EngageTime actions

The EngageTime actions allow you to control the behavior of the EngageTime integration during your demos. You can use these actions to start/close an EngageTime session or poll for responses.

What is EngageTime?

EngageTime is a audience engagement service that lets presenters run live polls, Q&A, and sessions that attendees can join with a session code. Demo Time integrates with EngageTime so you can start or control sessions directly from your demo scripts.

Prerequisites

To use the EngageTime actions, you need to have an EngageTime account and API key.

1. Go to engagetime.live and sign up for an account if you don’t have one.
2. Obtain your API key from the API Management section in your account settings.
3. Execute the Demo Time: Settings command in VS Code.
4. Enter the API key in the EngageTime API Key field and save the settings.

Available actions

The following EngageTime actions are available:

• startEngageTimeSession — Start an EngageTime session.
• closeEngageTimeSession — Close an active EngageTime session.
• showEngageTimeSession — Show the session link and QR.
• startEngageTimePoll — Start a poll within an EngageTime session. Requires pollId.
• closeEngageTimePoll — Close a running poll. Requires pollId.
• showEngageTimePoll — Show poll results. Requires pollId.
• sendEngageTimeMessage — Send a message to the EngageTime session timeline. Requires type, and title.

All these actions require you to define the sessionId of the EngageTime session you want to control. You define the sessionId at the root of your demo file:

Config Editor

You can set the sessionId in the demo configuration under the Demo File Settings section:

Code Approach

You can set the sessionId at the root of your demo file:

title: EngageTime
description: Test out the EngageTime interaction
version: 2
engageTime:
  sessionId: 4fn3gy
demos:
  - id: demo-mevoasl4-rp3l
    title: Start a session
    steps:
      - action: startEngageTimeSession

Start and control a session

Start an EngageTime session

Start or open an EngageTime session using startEngageTimeSession.

JSON

{
  "action": "startEngageTimeSession"
}

YAML

action: startEngageTimeSession

Show the session (link / QR)

Use showEngageTimeSession to surface the session link or QR code in the presenter UI.

JSON

{
  "action": "showEngageTimeSession"
}

YAML

action: showEngageTimeSession

Close a session

Close an active session with closeEngageTimeSession.

JSON

{
  "action": "closeEngageTimeSession"
}

YAML

action: closeEngageTimeSession

Poll actions

The following actions control polls inside an EngageTime session. All poll actions require the pollId. When the session ID has been defined, the poll can be easily selected from the dropdown in the action UI. If you are using the code approach, you can retrieve it from the URL.

Start a poll

Start a poll that has been configured in your EngageTime session using startEngageTimePoll.

JSON

{
  "action": "startEngageTimePoll",
  "pollId": "poll-1"
}

YAML

action: startEngageTimePoll
pollId: poll-1

Show poll results or UI

Use showEngageTimePoll to display poll results in the presenter view. Optionally, you can set startOnOpen to true to start the poll when it is shown.

JSON

{
  "action": "showEngageTimePoll",
  "pollId": "poll-1",
  "startOnOpen": false
}

YAML

action: showEngageTimePoll
pollId: poll-1
startOnOpen: false

Close a poll

Close an active poll using closeEngageTimePoll.

JSON

{
  "action": "closeEngageTimePoll",
  "pollId": "poll-1"
}

YAML

action: closeEngageTimePoll
pollId: poll-1

Send a message

Send a message to the EngageTime session timeline using sendEngageTimeMessage. Requires type, and title.

JSON

{
  "action": "sendEngageTimeMessage",
  "type": "demo", // "demo", "slide", "custom"
  "title": "New message",
  "message": "Optional message body"
}

YAML

action: sendEngageTimeMessage
type: demo # "demo", "slide", "custom"
title: New message
message: Optional message body