Interaction with a "system-wide" media player

Question

I want to create a music app for Windows 10, and I'm curious about the Groove Music interface next to the volume bar. I tried Google to get more information about this, but I had no success. When I play music in Groove Music, and I raise or lower the volume, the title, as well as the artist and album cover of the current song appear with music controls next to the volume indicator:

I was wondering how I can create this dialog box in my own application and with which window API I should have a look.

Answer 1

You need to use SystemMediaTransportControls

Here is the basic setup with Play and Pause. If you like to include additional controls, you can use the available properties for ex.

systemControls.IsNextEnabled = true;

and you should add case to the button switcher.

 case SystemMediaTransportControlsButton.Next: //handle next song break; 

Xaml

 <MediaElement x:Name="mediaElement" Height="100" Width="100" AreTransportControlsEnabled="True"/> 

FROM#

 public MainPage() { this.InitializeComponent(); systemControls = SystemMediaTransportControls.GetForCurrentView(); // Register to handle the following system transpot control buttons. systemControls.ButtonPressed += SystemControls_ButtonPressed; mediaElement.CurrentStateChanged += MediaElement_CurrentStateChanged; systemControls.IsPlayEnabled = true; systemControls.IsPauseEnabled = true; } private void MediaElement_CurrentStateChanged(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { switch (mediaElement.CurrentState) { case MediaElementState.Playing: systemControls.PlaybackStatus = MediaPlaybackStatus.Playing; break; case MediaElementState.Paused: systemControls.PlaybackStatus = MediaPlaybackStatus.Paused; break; case MediaElementState.Stopped: systemControls.PlaybackStatus = MediaPlaybackStatus.Stopped; break; case MediaElementState.Closed: systemControls.PlaybackStatus = MediaPlaybackStatus.Closed; break; default: break; } } void SystemControls_ButtonPressed(SystemMediaTransportControls sender, SystemMediaTransportControlsButtonPressedEventArgs args) { switch (args.Button) { case SystemMediaTransportControlsButton.Play: PlayMedia(); break; case SystemMediaTransportControlsButton.Pause: PauseMedia(); break; case SystemMediaTransportControlsButton.Stop: StopMedia(); break; default: break; } } private async void StopMedia() { await Dispatcher.RunAsync(Windows.UI.Core.CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, () => { mediaElement.Stop(); }); } async void PlayMedia() { await Dispatcher.RunAsync(Windows.UI.Core.CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, () => { if (mediaElement.CurrentState == MediaElementState.Playing) mediaElement.Pause(); else mediaElement.Play(); }); } async void PauseMedia() { await Dispatcher.RunAsync(Windows.UI.Core.CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, () => { mediaElement.Pause(); }); } 

Exit

In addition, if you want all this to work in the background, you will need to make a declaration in Package.appxmanifest for background tasks, turn on the sound and add an entry point, for example TestUWP.MainPage

Answer 2

I am going to add my contribution to this, although there is a big answer already @Stamos , because I found that it is actually possible to use SystemMediaTransportControls from a native Windows application (and not just a universal application).

Firstly, he still needs a link to universal winmd files, so it will only work on Win10. They will be located in 10 sdk, and you can add them through the usual Add Reference -> Browse , but you may need to change the filter in the lower right corner of the dialog box to “All files” to display them. They are here on my pc:

• Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract :
  C: \ Program Files (x86) \ Windows Kits \ 10 \ References \ Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract \ 1.0.0.0 \ Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract.winmd
• Windows.Foundation.FoundationContract :
  C: \ Program Files (x86) \ Windows Kits \ 10 \ References \ Windows.Foundation.FoundationContract \ 2.0.0.0 \ Windows.Foundation.FoundationContract.winmd

After you have the necessary links, you will encounter another problem: you cannot access the transport controls through the usual SystemMediaTransportControls.GetForCurrentView(); (it will throw an exception) because in reality you do not have a universal representation. This is facilitated by using the following:

 SystemMediaTransportControls systemControls = BackgroundMediaPlayer.Current.SystemMediaTransportControls; 

After that, feel free to use any of the online samples or Stamos answer.

Answer 3

 <MediaElement x:Name="Media" AreTransportControlsEnabled="True"> <MediaElement.TransportControls> <MediaTransportControls Style="{StaticResource MediaTCStyle}"/> </MediaElement.TransportControls> </MediaElement> 

The style is quite large, so I am attaching the MediaTransportControls styles and templates link. I got the style from the article (link above) and changed it in my own ResourceDictionary.