How the new countdown timer works

[VGMoose]

Here is the code for the countdown timer that displays on this site on Switch consoles!

It uses the localStorage property of the browser to store the start time and date when the page is first visited. This occurs right after the DNS connects, when using browseDNS. Then it calculates the difference between the current time and the start time, subtracts that from 20 minutes, then displays it.

function startTimer() {
    // check if a start time has been previously noted
    if (window.localStorage.getItem('startTime') == null) {
        // Local storage isn't persisted between sessions, so if we don't have
        // a start time, we're likely in a new session. Set the start time to now.
        window.localStorage.setItem('startTime', new Date().getTime());
    }
    // grab that start time
    var startTime = window.localStorage.getItem('startTime');

    // and the current time
    var presentTime = new Date().getTime()

    // calculate the difference between the two, and that's how long our session has been
    var diff = presentTime - startTime;

    // 20 minutes is 1200000 milliseconds (20 * 60 * 1000)
    var maxSessionLength = 1200000;

    // subtract the time difference from the max session length to get the remaining time
    var timeRemaining = maxSessionLength - diff;

    // if the remaining time is negative, just set it to 0
    if (timeRemaining < 0) {
        timeRemaining = 0;
    }

    // convert the remaining time to minutes and seconds
    var minutes = Math.floor((timeRemaining % (1000 * 60 * 60)) / (1000 * 60));
    var seconds = Math.floor((timeRemaining % (1000 * 60)) / 1000);

    // update the display span with the remaining time, and pad the seconds with a 0 if needed
    document.getElementById("timer").innerHTML = minutes + ":" + (seconds < 10 ? '0' : '') + seconds;
}

// run the timer logic once, and then repeat every second (1000 ms)
startTimer();
setInterval(startTimer, 1000);

This function runs every 1000ms (that's what setInterval does). When it hits 0, nothing actually happens, but after the browser does time out, the localStorage info is wiped, and the countdown will start fresh on the next launch.

Since it uses the wall time, this will persist across other sites on the Internet upon returning to browsedns. However, this also means it will become inaccurate when sleeping the console, leaving, and returning, which does not tick down Nintendo's counter.

[A Former User]

I think this is a great feature to have. Itll help whenever i'm typing a long post so then ik if im ablut to get kicked (bc im sure all of us switch users have had experiences where we were typing a long post and then we got kicked)

Thank you for the feature! :)

[VGMoose]

Thanks! We want to have the main landing page a bit more useful too besides Google/URL bars, kind of like mini-bookmarks like on Switchbru, but we've been slow at getting there

[lollapalooza]

@VGMoose maybe like another burger menu?

[pwsincd]

?

[lollapalooza]

@pwsincd those menus with the 3 horizontal lines
i thought that was a common term

[pwsincd]

lol i mean ? to the another burger menu .. meaning what do u mean

[lollapalooza]

@pwsincd im pretty sure on mobile theres one in the left corner of the screen.
i visit mostly on switch or pc so i could be remembering wrongly

[pwsincd]

i am still missing the pioint , i mean whats in this burger menu ?

[lollapalooza]

@pwsincd bookmarks like the switchbru ones that are easy to access without dampening the forum-y vibe

[VGMoose]

kind of subtle but we do have this "Links" drop down: , no way to customize the content inside though

[pwsincd]

yeah we can add links galore ... put a list together

[lollapalooza]

@VGMoose i used that bar to join the 4TU discord then never again

[Dotta]

I love the addition but it would be cool to see it on switchbru

[A Former User]

Just noticed that switchbru has a timer now, that's cool!

[VGMoose]

Yes! I just added that. Let me know how they both go, I've already noticed if you visit both sites you'll mess up one of the two timers (since they don't really keep track, just each independently count down from 20 min).

Technically we could make it smarter and try to guess about the actual session, using this info. This would be a server side endpoint that counts how many of those "every second" requests have been made so far, and when it hits 600, it will close.

[lollapalooza]

@VGMoose as a switchbru user, thank you so much.

[VGMoose]

Already got some feedback from the Switchbru user survey:

Why is there a 20 minute timer on the homepage? Is it when it automatically kicks me out when it hits zero?

I mean, the answer is yes, but this is explained on the landing page too. Changed the wording a little to make it more clear.

[Dotta]

Not to be a pain, of course the admins have done a great job with the timer but would it be possible to have it appear in one corner sorta like FPS in games?
A bit like this:

[VGMoose]

Do you mean over other websites? It's not possible unfortunately. Depending on the site, it may be possible to display it within an iframe, but not all sites support this.