API function: mediaelement_render()

A useful API function would be mediaelement_render($file, Array $options = array()).

It could be used to replace

  $settings = array(
    '#a-unique-id' => array(
      'controls' => TRUE,
      'opts' => array(),
    ),
  );

  // Requires patch from drupal.org/node/1132746
  mediaelement_add_js($settings);

  $variables = array(
    'attributes' => array(
      'src' => $file,
      'id' => 'a-unique-id',
    ),
    'settings' => array(
      'download_link' => FALSE,
    ),
  );

  $output = theme('mediaelement_audio', $variables);

with something like

$output = mediaelement_render($file);

It would also take a parameter for optional settings. I suggest the following;

• id; Optionally set the unique ID. Otherwise MediaElement module creates a unique one using a static count variable.
• width; Width of the player in pixels or percentage.
• height; Height of the player in pixels or percentage.
• controls; Disable or enable the controls.
• opts; MediaElement.js API options.
• attributes; Override defaults for theme_mediaelement_audio().
• settings; Override defaults for theme_mediaelement_audio().
• type; video or audio. Otherwise MediaElement module determines it by the file extension of $file.

The first parameter $file would become $attributes['src']. $options['id'] would become $attributes['id']. $options['width'] and $options['height'] would be handled similarly. $options['controls'], $options['opts'], $options['attributes'], $options['settings'], are obviously parameters for theme_mediaelement_audio() and drupal_add_js().

$options['type'] would determine which theme function is called; theme_mediaelement_audio() or theme_mediaelement_video(). Perhaps these could be abstracted into theme_mediaelement_element() so that theme_mediaelement_audio() and theme_mediaelement_video() simply become wrapper functions for theme_mediaelement_element(), since the two functions are identical except for the keywords "video" and "audio".