PlayerControlView

[rbinek]

Based on https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/session/mediasessionservice I can play music using the controller from notification. But when I added androidx.media3.ui.PlayerControlView to main activity it doesn't synchronize with media status. How to use/connect PlayerControlView to the player ?

[yuroyami]

You're not supposed to use PlayerControlView. It is already implemented under the hood when you use the PlayerView instead :

<androidx.media3.ui.PlayerView
        android:id="@+id/exoview"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:background="#000000"
        app:keep_content_on_player_reset="true"
        app:show_shuffle_button="false"
        app:show_buffering="always"
        app:show_vr_button="true"
        app:show_subtitle_button="true"
        app:controller_layout_id="@layout/custom_exo_ui"
        app:shutter_background_color="#000000"
        app:surface_type="surface_view"
        app:use_artwork="false"
        app:use_controller="true" />

After that, when you build your ExoPlayer in code and obtain a Player, you can set your xml's PlayerView to use that created exoplayer instance, like this:

/* Building exoplayer code here */
val YOUR_CREATED_PLAYER_INSTANCE = ExoPlayer.Builder(this)
         .build()

//Using the conventional findViewById
findViewById(R.id.exoview)?.player = YOUR_CREATED_PLAYER_INSTANCE
//or using viewbinding
binding.exoview.player = YOUR_CREATED_PLAYER_INSTANCE

Also, if you want your UI to use the same player that is used inside your MediaSessionService, you're supposed to create a MediaController and link it with your session in your service. This MediaController contains the player that is used in notifications and you can also set it to your PlayerView.

[marcbaechinger]

As explained above, PlayerControlView is not supposed to be used directly. Use PlayerView instead that gives you a setPlayer(Player) method.

MediaController implements the Player interface and hence can be used where ever a Player interface is required.

[rbinek]

Thanks for reply. But I have some problem to get it works. my MainActivity:

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private var playerView: PlayerView? = null

    private lateinit var controllerFuture: ListenableFuture<MediaController>
    private lateinit var controller: MediaController

    @UnstableApi
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
        playerView = findViewById(R.id.player_view)
    }

    @UnstableApi
    override fun onStart() {
        super.onStart()
        val sessionToken = SessionToken(this, ComponentName(this, PlaybackService::class.java))
        controllerFuture = MediaController.Builder(this, sessionToken).buildAsync()
        controllerFuture.addListener(
            {
                controller = controllerFuture.get()
                playerView?.player = controller
                controller.addMediaItems(loadData())
            },
            MoreExecutors.directExecutor()
        )
    }

activity_main.xml:

 <androidx.media3.ui.PlayerView
        android:id="@+id/player_view"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="300dp"
        app:hide_on_touch="false"
        app:auto_show="true"
        app:use_controller="true" />

Using this activity there is only one button play or pause based on the state of the player. The play and pause button work ok. When I change activity_main to:

    <androidx.media3.ui.PlayerView
        android:id="@+id/player_view"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="300dp"
        app:hide_on_touch="false"
        app:auto_show="true"
        app:player_layout_id="@layout/custom_ui"
        app:use_controller="true" />

I see play and pause button simultaneously. When I push play nothing happens. What is wrong ?

[rbinek]

any suggestion ?

[marcbaechinger]

But when I added androidx.media3.ui.PlayerControlView to main activity it doesn't synchronize with media status.

It looks to me this works in the session demo app and I heaven't heard complains that this isn't generally working. I think you need to dig a bit on your end to get that working.

We can't really review app code I'm afraid. Please consult the docs around using a MediaController and the PlayerView. If you think this is a library problem then please narrow down the problem to a reproducible test fixture and provide reproduction steps, so we can look into this.