2. 
      myMedia.Source = new Uri(audioSourceUrl, UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
      

Now it’s time to move, how to play audio in the background.

To play audio in the background, declare the Audio background task and handle the SystemMediaTransportControls buttons.

Important: Windows 8.1 introduces the SystemMediaTransportControls class which replace the MediaControl class. You should use SystemMediaTransportControls in your app.

Step 1: Declare the background audio task

1. 
   Open the project file for your app in Microsoft Visual Studio.
   
2. 
   Open the Package.appmanifest file in the Solution Explorer.
   
3. 
   Click the Declaration tab, then select Background Tasks from the Available Declaration.
   
4. 
   Click Add, then check the audio checkbox.
   
5. 
   It’s very important to specify the entry point (if your project’s name is MyApp then the entry point will be MyApp.App).
   

Step 2: Define the MediaElement and set the AudioCategory

The AudioCategory is a property on MediaElement, it’s using to either Communication or BackgroundCapableMedia.

1. 
   <MediaElement x:Name="myMedia"
   

Define and listen to the CurrentStateChanged event,

1. 
   <MediaElement x:Name="myMedia"
   

1. 
   <MediaElement x:Name="myMedia"
   

CurrentStateChanged="myMedia_CurrentStateChanged"/>

Now, we should initialize the SystemMediaTranspostControls, here is the method called InitializeTransportControls for that reason

And here is the code of ButtonPressed (systemControls_ButtonPressed) event handler, also it’ll include two methods PlayMedia(), and PauseMedia()

PlayMedia()