Replace Qt Multimedia with a native audio abstraction by i2h3 · Pull Request #10098 · nextcloud/desktop

i2h3 · 2026-06-02T12:29:21Z

Summary

Replaces the Qt Multimedia framework — used in exactly one place, to loop the incoming-call ringtone in CallNotificationDialog.qml — with NotificationSoundPlayer, a thin in-tree C++ class that wraps the OS-native audio APIs.

Platform	Backend	Loop semantics
macOS	`AVAudioPlayer` via Objective-C++	Native (`numberOfLoops`)
Windows	`XAudio2` + inline RIFF/fmt/data parser	Native (`XAUDIO2_BUFFER::LoopCount`)
Linux	`libcanberra` (soft build dependency)	Per-play, dispatcher-driven

The QML diff is one removed import and one renamed element; ringSound.play() / ringSound.stop() call sites are unchanged. Native-loop backends play the whole sequence and signal finished once; per-play backends signal after each play and the dispatcher re-issues until the loop count is exhausted.

The dispatcher resolves qrc: / file: / plain-path sources, materialising QRC contents into the cache once with an atomic-rename and QTemporaryFile fallback for sandboxed runs.

Two dead Qt5Multimedia*.dll references in the NSIS template are deleted in the same commit (they could never resolve in the current Qt6 build).

Closes #9886

Test plan

macOS — Build NextcloudDev locally; confirm the bundle no longer ships QtMultimedia.framework or qml/QtMultimedia/* (verified pre-merge: find Contents -iname '*Multimedia*' returns nothing).
macOS — Trigger an incoming Talk call; ringtone plays, Decline stops, 60 s timeout stops, app exit while ringing stops cleanly.
Windows — CI build green; trigger an incoming Talk call locally; same matrix.
Linux — CI build green with and without libcanberra-dev; on a Pulse host and a Pipewire host: trigger an incoming Talk call; same matrix.
Unit tests — NotificationSoundPlayerTest passes: covers resolveToFilesystemPath() (QRC extraction + idempotency, file://, plain path, empty, non-existent) and loop bookkeeping (per-play re-issues, native single-fire, stop-mid-sequence cancels).
Audio device hotplug — Unplug the output device during playback on each platform; no crash or hang.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Pull request overview

This PR removes the Qt Multimedia dependency used only for the incoming-call ringtone by introducing an in-tree NotificationSoundPlayer QML type backed by native OS audio APIs (AVAudioPlayer / XAudio2 / libcanberra-or-noop). This reduces packaging/deployment overhead while preserving the QML call sites (play()/stop()).

Changes:

Replace SoundEffect usage in CallNotificationDialog.qml with NotificationSoundPlayer and drop the QtMultimedia import.
Add NotificationSoundPlayer implementation + platform backends and register it for QML usage.
Wire up build system (platform sources, native link flags, optional libcanberra) and add a unit test + remove dead NSIS Qt5Multimedia DLL lines.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 12 out of 12 changed files in this pull request and generated 8 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
test/testnotificationsoundplayer.cpp	Adds unit tests for QRC resolution and loop bookkeeping.
test/CMakeLists.txt	Registers the new `NotificationSoundPlayer` test target.
src/gui/tray/CallNotificationDialog.qml	Switches ringtone element from QtMultimedia `SoundEffect` to `NotificationSoundPlayer`.
src/gui/owncloudgui.cpp	Registers `NotificationSoundPlayer` as a QML type.
src/gui/notificationsoundplayer.h	Declares the new QML-facing API and backend interface hooks.
src/gui/notificationsoundplayer.cpp	Implements dispatcher logic and QRC-to-filesystem extraction caching.
src/gui/notificationsoundplayer_p.h	Defines the backend interface and factory function contract.
src/gui/notificationsoundplayer_win.cpp	Windows XAudio2 backend + WAV parsing.
src/gui/notificationsoundplayer_mac.mm	macOS AVAudioPlayer backend.
src/gui/notificationsoundplayer_linux.cpp	Linux libcanberra backend + noop fallback.
src/gui/CMakeLists.txt	Adds sources and platform link/defines (AVFoundation/Foundation, xaudio2, optional libcanberra).
cmake/modules/NSIS.template.in	Removes stale Qt5Multimedia DLL references from the installer template.

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i2h3 · 2026-06-04T09:33:08Z

Oké, plans might change. Possibly the call notification feature will be removed entirely from the files client due to the Nextcloud Talk desktop client available since the feature release.

i2h3 · 2026-06-09T07:05:22Z

As informed by @Rello, the feature relying on the Qt Multimedia will be retained for now, so this pull request stays valid. I will soon conduct the tests on Windows and Linux.

mgallien · 2026-06-09T12:39:56Z

+    class Backend;
+
+    explicit NotificationSoundPlayer(QObject *parent = nullptr);
+    NotificationSoundPlayer(std::unique_ptr<Backend> backend, QObject *parent);


can you add explicit on the constructor ?

mgallien · 2026-06-09T13:01:44Z

+    }
+
+    if (candidate.startsWith(QStringLiteral(":"))) {
+        const auto extracted = extractQrcToCache(candidate);


from what I understand the libcanberra linux backend is playing platform sounds rather than real music files
so that would sound unneeded on linux at all and adding complexity
can we only use this when needed by the backend ?

The Qt Multimedia framework was pulled into the desktop client solely to play the call-notification ringtone in a loop via QML's SoundEffect. This introduces NotificationSoundPlayer, a thin in-tree C++ class that wraps the OS-native audio APIs (AVAudioPlayer on macOS, XAudio2 on Windows, libcanberra on Linux) and exposes the same minimal QML API the dialog needs. Removing the import lets macdeployqt drop the QtMultimedia framework and QML plugin from the bundle and unblocks shrinking the Windows installer. The dispatcher resolves qrc:/file:/plain-path sources, extracts QRC contents to the cache with an atomic-rename + QTemporaryFile fallback, and drives loop counting for backends that play one buffer at a time (Linux). Native-loop backends (macOS, Windows) play the whole sequence in one shot. Backend choice is platform-gated in CMake; libcanberra is a soft build dependency on Linux with a no-op fallback. Also deletes two dead Qt5Multimedia.dll references from the NSIS template that could never resolve in the current Qt6 build. Closes #9886 Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Iva Horn <iva.horn@nextcloud.com>

… project Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Iva Horn <iva.horn@nextcloud.com>

github-actions · 2026-06-09T17:10:13Z

Artifact containing the AppImage: nextcloud-appimage-pr-10098.zip

Digest: sha256:d8804ca2c195ef1128dfffc6658b1451b641a5ac7c788e163939550a54e9b535

To test this change/fix you can download the above artifact file, unzip it, and run it.

Please make sure to quit your existing Nextcloud app and backup your data.

sonarqubecloud · 2026-06-09T17:53:34Z

Quality Gate failed

Failed conditions
64.4% Coverage on New Code (required ≥ 80%)
21 New Code Smells (required ≤ 0)

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i2h3 requested review from camilasan, mgallien and nilsding as code owners June 2, 2026 12:29

i2h3 self-assigned this Jun 2, 2026

i2h3 added os: 🍎 macOS Apple macOS, formerly also known as OS X os: 🚪 Windows os: 🐧 Linux labels Jun 2, 2026

i2h3 added this to the 34.0.0 milestone Jun 2, 2026

i2h3 added this to 💻 Desktop Clients team Jun 2, 2026

github-project-automation Bot moved this to 🧭 Planning evaluation (don't pick) in 💻 Desktop Clients team Jun 2, 2026

i2h3 moved this from 🧭 Planning evaluation (don't pick) to 🏗️ In progress in 💻 Desktop Clients team Jun 2, 2026

i2h3 changed the title ~~feat(audio): replace Qt Multimedia with a native audio abstraction~~ Replace Qt Multimedia with a native audio abstraction Jun 2, 2026

i2h3 requested a review from Copilot June 2, 2026 14:53

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of i2h3 June 2, 2026 14:54 View session

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i2h3 force-pushed the i2h3/remove-qtmultimedia branch from 4296d11 to a5243a0 Compare June 3, 2026 12:55

i2h3 marked this pull request as draft June 4, 2026 09:33

i2h3 force-pushed the i2h3/remove-qtmultimedia branch from a5243a0 to 5d8c2bb Compare June 9, 2026 08:14

i2h3 marked this pull request as ready for review June 9, 2026 08:14

i2h3 force-pushed the i2h3/remove-qtmultimedia branch 2 times, most recently from 9b9edfa to 0397bd4 Compare June 9, 2026 10:48

mgallien requested changes Jun 9, 2026

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i2h3 and others added 2 commits June 9, 2026 17:53

fix(Windows): Updated WINVER to require Windows 10 as the rest of the…

ea85a91

… project Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Signed-off-by: Iva Horn <iva.horn@nextcloud.com>

i2h3 force-pushed the i2h3/remove-qtmultimedia branch from 0397bd4 to ea85a91 Compare June 9, 2026 15:53

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i2h3 commented Jun 2, 2026

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i2h3 commented Jun 4, 2026

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