Position controls

Slots are used to tell <media-controller/> where you want your controls positioned. Even if you aren’t explicitly naming a slot, you’re still using one (the “default slot”). Most commonly, you’ll put media control elements like <media-play-button/> or <media-fullscreen-button/> inside slots. But any arbitrary markup can be placed inside a slot.

This gives you a lot of flexibility when customizing your player. For example, here is a player that has an h3 title in the top slot and a play button in the centered slot.

<media-controller>
  <video slot="media"></video>
  <div slot="top-chrome">
    <h3>Episode 2</h3>
  </div>
  <div slot="centered-chrome">
    <media-play-button></media-play-button>
  </div>
</media-controller>

You also may want to show different slots on mobile vs. desktop. For example, here’s a player that uses slot="centered-chrome" on mobile and uses a <media-control-bar/> in the default slot (aka ”bottom-chrome”) on desktop:

<style>
  .desktop {
    display: none;
  }
  @media (min-width: 768px) {
    .mobile {
      display: none;
    }
    .desktop {
      display: block;
    }
  }
</style>

<media-controller>
  <video slot="media"></video>
  <div slot="top-chrome">
    <h3>Episode 2</h3>
  </div>
  <div slot="centered-chrome" class="mobile">
    <media-play-button></media-play-button>
  </div>
  <media-control-bar class="desktop">
    <!-- This will go in the default slot, effectively the "bottom-chrome" -->
    <media-play-button></media-play-button>
  </media-control-bar>
</media-controller>

Below is a more in-depth discussion of available slots and how they work.

(NOTE: slots are actually part of the Web Components / Custom Elements specification, but you shouldn’t need to understand these technical details to work with them in <media-chrome/>)

For an interactive example of how each of the slots render for video, check out this demo (view source).

• Render Location: Each child that doesn’t specify a slot will render at the bottom of the <media-controller/>. If you have more than one element like this they will be stacked vertically.

• Common/Example use cases: showing one or more rows of controls at the bottom of the <media-controller/>. For many use cases, you can simply add a <media-control-bar/> for each row of controls you’d like, which will provide you with additional automatic sizing and layout behavior.

  • Basic example (view source)
  • Mobile example (view source)
  • Youtube theme (view source)
  • Netflix theme (view source)

• Render Location: Each child that specifies slot="top-chrome" will render at the top of the <media-controller/>. If you have more than one element like this they will be stacked vertically.

• Common/Example use cases: showing one or more rows of controls at the top of the <media-controller/>. For many use cases, you can simply add a <media-control-bar/> for each row of controls you’d like.

  • Demuxed 2021 theme (mobile screen sizes only) (view source)

• Render Location: Children that specify slot="middle-chrome" will show up in the available space between any ”top-chrome” children and any default slot/”bottom-chrome” children.

• Common/Example use cases: middle-chrome would generally be used for more specific cases, such as custom subtitle/caption rendering, or additional related content you’d like to show while the media is paused or has finished playback. While you can have multiple children that are “slotted to” middle-chrome, most likely, you’ll want to use one and style it to size/layout any custom content you’d like.

  • (Examples coming!)

• Render Location: The child that specifies slot="centered-chrome" will show up in the center of the <media-controller/> and will be “above” anything in the default slot, top-chrome, or middle-chrome.

• Common/Example use cases: “big button” controls that are centered and horizontally layed out “on top of” the media. While you can have multiple children that are “slotted to” centered-chrome, most likely, you’ll want to use only one, making styling and layout easier and more predictable.

  • Mobile example (view source)
  • Demuxed 2021 theme (view source)

Since audio chromes vary much more than video, it’s recommended that you only use the default slot and only add a single element (e.g. a single <media-control-bar/>) and style it however you’d like.

As we work through other common use cases, both internally and with the community, we may start adding additional “built-in” styling and layout for <media-control-bar/> slots used with audio.

• Example use cases:
  • Basic example (view source)
  • Spotify theme (view source)