socketio.md

Socket.io Docs

Open Trivia uses socket.io for fast, real-time communication. The documentation below will provide a list of event names and arguments used.

Contestant Namespace - Used by all participants

Host Namespace - Used only by the event hosts

Contestant Namespace

Contestants connect to the global namespace (/).

In order for a contestant to connect, they must first authenticate using their Team PIN. In addition, unless the OT_SKIP_NAMES environment variable is set to 1, they'll be required to go through the /identity path and enter their name.

Note that hosts also have access to the global namespace.

Contestant Events

Each of these events are strings that can be sent from a client to the server, along with the corresponding arguments needed.

status

Returns the current state and status of a user's connection.

Argument: mode boolean

• true to recieve the status event reply

Possible replies:

• status object - if mode is set to false
  • valid boolean
  • user string
• config-bk string - background image URL
• question object - current question, if a question is active
  • object from getCurrentQuestion()
• announcement object - current announcement, if an announcement is active
  • object from currentMessage
• scores-release no argument - if currently on the special "score release" page

tn-ping

Sent every ~6 seconds to ping the server.

Argument: none

Reply: pong no argument

sec-login

Deprecated.

Used to join the hosts room. No longer used.

answer

Used to submit an answer to a question. Triggers the teamBroadcast function to ensure all teammates have the same information.

Argument: answer string

Reply:

• Non-timed questions: answer-ack object - answer acknowledgement, sent to the entire team
  • ok boolean - if the answer was successfully submitted or not
  • msg string - error details if ok was false
  • sender boolean - whether the user recieving the acknowledgement was the user who originally submitted the answer
  • [selected] string - what was selected (for teammates' devices), not always used
• Timed questions: answer-time
  • correct boolean - whether the answer submitted was correct
  • [answer] string - the correct answer (if applicable)
  • [time] number - time taken to answer, in ms
  • [message] string - help message, if applicable (i.e., "too low" on a number)

ac-blur

Event sent when a user leaves their competition tab

ac-focus

Event sent when a user returns to their competition tab

Host Namespace

Hosts connect to a host-specific, secure namespace (/secure).

In order for a host to connect, they must have authenticated via the host key set using the HOST_KEY environment variable. Otherwise, the connection request will be rejected.

Host documentation will be added in the coming few weeks.