Parcel: How to correctly load local assets like audio files

[mathildebuenerd]

❔ Question

How to correctly load local assets like audio files? I try to load a simple sound like that:

let sound = new Audio("../sounds/happy/happy-0.mp3");

But I keep getting a GET http://localhost:1234/sounds/happy/happy-0.mp3 404 (Not Found) error.

🔦 Context

I am building a kind of web radio using mp3 files. I want to preload multiple files in order to be able to play them after. I use Typescript and parcel. I use this command to start the server: parcel --no-cache index.html --public-url /
My folder is structured like that: My code is in loadSoundFiles.ts

💻 Code Sample

let sound = new Audio("../sounds/happy/happy-0.mp3");

I am using variables for generating the url. When I console.log the url I get ../sounds/happy/happy-0.mp3

The actual code is:

 audioFiles = [];
    loaded = 0;

    preload(numberOfSounds: object): void {
        // iterates through all the files
        for (const emotion in numberOfSounds) {
            for (let i=0; i<numberOfSounds[emotion]; i++) {
                const url = `./../sounds/${emotion}/${emotion}-${i}.mp3`;
                console.log(url); // ../sounds/happy/happy-0.mp3
                this.audioFiles[this.loaded] = new Audio(url);
                this.loaded++;
            }
        }
    }

🌍 Your Environment

| Software | Version(s) |
| ---------------- | ---------- |
| Parcel | 1.9.7
| Node | /
| npm/Yarn | 5.6.0
| Operating System | Windows 10

[DeMoorJasper]

Parcel only loads paths from requires, imports and workers.
Therefore the easiest fix is just adding a require to the code to resolve it into a url and copy the file into dist.

let audioUrl = require('../sounds/happy/happy-0.mp3');
let sound = new Audio(audioUrl);

[mathildebuenerd]

Thanks!

If I want to load one file it's working. But I need to load several files so I don't want to manually require each sound. That's why I did a preload function in a class like this:

export class LoadSounds {

    audioFiles = [];
    loaded = 0;

    preload(numberOfSounds: object): void {
        // iterates through all the files
        for (const emotion in numberOfSounds) {
            for (let i=0; i<numberOfSounds[emotion]; i++) {
                const url = `../sounds/${emotion}/${emotion}-${i}.mp3`;
                const loadUrl = require(url);
                this.audioFiles[this.loaded] = new Audio(loadUrl);
                this.loaded++;
            }
        }
    }
}

If I move the loop outside of the class, I get a Uncaught Error: Cannot find module '../sounds/happy/happy-0.mp3'

let audioFiles = [];
let loaded = 0;

for (const emotion in numberOfSounds) {
    for (let i=0; i<numberOfSounds[emotion]; i++) {
        const url = `../sounds/${emotion}/${emotion}-${i}.mp3`;
        const loadUrl = require(url);
        audioFiles[loaded] = new Audio(loadUrl);
        loaded++;
    }
}

[DeMoorJasper]

You could use globs, for example: require('../sounds/*/*.mp3'); this would return an object with mapping from original to hashed bundle.

[bozdoz]

I'm having the same problem. Is there a simple asset plugin that would solve this? I know with webpack you can just use a file-loader.

[mischnic]

@bozdoz Have you tried using a glob as suggested?
The code from https://github.com/parcel-bundler/parcel/issues/1911#issuecomment-414935461 is very hard to parse statically to determine which files to bundle.

[bozdoz]

Tried a glob as suggested; still could not load audio. I just switched to webpack for my project.

[mischnic]

Mhh, running this packs all mp3 files in sounds and clicking in the browser window will then play all of them at once.

const files = Object.values(require('./sounds/*.mp3'));
const audios = files.map(v => new Audio(v));
document.body.onclick = () => {
    audios.forEach(v => v.play());
};

Could you please be more specific about "still could not load audio"?

[mischnic]

Closing because of inactivity

[Offirmo]

I tried with a glob:

• works only with parcel (not compatible with node)
• works only with a true path, not with require('some-module/**/*.mp3')