resilientred / windows-appsample-remote-system-sessions

Windows UWP sample illustrating usage of the remote system sessions API through the scenario of a local multiplayer trivia quiz game.

Remote Systems Session API (Quiz Game UWP Sample)

A pub-style trivia game sample for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) demonstrating the Remote System Session API (part of the Project Rome platform).

Project Rome is a platform for creating shared experiences that can enable developers to extend their app across devices connected proximally, or through the cloud. The Remote Session API allows a device to host a session that is discoverable by other devices that are nearby. They can then join this session, and send messages among the host and other participants.

When running the sample, you are presented with an option to create a new game as a quiz session host on your local network, or join an existing game and answer questions from the quiz host. The host sends the questions to the proximal devices, while the participants answer the questions on their own devices. A quiz host can advance the game to additional questions and display the scores at the end.

Note - For more information on the Project Rome platform, including the Remote System Session API, see Connected apps and devices.

Running the sample

This sample requires Visual Studio 2017 and the latest version of the Windows 10 SDK. You can use the free Visual Studio Community Edition to build and run Windows Universal Platform (UWP) apps. To get the latest updates to Windows and the development tools, and to help shape their development, join the Windows Insider Program.

To run this sample, you'll also need to:

• Have at least two Windows 10 devices running the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 16299).

• Configure the following settings:

  1. Bluetooth must be enabled, this can be enabled by going to Settings | Bluetooth & other devices and turning on Bluetooth.
  2. Share across devices must also be enabled, you'll need to access Change shared experience settings. The feature Share across devices must be set to On and Everyone nearby.
  3. Ensure the RemoteSystem, Bluetooth, and Internet (Client and Server) capabilities are added in your project. It should be checked by default, but it's important to check this prior to working on any Remote System Session API project.

• Deploy the app to a minimum of two Windows 10 devices. On one device you'll need to become a sessions host/quiz game host and on another device join the session and answer the game questions.

Note - Bluetooth must be enabled and the devices that are messaging with each other must be on the same network. Bluetooth is used for discovery of sessions, and the connection then occurs using a network connection e.g. WiFi or Local Area Network (LAN). Discovery will not work over the LAN if you joined to a public network as it will be blocked by the firewall. This applies to both session and device discovery.

Code at a glance

The Remote System Session API provides the following functionality:

• Create - ability to create a session for participants to join
• Discovery - discover sessions
• Participants - the ability to join a session, leave a session, and invite session devices
• Messaging - broadcast or targeted participant messages

Note -The Remote System Session API also supports a workflow to invite participants that is currently not covered in this sample.

In the sample, the SessionsHelper.cs contains the core code for working with the Remote System Session API. From here you'll be able to construct calls to create a session for device participants to attach to. Some key API concepts are:

• RemoteSystemSession - A sharing session object with participants. Messages are broadcast to all participants or targeted to a specific participant based upon preference.
• RemoteSystemSessionWatcher - A watcher object that is notified about remote sessions that have been added or removed.
• RemoteSystemSessionMessageChannel - The channel is a logical construct on top of RemoteSystemSession. The channel provides the flexibility to create named channels for dedicated data transfer. Channels can be reliable or unreliable. In both cases the ordering of the messages is not guaranteed.
• RemoteSystemSessionParticipant - Represents a participant in a session. A session can have one or more participants.