Android MediaPlayer Explanation with Service

Let's get started.

I will use the mediaplayer with my own service.I want you to think we are going to create a musicplayer application and we will play our musics from a background service.

If you do not have any idea how to use an android service please take a look at this article: https://thecodeprogram.com/explanation-of-android-services-with-example

First import the required library.

import android.media.MediaPlayer;

And create a new class named MusicPlayerService and extend this class with Service SuperClass. After it create MediaPlayer component. Initialize this mediaPlayer class at onCreate of service. Also we are setting a listener to update media player is prepared.

Below code block will do all of these.

public class MusicPlayerService extends Service  {

    MediaPlayer mediaPlayer;
    boolean isPlayerReady  false;

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();

        //To know media player is ready and music file loaded
       mediaPlayer.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
            @Override
            public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
                isPlayerReady  = true;
                Log.d("media_is_ready","media_is_ready");
            }
        });
     }
}

Now we need to set the music files and and prepare for playing music. After it I strongly recommend you to create a listener to update music playing is ended. Let's take a look at below code block to see how to do it.

//resetting MediaPlayer is always good.
mediaPlayer.reset();

try {

       mediaPlayer.setDataSource(_music.musicPath);

       //You can prepare the mediaplayer syncrhonised or asynchronised.
       //chose one of them.
       mediaPlayer.prepare();
       mediaPlayer.prepareAsync();

   } catch (IOException e) {
       Log.e("start_playing", "play: ", e);
   }

     //After it I strongly recommend to create a listener to when the setted music playing is completed.
     mediaPlayer.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
            @Override
            public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
                Log.d("music_completed", "music_completed");
                if (startToPlay ) {
                    fnc_goNextMusic();
                }
            }
        });

Now let's use these two code blocks together.

import android.media.MediaPlayer;

public class MusicPlayerService extends Service  {

    MediaPlayer mediaPlayer;
    boolean isPlayerReady  false;

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();

        //To know media player is ready and music file loaded
       mediaPlayer.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
            @Override
            public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
                isPlayerReady  = true;
                Log.d("media_is_ready","media_is_ready");
            }
        });

     //resetting MediaPlayer is always good.
     mediaPlayer.reset();

     try {

       mediaPlayer.setDataSource("music_file_path");

       //You can prepare the mediaplayer syncrhonised or asynchronised.
       //chose one of them.
       mediaPlayer.prepare();
       mediaPlayer.prepareAsync();

     } catch (IOException e) {
        Log.e("start_playing", "play: ", e);
     }

     //After it I strongly recommend to create a listener to when the setted music playing is completed.
     mediaPlayer.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
            @Override
            public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
                Log.d("music_completed", "music_completed");
               // music is completed and you can go the next music
            }
        });

     }
}

That is all in this article.

Have a good music playing

Burak Hamdi TUFAN