Tauri Makes Music: Building a Music Player in a Week
21 Jun 2024
Have you ever wanted to build a desktop application but felt intimidated by the complexities of native development? Well, fret no more! My recent foray into the world of Tauri, a framework for building desktop apps with web technologies, has been an absolute game-changer.
This all started with a one-week challenge I set for myself: build a functional music player application using Tauri. As a web developer already familiar with React and Rust, Tauri seemed like the perfect bridge to explore desktop app development.
The Power of Tauri: Bridging the Gap
Tauri’s magic lies in its ability to seamlessly combine a Rust backend for performance with a web-based frontend built with frameworks like React. This allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills while harnessing the power of native applications. In my case, Tauri became the glue that connected my Rust code handling file system access and audio playback with the user-friendly React interface.
Building the Harmony of Playback
The first step was getting the core functionality up and running: playing and pausing music. Using Tauri’s communication channels, I was able to send commands from the React frontend to the Rust backend, triggering playback functionality.
Challenges and the Road Ahead
While getting basic playback working was a breeze, implementing features like skipping tracks and volume adjustment presented a steeper learning curve. These functionalities involve more intricate interactions between the frontend and backend, which I’ll delve into in a future post.
For now, the focus remained on building a solid foundation. Playlist management is another exciting feature I plan to add in the future, allowing users to organize their music collections with ease.
The Beauty of Kira: Smooth Audio Playback
Finding the right audio library for Rust was crucial. After some exploration, I landed on the Kira crate. Kira’s clean API and efficient audio handling made it a perfect fit for my project.
Lessons Learned and a Week Well Spent
This one-week challenge turned out to be a crash course in the power of Tauri. The ease of use and the familiar web development approach made it a joy to learn and experiment. While there’s always more to explore, I managed to create a functional music player prototype within the timeframe, all thanks to Tauri.
If you’re looking to build desktop applications but feel apprehensive about native development, I highly recommend giving Tauri a try. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting out, Tauri offers a smooth entry point into the world of desktop apps. So, why not grab your favorite music library and start building your own harmonious music experience?
Build an optimized, secure, and frontend-independent application for multi-platform deployment using Tauri
Kira is a backend-agnostic library to create expressive audio for games.
React The library for web and native user interfaces.