What are AddIns?


AddIns are external web applications that add specific functionalities to the STREAMBOXY platform. To your users these AddIns work like standard features of STREAMBOXY.

You can integrate them for your events to create an individual attendee experience.

  

Where can AddIns be shown in the stage?

AddIns can be shown to the user in the Main Content Area of the Stage (middle) or in a panel (left or right)


 add in places 

Where can AddIns be added to my Event?

AddIns can be used in every area where external Pages can be embedded in STREAMBOXY.


In the simplest form AddIns are just Links to your web Application you'd like to embed.

So just place a link to your AddIn and we load it in an iframe.


That being said, there are many options for advanced interactions with the STREAMBOXY platform, these capabilities are described in this article.


Session Content Pages

Add Ins can be used in Session Content pages. Session Content pages are show as in Content Area as the Main Content when the session is running. 

Instead of a STREAMBOXY Livestream or Conference your Content is show to the audience.


You can configure Session Content Pages within the Main session Settings or Breakout Session Settings of your Event by selecting the Session Type to be a Content Page:content page


Sample Use Cases for AddIns in Session Content pages are:

  • Individual / Personalized Welcome Pages in the Main Session
  • 3D Visualisations & Venues
  • Custom Breakout Sessions with external Streaming or Conferencing Engines (Vimeo, Zoom etc.) within STREAMBOXY 
  • Custom Networking Rooms, Breakout Rooms etc.
  • Rooms for Feedback, Surveys, Contact Forms


Session Poster

Session Posters are shown in the Content Area before or after your session is running.
You can find more details regarding Session Poster configuration here.


Sample Use Cases for AddIns in Session Poster are:

  • Personalized Waiting Pages with dynamically loaded details of the speaker and session
  • Custom feedback forms / contact forms after the event is over
  • Custom Product info, Shops after your event is over


External Tools

External tools are shown in panels left and right from session content area. These can be defined indivually for every session in your event.

Tools can be shown in an small panel which are at the side of the main content (stream, conferenc etc.) or fullscreen panel which overlaps the main content.

More Details regarding external tools can be found here


Sample Use Cases for AddIns as External Tools are:

  • Custom Poster (Github repo: https://github.com/streamboxy/sample-custom-poster) 
  • Custom Agenda
  • Feedback Forms
  • Contact Forms
  • Shops
  • Whiteboards
  • Product Information
  • Quizes & Tests
  • Polls 
  • Speaker Infos & Details
  • 3rd Party Interaction Tools
  • 1:1 Session Scheduler



Navigation Elements

Navigation Elements are shown in the top menu of your event and are defined for the whole event.

The content of the navigation elements will be shown in the Content Area.

You can configure Navigation Elements within your event settings. 

Find more information about the configuration of navigation elements here.


Sample Use Cases for AddIns as Navigation Elements are:

  • Speaker & Attendee Directory
  • Sponsor Directories
  • 1:1 Session Booking
  • Session Scheduler
  • VOD Libraries
  • Download Areas
  • Information &Support Areas




AddIn Development 


Choices


Develpopment team

When developing AddIns for the STREAMBOXY platform you can develop them with your in-house team or outsource it to our partner network.

We are happy to support you.


Programming Language

STREAMBOXY AddIns can be developed in any programming language of your choice. Since the integration is done through http. 

In case you want use the frontent communication, you can use plain java script or any framework of your preference.


Requirements


STREAMBOXY Tenant

In Order to test your integrations with STREAMBOXY you need a working STREAMBOXY Tenant.
In case you don't have a tenant yet, please contact us via our contact form.


Web Host for your AddIn

Since STREAMBOXY does not host your AddIn directly you need a Web Host which is accessible via https to host your AddIn.


Please make sure the following constraints are fulfilled

  1. Only https is allowed 
  2. Your AddIn can be loaded within an iFrame (see X-Frame-Options and Content-Security-Policy definitions). Especially no X-Frame-Option should be set or, if you are using Streamboxy Stage with a Custom Domain, you can use X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN directive, if both Streamboxy Stage and AddIn are using the same origin.
  3. Important Recommendation: Do not rely on cookies to store user sessions (use the STREAMBOXY token instead - see below)


Integration Points


AddIns are more than just links loaded in an iFrame. STREAMBOXY offers several integration points you can leverage for your AddIn.

These are visualized in the chart and depiced in more detail in the remainder of this article.


 integration points 



AddIn Frontend & URL placeholder

Every AddIn requires a frontend on your web host to load the AddIn from this place. In this most basic version STREAMBOXY just embeds your AddIn as a Website.

In this case the AddIn is not authenticated or personalized etc.


A sample of your Addin added as custom navigation element this is depiced in the picture below.

add new element


In order to give your AddIn more details about the Session & User you can use Url Placeholder for passing context.


In the example below the User Language, User Name and Session Title are passed to the content via URL placeholder.

Using the Information in the placeholder you are able to personalize the user experience, but your solution still needs to be public.


More details regarding URL placeholders can be found here.


https://myaddin1.yourbrand.com?language={{userLanguage}}&username={{userName}}&sessionName={{sessionTitle}}



content page


Frontend Interaction using Events & Commands [optional]

In case you want to react on events happing in the frontend in realtime or control the STREAMBOXY frontend from within your AddIn you can leverage the available frontend Events & Commands interface.


Events will be pushed from the STREAMBOXY Frontend across the iframe into your AddIn Frontend for you to react on them. Examples Use Cases are:

  • React on changed user language
  • React on changed user role (attendee got promoted to speaker etc.)
  • React on changed session Title

Likewise you can issue commands to STREAMBOXY and control the STREAMBOXY frontend. Example Use Cases are:

  • Navigating to a different Session (for example if you build a session scheduler)


You'll find a more detailed description of this topic here.


AddIn Backend & Authentication [optional]

ATTENTION: This feature is currently in preview, more details can be found in this article. 

In case you want to create more than simple personalized page, something like storing data or retrieve additional data from third party system, you need to prevent people outside of your Session from using your AddIn and need to implement authentication. 


In order to authenticate your AddIn Users you need to pass the userToken to your AddIn.


You can achieve this using the userToken Url Placeholder:

https://myaddin1.yourbrand.com?usertoken={{userToken}}


This token needs to be validated against the STREAMBOXY API, to make sure the Token was issued by STREAMBOXY.

Since this is security relevant, we highly recommend you not to do this in the frontend and perform this validation in the backend.


You can use this call to authenticate the STREAMBOXY token in the backend:

CURL https://api.streamboxy.com/ ....



More Details & Auth Flow Picture coming soon


STREAMBOXY API [optional]

Once you have your Backend & Authentication up and running you can also leverage the STREAMBOXY API and completly manage your Tenant & Events from there.


You can for example: 

  1. Create 1:1 Session using your AddIn
  2. Retrieve al Sessions of an event in case you build a Scheduler
  3. Add Attendees to Sessions in case you build a Scheduler
  4. Retrieve other events in case you build an event recommendation engine


In case you want to leverage the API you need API credentials and make sure your AddIn authenticates user requests.

Since API credentials allow you to do more than a standard Event Attendee we recommend to implement authorization logic in your backend before calling the api on behalf of your users.


More Details regarding API Usage can be found in this article.


Roadmap


The AddIn model is under development, here are some additional Features that are about to come:

  1. User scoped Public API - Will allow you to do some interaction with STREAMBOXY on behalf of the user without the requirement of a AddIn Backend
  2. Web Hooks  - Will trigger events in your AddIn Backend and do something if something happend in STREAMBOXY like an event started etc.
  3. Contiuous improvement of the existing AddIn functionalitites.