What value does MediaSession interface bring? about mediasession HOT 8 CLOSED

IIRC it could also receive media keys events (e.g. for AudioContext) and have metadata set on it.

from mediasession.

It doesn't do much beyond the content attribute at this point. Beyond what Anton points out, it will also allow us to group multiple media elements in a single media session to do playlists that don't lose audio focus and key events in between tracks.

We're also undecided about how to deal with the Web Audio API. One option is to connect AudioContext directly to MediaSession just like HTMLMediaElement. Even if that doesn't happen, I think making the session concept explicit is the right way to go.

from mediasession.

It seems like it should be retrieved from a separate interface though, getMediaSession(kind) or MediaSession.get(kind) instead of coming from a tearoff property of the HTMLMediaElement. It seems very weird that to get a handle on the session for a kind I need to create an element and set the kind so I can then release all the media elements in that session kind.

from mediasession.

I think simply allowing new MediaSession(kind) would work.

from mediasession.

I agree we should expose a MediaSession constructor and make the proposed session attribute on HTMLMediaElement settable.

That is to say, I think it should work like MediaController, <audio> and <video> mediagroup content attributes and the HTMLMediaElement.controller attribute: allow web developers to bind a media session to an <audio> or <video> element declaratively through HTMLMediaSession.kind and also allow developers to create new MediaSession objects and assign them to HTMLMediaElement.session programmatically too.

from mediasession.

Just to clarify the following:

It seems very weird that to get a handle on the session for a kind I need to create an element and set the kind so I can then release all the media elements in that session kind.

Media sessions are currently scoped per-element in the spec (not grouped by media category per-tab). Releasing one media element's media session will not release any other media element's media session. The situation you cite is currently impossible to produce according to the spec.

from mediasession.

We've added a MediaSession constructor and made HTMLMediaElement.session settable in f9ec89d.

The spec also now lets you assign multiple media elements to the same media session. That wasn't possible before (except for default media sessions).

from mediasession.

So in addition to the behavior described in the OP above, MediaSession now also allows a web developer to group multiple media elements within a single media session.

As also discussed there are future plans to expose more functionality on MediaSession such as e.g. metadata, media key events and attributes to further tweak individual media session characteristics.

Let's close this issue given the desire to expose media session as a concept to web developers, the additions we have made since this issue was opened, and the proposals suggested to introduce future media session-related features on this interface.

from mediasession.