Visual Basic 6 Programming Blue Book: The Most Complete, Hands-On Resource for Writing Programs with Microsoft Visual Basic 6!
(Publisher: The Coriolis Group)
Author(s): Peter G. Aitken
ISBN: 1576102815
Publication Date: 08/01/98

Listing 16.2 Code in SOUND1.FRM.

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function mciSendString Lib “winmm” Alias “mciSendStringA” _
    (ByVal lpstrCommand As String, ByVal lpstrReturnString As String, _
    ByVal uReturnLength As Long, ByVal hwndCallback As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function mciGetErrorString Lib “winmm” Alias _
    “mciGetErrorStringA” (ByVal dwError As Long, ByVal lpstrBuffer _
     As String, ByVal uLength As Long) As Long

‘ Constant for the MCI alias since we‘ll only
‘ have one device open at a time.

Const ALIAS = “MyDevice”

Private Sub Form_Load()

‘ Set up the Open dialog‘s filter.

CommonDialog1.Filter = _
    “WAVE (*.WAV)|*.wav|MIDI (*.MID)|*.mid|Video (*.AVI)|*.avi”

End Sub

Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)

Dim cmd As String, ret As String * 255, x As Long

‘ When the form unloads be sure the device is closed.

cmd = “close ” & ALIAS
x = mciSendString(cmd, ret, 255, 0)

End Sub

Private Sub mnuFileExit_Click()

End

End Sub

Private Sub mnuFileOpen_Click()

Dim cmd As String, devicetype As String, ret As String * 255
Dim rv As Long, rv1 As Long

‘ Display the Open dialog.
CommonDialog1.ShowOpen

‘ Exit if user canceled.
If CommonDialog1.filename = “” Then Exit Sub

‘ Get the selected file name extension.
cmd = UCase$(Right$(CommonDialog1.filename, 3))

‘ Set the “type” argument depending on the
‘ extension of the file selected.

Select Case cmd
    Case “AVI”
        devicetype = “avivideo”
    Case “MID”
        devicetype = “sequencer”
    Case “WAV”
        devicetype = “waveaudio”
    Case Else
        MsgBox (“Invalid file format”)
        Exit Sub
End Select

‘ Set up the MCI command and send it.
cmd = “open ” & Chr$(34) & CommonDialog1.filename & Chr$(34) & _
    “ type ” & devicetype
cmd = cmd & “ alias ” & ALIAS
rv = mciSendString(cmd, ret, 255, 0)

‘ On error.
If rv <> 0 Then
    rv1 = mciGetErrorString(rv, ret, 255)
    MsgBox (“Error opening device: ” & ret)
    Exit Sub
End If

‘ Send the “play” command.
cmd = “play ” & ALIAS
rv = mciSendString(cmd, ret, 255, 0)

If rv <> 0 Then
    rv1 = mciGetErrorString(rv, ret, 255)
    MsgBox (“Error playing device: ” & ret)
    Exit Sub
End If

‘ Play command successful. Enable the timer and set a 1000 msec interval.
‘ Disable the File menu.
Timer1.Interval = 1000
Timer1.Enabled = True
mnuFile.Enabled = False

End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()

Dim cmd As String, ret As String * 255, rv As Long

‘ Each time the timer counts down, check the MCI device to see if it
‘ is still playing.

‘ Set up the MCI command and send it.
cmd = “status ” & ALIAS & “ mode”
rv = mciSendString(cmd, ret, 255, 0)

‘ If the mode is not “playing” then we are done and can close the device,
‘ disable the timer, and enable the File menu.
If Left$(ret, 7) <> “playing” Then
    cmd = “close ” & ALIAS
    rv = mciSendString(cmd, ret, 255, 0)
    Timer1.Enabled = False
    mnuFile.Enabled = True
End If

End Sub

Using The Visual Basic Multimedia Control

The second method for sending MCI commands is Visual Basic’s Multimedia control. When displayed on a form, this control provides an array of buttons for controlling a multimedia device. The control is shown in Figure 16.2. The buttons are defined, from left to right, as Prev(ious), Next, Play, Pause, Back, Step, Stop, Record, and Eject.

The first step in using the Multimedia control is to set its FileName property or its DeviceType property. Set the FileName property when the data to be played is in a file that specifies the type of device to be opened—for example, WAV, MIDI, and AVIVideo files. Set the DeviceType property when the device does not use files—such as CD Audio— or with a compound device where the associated file’s extension does not specify the type of device.

Next, open the device by setting the Multimedia control’s Command property to Open. The control takes care of the details of sending the command to the MCI and obtaining the necessary information about the device. When it comes to actually manipulating the device, you have two choices:

•  Have the control visible on screen (Visible property = True). When the user clicks on the buttons on the control, the appropriate commands are sent to the device.

•  Hide the control (Visible property = False). To execute commands, place them in the control’s Command property.

Of course, you can use these two methods in tandem. If the control is visible, you can still send commands by placing them in the Command property. Likewise, if the control is hidden, it can be made visible if needed.

Much of the appeal of the Multimedia control lies in simplifying tasks that would be more difficult to accomplish by directly accessing the MCI, as shown earlier in this chapter. The control has many properties that correspond to information about the open multimedia device, such as the information accessible with the Capabilities command. For example, simply read the Multimedia control’s CanEject property to determine if the open device can eject its media, and read the Mode property to determine the current state of the device. Let’s take a closer look at some of these properties (refer to Visual Basic Help for details on all Multimedia control properties).

Figure 16.2  The Multimedia control.

Multimedia Control Properties

The Mode property returns one of the following values (as a type Long ), indicating the current mode of the open device as shown in Table 16.4.

The CanEject, CanPlay, CanStep, and CanRecord properties return True or False, depending on whether the open device has the indicated capability.

The AutoEnable property determines if the individual buttons on the Multimedia control are automatically enabled and disabled to reflect the capabilities of the open device (AutoEnable = True), or whether the program must enable and disable individual buttons by setting the corresponding ButtonEnabled property (AutoEnable = False), where Button is either Back, Eject, Next, Pause, Play, Prev, Record, Step, or Stop.

The Enabled property controls user access to the entire Multimedia control. If Enabled is set to False, the user cannot select any of the control’s buttons.