Circular Draggable Audio Player in React

Back when I was hustling in the agency world, I had this fun project as part of a campaign - building a circular draggable audio player! There was no ready-made solution back then and jQuery was still the go-to. So, I had to roll up my sleeves and create one from scratch.

I was quite proud about what I built that I threw it on CodePen and pretty much forgot about it. But guess what? It turned out to be quite a hit! A bunch of people reached out to me, asking about it.

Here’s the initial version on CodePen using HTML, CSS, and jQuery:

But then I thought, why not create a React version for all the modern devs out there? So, here it is:

Breaking it down

Let's break down the code step-by-step so you can understand how it all works.

import React, { useRef, useEffect, useState, useCallback } from 'react';

const AudioPlayer = () => {
  const audioRef = useRef(null);
  const circleRef = useRef(null);
  const dotRef = useRef(null);
  const pathRef = useRef(null);
  const [isPlaying, setIsPlaying] = useState(false);
  const [isDragging, setIsDragging] = useState(false);
  const [totalLength, setTotalLength] = useState(0);

  const handleDrag = useCallback(
    e => {
      const bounds = circleRef.current.getBoundingClientRect();
      const radius = bounds.width / 2;
      const dx = e.clientX - (bounds.left + radius);
      const dy = e.clientY - (bounds.top + radius);
      let angle = Math.atan2(dy, dx);

      if (angle < 0) {
        angle += 2 * Math.PI; // Normalize the angle
      }

      angle = (angle + Math.PI / 2) % (2 * Math.PI);
      const percentage = (angle / (2 * Math.PI)) * 100;
      updateAudio(percentage);

      const point = pathRef.current.getPointAtLength((percentage / 100) * totalLength);
      dotRef.current.setAttribute('cx', point.x);
      dotRef.current.setAttribute('cy', point.y);
    },
    [totalLength],
  );

  useEffect(() => {
    const path = pathRef.current;
    const length = path.getTotalLength();
    setTotalLength(length);
    path.style.strokeDasharray = length;
    path.style.strokeDashoffset = length;
  }, []);

  const handleMouseDown = e => {
    setIsDragging(true);
    handleDrag(e);
  };

  const handleMouseUp = () => {
    setIsDragging(false);
  };

  useEffect(() => {
    const handleMouseMove = e => {
      if (isDragging) {
        handleDrag(e);
      }
    };

    document.addEventListener('mousemove', handleMouseMove);
    document.addEventListener('mouseup', handleMouseUp);

    return () => {
      document.removeEventListener('mousemove', handleMouseMove);
      document.removeEventListener('mouseup', handleMouseUp);
    };
  }, [isDragging, handleDrag]);

  const handleTimeUpdate = () => {
    const { currentTime } = audioRef.current;
    const maxDuration = audioRef.current.duration;
    const calc = totalLength - (currentTime / maxDuration) * totalLength;
    pathRef.current.style.strokeDashoffset = calc;

    const percentage = (currentTime / maxDuration) * 100;
    const point = pathRef.current.getPointAtLength((percentage / 100) * totalLength);
    dotRef.current.setAttribute('cx', point.x);
    dotRef.current.setAttribute('cy', point.y);
  };

  const updateAudio = percentage => {
    const audio = audioRef.current;
    const maxDuration = audio.duration;
    const currentTime = (percentage * maxDuration) / 100;
    audio.currentTime = currentTime;
  };

  const playPauseHandler = () => {
    const audio = audioRef.current;
    if (audio.paused) {
      document.querySelectorAll('audio').forEach(a => a.pause());
      audio.play();
      setIsPlaying(true);
    } else {
      audio.pause();
      setIsPlaying(false);
    }
  };

  useEffect(() => {
    const audio = audioRef.current;
    const circle = circleRef.current;
    const dot = dotRef.current;
    if (!audio) return;
    const path = circle.querySelector('#seekbar');

    path.style.strokeDasharray = totalLength;
    path.style.strokeDashoffset = totalLength;

    const handleAudioEnd = () => {
      setIsPlaying(false);
      path.style.strokeDashoffset = totalLength;
    };

    audio.addEventListener('timeupdate', handleTimeUpdate);
    audio.addEventListener('ended', handleAudioEnd);

    return () => {
      audio.removeEventListener('timeupdate', handleTimeUpdate);
      audio.removeEventListener('ended', handleAudioEnd);
    };
  }, [isPlaying, totalLength, handleTimeUpdate]);

  return (
    <section className={`slide__audio ${isPlaying ? 'playing' : 'paused'}`}>
      <audio ref={audioRef} className="slide__audio-player" controls>
        <track kind="captions" />
        <source src="https://www.soundjay.com/ambient/sounds/spring-weather-1.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" />
      </audio>
      <figure className="audio__controls">
        <svg
          version="1.1"
          id="circle"
          xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
          xmlnsXlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
          viewBox="0 0 100 100"
          ref={circleRef}
          alt="Audio Seekbar"
        >
          <path
            id="background"
            fill="none"
            stroke="#6d6d6d"
            strokeLinecap="round"
            strokeLinejoin="round"
            d="M50,2.9L50,2.9C76,2.9,97.1,24,97.1,50v0C97.1,76,76,97.1,50,97.1h0C24,97.1,2.9,76,2.9,50v0C2.9,24,24,2.9,50,2.9z"
            onClick={handleDrag}
          />
          <path
            id="seekbar"
            ref={pathRef}
            fill="none"
            strokeLinecap="round"
            strokeLinejoin="round"
            d="M50,2.9L50,2.9C76,2.9,97.1,24,97.1,50v0C97.1,76,76,97.1,50,97.1h0C24,97.1,2.9,76,2.9,50v0C2.9,24,24,2.9,50,2.9z"
            onMouseDown={handleDrag}
            onMouseUp={handleMouseUp}
          />
          <circle
            className="progress-handle"
            ref={dotRef}
            r="4"
            cx="50"
            cy="2"
            onMouseDown={handleMouseDown}
            onMouseUp={handleMouseUp}
            onTouchStart={handleMouseDown}
            onTouchEnd={handleMouseUp}
          />
        </svg>
        <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" className="equalizer" viewBox="0 0 100 100" alt="Equalizer">
          <g className="equalizer-group">
            <rect className="bar" />
            <rect className="bar" />
            <rect className="bar" />
            <rect className="bar" />
            <rect className="bar" />
          </g>
        </svg>
        <button className="play-pause" onClick={playPauseHandler} aria-label="Play Pause Button">
          <span className="hidden">{isPlaying ? 'Pause' : 'Play'}</span>
        </button>
      </figure>
    </section>
  );
};

export default AudioPlayer;

Importing Dependencies

First off, we're importing React and some hooks like useRef, useEffect, useState, and useCallback to handle state and side effects in our component.

Setting up Refs and State

We're using useRef to grab references to our audio element and SVG elements. State variables like isPlaying, isDragging, and totalLength help us manage the player's behavior.

Handling Seek Circle Dragging

The handleDrag function calculates the angle and updates the audio progress based on the user's dragging action. It also updates the position of the draggable dot.

Initializing SVG Path Length

In useEffect, we set up the initial total length of the SVG path.

Managing Mouse Events

We add and remove event listeners for mouse movement and mouse up events to handle dragging properly.

Updating Audio Progress

The handleTimeUpdate function keeps the SVG progress in sync with the audio's current time.

Controlling Play and Pause

playPauseHandler toggles between playing and pausing the audio. It also pauses any other playing audio on the page.

Cleanup

We ensure to remove event listeners and clean up side effects in our useEffect hooks to prevent memory leaks.

Rendering JSX

Finally, we return the JSX that renders our audio player, complete with SVG-based seek bar and play/pause button. You can dive deeper into the code in the CodeSandbox link above.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions or want to chat, hit me up on Bluesky.

And if you want to dig into the code, you can check it out on my CodeSandbox:

Happy coding! 🎧🎶