Tracking Steam Playtime (from the web API)

Question

I am trying to track my playing time / history using Google Calendar.

This is the Steam Web API in which I can't find a method to get detailed information on when exactly I was playing what, except for the GetRecentlyPlayedGames endpoint, which gives me some interesting data:

Theoretically, I can store the playtime_forever field, and cron every 5 minutes to see if it goes up, and if 2 consecutive times it is the same, it means that I stopped playing this session, and I can log it in Calendar.

So this problem is solved in theory, but I was wondering if there is any other API I can use instead that would give me more accurate data, or is this the best option I have?

I'm going the same way about YouTube because they don't give me the exact time, but for example Netflix does so it is simpler, and I don't have to manage any kind of data (except for what I already sent to the calendar)

Answer 1

I found no way other than recent history to get this, so that is what I am doing.

getPlaytime(request, response) {
  return this._getRecentHistory()
    .then(response => response.games)
    .then(games => {
      response.json(games);
      return Promise.all(games.map((game) => {
        const appRef = this.ref.child('steam').child(game.appid);
        return appRef.once('value').then(snapshot => {
          if (snapshot.exists()) {
            const value = snapshot.val();

            if (game.playtime_forever > value.playtime) {
              const sessionPlaytime = game.playtime_forever - value.playtime;
              console.log("sessionPlaytime", game.name, sessionPlaytime, "minutes");

              const endDate = new Date();
              const startDate = new Date(endDate.getTime() - sessionPlaytime * 60 * 1000);

              this.calendar.createEvent("games", game.name, startDate, endDate);

              return appRef.update({playtime: game.playtime_forever});
            }

            return Promise.resolve();
          } else {
            return appRef.set({
              name: game.name,
              playtime: game.playtime_forever
            });
          }
        });
      }));
    })
    .catch((e) => console.error(e));
}