By farrell on

I need to upgrade from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6, but I'm unsure what to do in terms of audio support. I'm a podcaster and have had podcasts on my site since before Drupal 5 was released using the Audio Module.

However, the Audio Module seems still not stable for Drupal 6. Also, I wonder if it is a deprecated approach?

Is there a new best practice for audio? So far, I see 3 ways to go:

  • Audio Module
  • An SWF Tools approach
  • A Filefield/jQuery approach

Does anybody have some guidance to share? I'd like to take the path that will sync up best with Drupal's future.

Thanks much.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

Judging by the usage statistics i'd the http://drupal.org/project/swftools module is the way to go. I use it and it works great.

farrell’s picture

farrell commented

Wow. The numbers really speak for themselves. Thanks for the insight.

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

Agreed. Don't stick with Audio module. Personally I use and recommend Filefield + SWF Tools.
Since you're also podcasting, you might want to look additionally at FileField Podcaster module, which was written initially for the great Drupal Mustardseed Media podcast, and their other podcast, GeeksAndGod (which is also highly Drupal-centric). They also include a screencast discussing the module: Podcast With Drupal 6. Since they also switched from Audio module, they have advice (in podcasts, articles, and personally in their forum) about how to migrate from Audio module.

Anything based on Filefield for storing the actual media files is going to be well-prepared for Drupal's future. Once the media is safely stored as a Filefield, your choice of how to interact/output the media can change then at any time (for instance you could easily switch between SWF Tools and jQuery Media module if you wanted to).

Edit: added some links.

farrell’s picture

farrell commented

Good advice. Thanks. Seems clear that audio module is not the way to go anymore. Time to learn a few new tricks. I'll check out the screencasts.

Sreedevi-2’s picture

Sreedevi-2 commented

I need to upgrade the audio module from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6, but i am not sure what to upgrade and actually what are all the problems with the audio module in Drupal 6.

can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance..

hedac’s picture

hedac commented

my opinion is filefield + SWFtools or filefield + SoundManager 2
I would like to see some kind of plays statistics implemented in any of those.

truyenle’s picture

truyenle commented

Searching around and found SWFTools + FileField suggestion is the best solution. Just one issue regarding swftools is that it doesn't play audio on ipod, iphone, ipad devices b/c it is flash. Still looking for a solution that play on these device.

Any one have any idea? Thanks

hedac’s picture

hedac commented

try http://drupal.org/project/soundmanager2