MediaElement for Fabulous.MauiControls

The MediaElement control is a cross-platform view for playing video and audio. You can find all the details about this control in the .NET MAUI Community Toolkit Media Element documentation.

How to use

Please see the HelloMediaElement sample app in this repo to see a working example, or follow the steps below to get up and running with the MediaElement.

Initial Set-up

1: Add the Fabulous.MauiControls.MediaElement package to your project.

2: Add .UseFabulousMediaElement() to your MauiProgram after .UseFabulousApp().

open Fabulous.Maui.MediaElement

type MauiProgram =
static member CreateMauiApp() =
    MauiApp
        .CreateBuilder()
        .UseFabulousApp(App.program)
        .UseFabulousMediaElement()
        ...
        .Build()

3: Open Fabulous.Maui.MediaElement at the top of the file where you declare your Fabulous program (eg. Program.stateful).

open Fabulous.Maui.MediaElement

The MediaElement uses native media controls under the hood that shouldn't require any additional config i.e. in general you probably won't need to touch AndroidManifest.xml on Android or info.plist on iOS.

However, you will need to make sure that your app has the relevant permissions to access to the source of the media you are planning on playing with the media element. e.g. if you are going to be playing remote media from a url then your app will require permissions to make network requests, but it will most likely have these permissions by default anyway.

Using the MediaElement Widget

Now you can use the MediaElement widget in your Fabulous app as follows:

MediaElement()
    .source("https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/BigBuckBunny.mp4")

Binding to the MediaElement's properties

You can access and bind to the MediaElement's properties by using modifiers. E.g. you can set the ShouldAutoPlayproperty to true as follows:

MediaElement()
    ...
    .shouldAutoPlay(true)

Note: The widthRequest and heightRequest properties have been renamed width and height in Fabulous, for convenience.

Binding to the MediaElement's events

To bind to the MediaElement's events you can also use the corresponding modifiers. E.g. if you'd like to bind to the MediaOpened and OnPositionChanged(Position) events then you can do the following:

type Msg =
| MediaOpened
| PositionChanged of System.TimeSpan

...

MediaElement()
    .onMediaEnded(MediaEnded)
    .onPositionChanged(fun x -> PositionChanged(x.Position))

Using a controller to call the MediaElement's methods

To call the MediaElements's methods (e.g. Play, Pause, etc...) you can use a controller as follows:

let controller = MediaElementController()

    let update msg model =
        match msg with
        ...
        | VideoPaused -> model, Cmd.none

let pauseVideoCmd () =
    async {
        do controller.Pause()
        return VideoPaused
    }
    |> Cmd.ofAsyncMsg

...

MediaElement()
    .controller(controller)

A full, working example is included in the HelloMediaElement sample project in the /samples directory.

Accessing read-only bindable properties

You can access read-only bindable properties of the media element as follows:

let mediaElementRef = ViewRef<MediaElement>()

let update msg model =
    | Msg ->
    mediaElementRef.Value.Duration // Here you will get the read-only value
    model


let view model =
    VStack() {
        MediaElement(...)
        .reference(mediaElementRef)
    }

TODO

• Possibly add constructor with MediaSource type instead of string for the Source property?

Other useful links:

• The official Fabulous website
• Get started
• Contributor Guide

Additionally, we have the Fabulous Discord server where you can ask any of your Fabulous related questions.

Supporting Fabulous

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You can also support us by becoming our sponsor on the GitHub Sponsors program.
This is a fantastic way to support all the efforts going into making Fabulous the best declarative UI framework for dotnet.

If you need support see Commercial Support section below.

Contributing

Have you found a bug or have a suggestion of how to enhance Fabulous? Open an issue and we will take a look at it as soon as possible.

Do you want to contribute with a PR? PRs are always welcome, just make sure to create it from the correct branch (main) and follow the Contributor Guide.

For bigger changes, or if in doubt, make sure to talk about your contribution to the team. Either via an issue, GitHub discussion, or reach out to the team either using the Discord server.

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