GameLift / Client / search_game_sessions

search_game_sessions#

GameLift.Client.search_game_sessions(**kwargs)#

Retrieves all active game sessions that match a set of search criteria and sorts them into a specified order.

This operation is not designed to continually track game session status because that practice can cause you to exceed your API limit and generate errors. Instead, configure an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic to receive notifications from a matchmaker or a game session placement queue.

When searching for game sessions, you specify exactly where you want to search and provide a search filter expression, a sort expression, or both. A search request can search only one fleet, but it can search all of a fleet’s locations.

This operation can be used in the following ways:

  • To search all game sessions that are currently running on all locations in a fleet, provide a fleet or alias ID. This approach returns game sessions in the fleet’s home Region and all remote locations that fit the search criteria.

  • To search all game sessions that are currently running on a specific fleet location, provide a fleet or alias ID and a location name. For location, you can specify a fleet’s home Region or any remote location.

Use the pagination parameters to retrieve results as a set of sequential pages.

If successful, a GameSession object is returned for each game session that matches the request. Search finds game sessions that are in ACTIVE status only. To retrieve information on game sessions in other statuses, use DescribeGameSessions .

To set search and sort criteria, create a filter expression using the following game session attributes. For game session search examples, see the Examples section of this topic.

  • gameSessionId – A unique identifier for the game session. You can use either a GameSessionId or GameSessionArn value.

  • gameSessionName – Name assigned to a game session. Game session names do not need to be unique to a game session.

  • gameSessionProperties – A set of key-value pairs that can store custom data in a game session. For example: {"Key": "difficulty", "Value": "novice"}. The filter expression must specify the GameProperty – a Key and a string Value to search for the game sessions. For example, to search for the above key-value pair, specify the following search filter: gameSessionProperties.difficulty = "novice". All game property values are searched as strings. For examples of searching game sessions, see the ones below, and also see Search game sessions by game property.

  • maximumSessions – Maximum number of player sessions allowed for a game session.

  • creationTimeMillis – Value indicating when a game session was created. It is expressed in Unix time as milliseconds.

  • playerSessionCount – Number of players currently connected to a game session. This value changes rapidly as players join the session or drop out.

  • hasAvailablePlayerSessions – Boolean value indicating whether a game session has reached its maximum number of players. It is highly recommended that all search requests include this filter attribute to optimize search performance and return only sessions that players can join.

Note

Returned values for playerSessionCount and hasAvailablePlayerSessions change quickly as players join sessions and others drop out. Results should be considered a snapshot in time. Be sure to refresh search results often, and handle sessions that fill up before a player can join.

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See also: AWS API Documentation

Request Syntax

response = client.search_game_sessions(
    FleetId='string',
    AliasId='string',
    Location='string',
    FilterExpression='string',
    SortExpression='string',
    Limit=123,
    NextToken='string'
)
Parameters:

  • FleetId (string) – A unique identifier for the fleet to search for active game sessions. You can use either the fleet ID or ARN value. Each request must reference either a fleet ID or alias ID, but not both.

  • AliasId (string) – A unique identifier for the alias associated with the fleet to search for active game sessions. You can use either the alias ID or ARN value. Each request must reference either a fleet ID or alias ID, but not both.

  • Location (string) – A fleet location to search for game sessions. You can specify a fleet’s home Region or a remote location. Use the Amazon Web Services Region code format, such as us-west-2.

  • FilterExpression (string) –

    String containing the search criteria for the session search. If no filter expression is included, the request returns results for all game sessions in the fleet that are in ACTIVE status.

    A filter expression can contain one or multiple conditions. Each condition consists of the following:

    • Operand – Name of a game session attribute. Valid values are gameSessionName, gameSessionId, gameSessionProperties, maximumSessions, creationTimeMillis, playerSessionCount, hasAvailablePlayerSessions.

    • Comparator – Valid comparators are: =, <>, <, >, <=, >=.

    • Value – Value to be searched for. Values may be numbers, boolean values (true/false) or strings depending on the operand. String values are case sensitive and must be enclosed in single quotes. Special characters must be escaped. Boolean and string values can only be used with the comparators = and <>. For example, the following filter expression searches on gameSessionName: “ FilterExpression": "gameSessionName = 'Matt\\'s Awesome Game 1'".

    To chain multiple conditions in a single expression, use the logical keywords AND, OR, and NOT and parentheses as needed. For example: x AND y AND NOT z, NOT (x OR y).

    Session search evaluates conditions from left to right using the following precedence rules:

    • =, <>, <, >, <=, >=

    • Parentheses

    • NOT

    • AND

    • OR

    For example, this filter expression retrieves game sessions hosting at least ten players that have an open player slot: "maximumSessions>=10 AND hasAvailablePlayerSessions=true".

  • SortExpression (string) –

    Instructions on how to sort the search results. If no sort expression is included, the request returns results in random order. A sort expression consists of the following elements:

    • Operand – Name of a game session attribute. Valid values are gameSessionName, gameSessionId, gameSessionProperties, maximumSessions, creationTimeMillis, playerSessionCount, hasAvailablePlayerSessions.

    • Order – Valid sort orders are ASC (ascending) and DESC (descending).

    For example, this sort expression returns the oldest active sessions first: "SortExpression": "creationTimeMillis ASC". Results with a null value for the sort operand are returned at the end of the list.

  • Limit (integer) – The maximum number of results to return. Use this parameter with NextToken to get results as a set of sequential pages. The maximum number of results returned is 20, even if this value is not set or is set higher than 20.

  • NextToken (string) – A token that indicates the start of the next sequential page of results. Use the token that is returned with a previous call to this operation. To start at the beginning of the result set, do not specify a value.

Return type:

dict

Returns:

Response Syntax

{
    'GameSessions': [
        {
            'GameSessionId': 'string',
            'Name': 'string',
            'FleetId': 'string',
            'FleetArn': 'string',
            'CreationTime': datetime(2015, 1, 1),
            'TerminationTime': datetime(2015, 1, 1),
            'CurrentPlayerSessionCount': 123,
            'MaximumPlayerSessionCount': 123,
            'Status': 'ACTIVE'|'ACTIVATING'|'TERMINATED'|'TERMINATING'|'ERROR',
            'StatusReason': 'INTERRUPTED',
            'GameProperties': [
                {
                    'Key': 'string',
                    'Value': 'string'
                },
            ],
            'IpAddress': 'string',
            'DnsName': 'string',
            'Port': 123,
            'PlayerSessionCreationPolicy': 'ACCEPT_ALL'|'DENY_ALL',
            'CreatorId': 'string',
            'GameSessionData': 'string',
            'MatchmakerData': 'string',
            'Location': 'string'
        },
    ],
    'NextToken': 'string'
}

Response Structure

  • (dict) –

    • GameSessions (list) –

      A collection of objects containing game session properties for each session that matches the request.

      • (dict) –

        Properties describing a game session.

        A game session in ACTIVE status can host players. When a game session ends, its status is set to TERMINATED.

        Amazon GameLift retains a game session resource for 30 days after the game session ends. You can reuse idempotency token values after this time. Game session logs are retained for 14 days.

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        • GameSessionId (string) –

          A unique identifier for the game session. A game session ARN has the following format: arn:aws:gamelift:<region>::gamesession/<fleet ID>/<custom ID string or idempotency token>.

        • Name (string) –

          A descriptive label that is associated with a game session. Session names do not need to be unique.

        • FleetId (string) –

          A unique identifier for the fleet that the game session is running on.

        • FleetArn (string) –

          The Amazon Resource Name ( ARN) associated with the GameLift fleet that this game session is running on.

        • CreationTime (datetime) –

          A time stamp indicating when this data object was created. Format is a number expressed in Unix time as milliseconds (for example "1469498468.057").

        • TerminationTime (datetime) –

          A time stamp indicating when this data object was terminated. Format is a number expressed in Unix time as milliseconds (for example "1469498468.057").

        • CurrentPlayerSessionCount (integer) –

          Number of players currently in the game session.

        • MaximumPlayerSessionCount (integer) –

          The maximum number of players that can be connected simultaneously to the game session.

        • Status (string) –

          Current status of the game session. A game session must have an ACTIVE status to have player sessions.

        • StatusReason (string) –

          Provides additional information about game session status. INTERRUPTED indicates that the game session was hosted on a spot instance that was reclaimed, causing the active game session to be terminated.

        • GameProperties (list) –

          A set of key-value pairs that can store custom data in a game session. For example: {"Key": "difficulty", "Value": "novice"}.

          • (dict) –

            This key-value pair can store custom data about a game session. For example, you might use a GameProperty to track a game session’s map, level of difficulty, or remaining time. The difficulty level could be specified like this: {"Key": "difficulty", "Value":"Novice"}.

            You can set game properties when creating a game session. You can also modify game properties of an active game session. When searching for game sessions, you can filter on game property keys and values. You can’t delete game properties from a game session.

            For examples of working with game properties, see Create a game session with properties.

            • Key (string) –

              The game property identifier.

            • Value (string) –

              The game property value.

        • IpAddress (string) –

          The IP address of the game session. To connect to a Amazon GameLift game server, an app needs both the IP address and port number.

        • DnsName (string) –

          The DNS identifier assigned to the instance that is running the game session. Values have the following format:

          • TLS-enabled fleets: <unique identifier>.<region identifier>.amazongamelift.com.

          • Non-TLS-enabled fleets: ec2-<unique identifier>.compute.amazonaws.com. (See Amazon EC2 Instance IP Addressing.)

          When connecting to a game session that is running on a TLS-enabled fleet, you must use the DNS name, not the IP address.

        • Port (integer) –

          The port number for the game session. To connect to a Amazon GameLift game server, an app needs both the IP address and port number.

        • PlayerSessionCreationPolicy (string) –

          Indicates whether or not the game session is accepting new players.

        • CreatorId (string) –

          A unique identifier for a player. This ID is used to enforce a resource protection policy (if one exists), that limits the number of game sessions a player can create.

        • GameSessionData (string) –

          A set of custom game session properties, formatted as a single string value. This data is passed to a game server process with a request to start a new game session. For more information, see Start a game session.

        • MatchmakerData (string) –

          Information about the matchmaking process that resulted in the game session, if matchmaking was used. Data is in JSON syntax, formatted as a string. Information includes the matchmaker ID as well as player attributes and team assignments. For more details on matchmaker data, see Match Data. Matchmaker data is updated whenever new players are added during a successful backfill (see StartMatchBackfill).

        • Location (string) –

          The fleet location where the game session is running. This value might specify the fleet’s home Region or a remote location. Location is expressed as an Amazon Web Services Region code such as us-west-2.

    • NextToken (string) –

      A token that indicates where to resume retrieving results on the next call to this operation. If no token is returned, these results represent the end of the list.

Exceptions