play

Plays a movie or sound.

# Metadata

Platforms: desktop, server, mobile OS: mac, windows, linux, ios Introduced: 1.0 Security:

# Syntax

play [clipType] {filePath | clip} [looping] [at point] [options xOptions]

# Params

- clipType : The type of clip to play. - audioClip - videoClip - filePath : The location and name of the file you want to play. If you specify a name but not a location, LiveCode assumes the file is in the defaultFolder. - clip : A reference to an audio clip or video clip in an open stack. - point : Specifies the center of the movie to be played, relative to the current stack window. If the <point> is not specified, the movie is positioned at the center of the current card. If a sound is being played, the <point> has no effect. - xOptions : Are command line parameters passed to the "xanim" package on Unix systems. (On Mac OS and Windows systems, this parameter has no effect.).

# Examples

play "/usr/local/clips/music.aiff"

play videoClip "Movie" at 100,100

play audioClip "Trust No One" looping

play "/usr/local/clips/music.aiff"

# to stop the currently playing audio clip play stop

# Description

Use the play command to control playing of a movie or sound.

If you use the play ... looping form, the sound or video plays continuously from beginning to end until you stop it.

You can stop playing of a movie or sound with the stop command or with the play stop form. If you specify a clip, only that clip is stopped. If you specify a type but not a clip, the last clip of that type is stopped. (On Unix, you must wait a second or two after starting a movie or sound before you can stop it, to give the external player time to start up.)

You can play multiple movies at once by starting each one of them with the play command.

Movies cannot be played while any tool other than the Browse tool is in use.

If you start playing an audio clip when another one is playing, the first audio clip is stopped, and a playStopped message is sent to the current card. You cannot play two sounds at the same time, nor can you queue a sound while another sound is playing.

On Unix systems, the "xanim" program must be located in a directory in the PATH environment variable. You can set the PATH from within LiveCode by using the put command :

put newPath into $PATH

> *Note:* The type of audio and video clip formats supported > by the play command is limited. See the entries for audioClip > and videoClip for details. To play a wider variety of formats, > use a player object.

# Tags

multimedia,

# See

- **property:** callbacks, currentTime, dontRefresh, frameCount, looping, playDestination, playLoudness, playRate, showSelection - **message:** playStarted, playStopped - **object:** audioClip, player, videoClip - **glossary:** command, current card, environment variable, execute, message, return, Unix - **function:** MCISendString, result, sound - **command:** beep, import, iphoneSetAudioCategory, prepare, revStopAnimation, start, stop - **control structure:** function