List Broadcasts In-Game

In this How-to, we will start a session with the users timezone, retrieve the latest broadcast messages and display the data in your engine.

Prerequisites

• A LootLocker account and a created game

• The LootLocker SDK configured and implemented in your game

• Configured broadcasts in the Web Console

Start Session with Timezone Support (Optional)

To ensure broadcast messages are filtered and scheduled according to the players timezone, you can optionally include timezone information when starting a player session.

In this How-To, we are using Guest Login, but all platforms are supported.

Unity

using LootLocker.Requests;
using System;

public void StartSessionWithTimezone()
{
    // Create session optionals to include timezone
    LootLockerSessionOptionals optionals = new LootLockerSessionOptionals();
    
    // For Windows, convert the system timezone to IANA format, read more in the section below
    optionals.timezone = LootLockerTimezoneConverter.ConvertWindowsToIanaTzString(TimeZoneInfo.Local.StandardName);
    
    // Start a guest session with timezone
    LootLockerSDKManager.StartGuestSession((response) =>
    {
        if (response.success)
        {
            Debug.Log("Session started successfully with timezone: " + options.timezone);
            // Proceed to retrieve broadcasts
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.LogError("Failed to start session: " + response.errorData.message);
        }
    }, optionals);
}

Unreal C++

Unreal Blueprints

REST

About Timezones

LootLocker uses the Iana standard for dealing with timezones. A timezone is written to a players metadata with the key ll.timezone.

All platforms except Windows uses Iana. If your game is running on Windows, you must convert the Windows timezone to an Iana timezone before sending it to LootLocker.

Unity

Use the utility-class LootLockerTimezoneConverter to convert back and forth between Iana timezones

    // When sending a Windows Timezone to LootLocker:
        LootLockerTimezoneConverter.TryConvertStringToIanaTzString(TimeZoneInfo.Local.StandardName);
    // When reading an Iana timezone returned from LootLocker:
        LootLockerTimezoneConverter.TryConvertStringToWindowsTzString(/*LootLockerIanaTimezoneReturnedFromMetadata*/);

Unreal C++

Unreal Blueprints

Retrieve Broadcast Messages

Once you have an active session, you can retrieve broadcast messages that are currently live for your game and display the information in regards to the users preferred language,

Unity

using LootLocker.Requests;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public void GetBroadcastMessages()
{
    string[] languagesToRetrieve = new string[] { "en", "sv" }; // English and Swedish
    int limit = 10; // Number of items to fetch in this request
    
    LootLockerSDKManager.ListBroadcasts(languagesToRetrieve, limit, (response) =>
    {
        if (response.success)
        {
            Debug.Log($"Retrieved {response.broadcasts.Length} broadcast messages");
            
            foreach (var broadcast in response.broadcasts)
            {
                ProcessBroadcast(broadcast);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.LogError("Failed to retrieve broadcasts: " + response.errorData.message);
        }
    });
}

// Example function for processing the broadcast
private void ProcessBroadcast(BroadcastMessage broadcast)
{
    // If you need to treat languages differently, you can check the key of the current language
    if (broadcast.languages.ContainsKey("en"))
    {
        LootLockerBroadcastLanguage currentLanguage = broadcast.languages["en"];
        // The headline of the broadcast
        Debug.Log($"Headline: {currentLanguage.headline}");
        // The body of the broadcast
        Debug.Log($"Body: {currentLanguage.body}");
        // The language code of the broadcast
        Debug.Log($"Language: {currentLanguage.language_code}");
        // An URL to an image, add your own logic to download and display images in your UI
        Debug.Log($"Image URL: {currentLanguage.image_url}");
        // Custom action to take, for example starting a specific animation or instantiate a certain prefab
        Debug.Log($"Action: {currentLanguage.action}");
        // Process additional logic for extra localization keys, if any
        foreach (var extraLocalization in currentLanguage.localizations)
        {
            Debug.Log($"Additional Localization - Key: {extraLocalization.Key}, Value: {extraLocalization.Value}");
        }
    }
}

Unreal C++

Unreal Blueprints

REST

Conclusion

In this How-to, we successfully completed the task of retrieving broadcast messages from LootLocker and have displayed their information.

With this implementation, your game can now retrieve rich, localized broadcast messages that are properly scheduled according to player timezones. The multiple localization support allows you to access content in different languages and include custom localized fields like button text, subtitles, and other game-specific content.