ios AVSpeechSynthesizer plugin for phonegap pauseSpeakingAtBoundary not working

Question

I have made a plugin for phonegap that allows users to hear a piece of text using AVSpeechSynthesizer but I can't seem to get the pauseSpeakingAtBoundary to work.

For testing purposes it currently receives a string of text to be synthesised or a string that says 'PAUSE' and just checks if (![echo isEqual:@'PAUSE']) to determine whether it should try to pause the utterance. The speaking starts and it logs when 'PAUSE' has been received but the synthesizer continues speaking.

I am completely new to this so I am unsure whether I've made a mistake or there is a problem with pauseSpeakingAtBoudary. My code is below. Thanks.

Just to reiterate, it's the pauseSpeakingAtBoundary that I can't get to work. The speech synthesis is working from a javascript exec as per phonegaps documentation.

//
//  Echo.h
//  Plugin
//
//
//
//

#import <Cordova/CDVPlugin.h>
#import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h>


@interface Echo : CDVPlugin <AVSpeechSynthesizerDelegate>


@property (strong, nonatomic) AVSpeechSynthesizer *synthesizer;

- (void) echo:(NSMutableArray*)arguments;



@end


//
//  Echo.m
//  Plugin
//
//
//
//

#import "Echo.h"

@implementation Echo



- (void)echo:(CDVInvokedUrlCommand*)command
{


    CDVPluginResult* pluginResult = nil;
    NSString* echo = [command.arguments objectAtIndex:0];

    AVSpeechSynthesizer *synthesizer = [[AVSpeechSynthesizer alloc] init];

    synthesizer.delegate = self;

    if (echo != nil && [echo length] > 0 ) {

    pluginResult = [CDVPluginResult resultWithStatus:CDVCommandStatus_OK messageAsString:echo];

    if( ![echo  isEqual:@"PAUSE"]) {

        AVSpeechUtterance *utterance = [[AVSpeechUtterance alloc] initWithString:echo];
        utterance.rate = 0.20;
        utterance.voice = [AVSpeechSynthesisVoice voiceWithLanguage:@"en-gb"];
        [synthesizer speakUtterance:utterance];

    } else {


        NSLog(@"Pausing");

        [synthesizer pauseSpeakingAtBoundary:AVSpeechBoundaryImmediate];


    }





} else {
    pluginResult = [CDVPluginResult resultWithStatus:CDVCommandStatus_ERROR];
}

[self.commandDelegate sendPluginResult:pluginResult callbackId:command.callbackId];
}


@end

Answer 1

I managed to get it to work by separating the pauseSpeaking... and continueSpeaking into different functions and executing them from the javascript exec. This is how the Echo.m should look:

//
//  Echo.m
//  Plugin
//
//
//
//

#import "Echo.h"

@implementation Echo





- (void)echo:(CDVInvokedUrlCommand*)command
{

self.synthesizer = [[AVSpeechSynthesizer alloc] init];
self.synthesizer.delegate = self;

CDVPluginResult* pluginResult = nil;
NSString* echo = [command.arguments objectAtIndex:0];


if (echo != nil && [echo length] > 0 ) {

    pluginResult = [CDVPluginResult resultWithStatus:CDVCommandStatus_OK messageAsString:echo];


        AVSpeechUtterance *utterance = [[AVSpeechUtterance alloc] initWithString:echo];
        utterance.rate = 0.20;
        utterance.voice = [AVSpeechSynthesisVoice voiceWithLanguage:@"en-gb"];
        [self.synthesizer speakUtterance:utterance];     


} else {
    pluginResult = [CDVPluginResult resultWithStatus:CDVCommandStatus_ERROR];
}

[self.commandDelegate sendPluginResult:pluginResult callbackId:command.callbackId];
}

-(void)speechSynthesizerPause:(AVSpeechSynthesizer *)synthesizer {

[self.synthesizer pauseSpeakingAtBoundary:AVSpeechBoundaryImmediate];
NSLog(@"Pausing");

}

-(void)speechSynthesizerContinue:(AVSpeechSynthesizer *)synthesizer {

   [self.synthesizer continueSpeaking];
    NSLog(@"Continue");

}


-(void)speechSynthesizer:(AVSpeechSynthesizer *)synthesizer didFinishSpeechUtterance:(AVSpeechUtterance *)utterance {
NSLog(@"Playback finished");
}


@end