How to play SystemSounds in the Blackberry 10 Dev Alpha Simulator?

Question

I am just trying to run the provided sample code which, as far as I know, should work just fine. Is there anything I am missing or is this a limitation of the simulator.

If so, are there any workarounds?

import bb.cascades 1.0
// To use the MediaPlayer, we must include
// the multimedia library.
import bb.multimedia 1.0

Page {
    Container {
        id: mainContainer
        layout: StackLayout {
            orientation: LayoutOrientation.TopToBottom
        }
        topPadding: 50.0
        Label {
            id: titleLbl
            text: qsTr("SystemSound and MediaPlayer\n Sample App")
            multiline: true
            textStyle.fontSizeValue: 9.0
            textStyle.fontWeight: FontWeight.Bold
            textStyle.fontFamily: "Verdana"
            textStyle.color: Color.DarkBlue
            textStyle.textAlign: TextAlign.Center
            horizontalAlignment: HorizontalAlignment.Center
        }
        // Part 1 of the sample: Playing system sounds.
        Container {
            id: systemSoundsContainer
            layout: StackLayout {
                orientation: LayoutOrientation.TopToBottom
            }
            topMargin: 100.0
            horizontalAlignment: HorizontalAlignment.Center
            DropDown {
                id: soundSelectorDropdown
                title: "Sound: "
                maxWidth: 600.0
                Option {
                    text: qsTr("Battery Alarm")
                    value: SystemSound.BatteryAlarm
                    selected: true
                }
                Option {
                    text: qsTr("Browser Start")
                    value: SystemSound.BrowserStartEvent
                }
                Option {
                    text: qsTr("Camera Shutter")
                    value: SystemSound.CameraShutterEvent
                }
                Option {
                    text: qsTr("Device Tether")
                    value: SystemSound.DeviceTetherEvent
                }
                Option {
                    text: qsTr("General Notification")
                    value: SystemSound.GeneralNotification
                }
            } // soundSelectorDropdown
            Button {
                id: systemSoundPlayButton
                text: qsTr("Play Selected System Sound")
                minWidth: 600.0
                onClicked: {
                    systemSound.play();
                }
            } // systemSoundPlayButton
        } // systemSoundsContainer
        // Part 2 of the sample: Playing custom sound files.
        Container {
            id: customSoundsContainer
            layout: StackLayout {
                orientation: LayoutOrientation.LeftToRight
            }
            topMargin: 100.0
            Button {
                id: customSoundPlayButton1
                text: qsTr("Play Sound 1")
                layoutProperties: StackLayoutProperties {
                    spaceQuota: 1.0
                }
                onClicked: {
                    // Here we could have created a second MediaPlayer object to
                    // use to play our sound, but instead we programmatically
                    // changed the sourceUrl property of the current myPlayer
                    // MediaPlayer object, and re-used it to play our sounds.
                    myPlayer.setSourceUrl("asset:///sounds/Doorbell_001.wav")
                    myPlayer.play()
                }
            } // customSoundPlayButton1
            Button {
                id: customSoundPlayButton2
                text: qsTr("Play Sound 2")
                layoutProperties: StackLayoutProperties {
                    spaceQuota: 1.0
                }
                onClicked: {
                    // Same as above, here we also could have created a second
                    // MediaPlayer object to use to play our sound, but instead
                    // we programmatically changed the sourceUrl property of the
                    // current myPlayer MediaPlayer object, and re-used it to
                    // play our sounds.
                    myPlayer.setSourceUrl("asset:///sounds/Doorbell_002.wav")
                    myPlayer.play()
                }
            } // customSoundPlayButton2
        } // customSoundsContainer
    } // mainContainer

    // The SystemSound and MediaPlayer objects are attached so
    // they can be used in our QML code to play sounds.
    attachedObjects: [        
        SystemSound {
            id: systemSound
            sound: soundSelectorDropdown.selectedValue
        },
        MediaPlayer {
            id: myPlayer
            // sourceUrl: < Set in the Button control's onClicked event handler. >
        }
    ] // Attached objects.
}

Source: https://developer.blackberry.com/cascades/documentation/design/audio_video/playing_sounds_code_sample.html

Answer 1

I suspect that that System Sounds are actually .mp3 or .ogg files internally, where the "Cowbell sample" and "Pull My Beard" are using .wav files. It's a known issue, and has been discussed on the Blackberry Developer forums here and here, and also here, that the simulator does not have the correct codecs to play any sounds except .wav files. The sounds should play correctly on actual hardware.