Active Event Detection

The active event is the event happening right now. The getActiveEvent endpoint lets the companion app and other features automatically discover it without requiring the user to select an event.

How Is the Active Event Determined?

Endpoint: GET /events/getActiveEvent Auth: Public (no authentication required) Handler: services/events/handler.js → export const getActiveEvent

The handler:

Generates the current time as an ISO 8601 string: new Date().toISOString()
Scans the biztechEvents table using the event-overview GSI with a DynamoDB FilterExpression:
```
startDate <= :now AND endDate >= :now
```
Sorts matched events by startDate (using dateComparer)
Returns the first (earliest-starting) active event, or null if none match

const nowISO = new Date().toISOString()
const filters = {
  FilterExpression: 'startDate <= :now AND endDate >= :now',
  ExpressionAttributeValues: {
    ':now': nowISO,
  },
}
let events = await db.scan(EVENTS_TABLE, filters, 'event-overview')
events.sort(dateComparer('startDate'))
const activeEvent = events.length > 0 ? events[0] : null

ISO string comparison

The filter compares startDate and endDate as ISO 8601 strings against the current time. This works because ISO 8601 strings sort lexicographically in chronological order. Event startDate and endDate must be stored as ISO strings (not Unix timestamps) for this comparison to work correctly.

Response

When an event is active:

{
  "id": "blueprint",
  "year": 2026,
  "ename": "Blueprint 2026",
  "startDate": "2026-01-25T09:00:00.000Z",
  "endDate": "2026-01-25T18:00:00.000Z",
  ...full event record...
}

When no event is active:

null

The endpoint always returns 200 — even when no event is active (returns null, not 404).

Where It's Used

Companion App

The companion app at /companion/{event}/{year} uses the active event to drive event-day features. The companion configuration in src/constants/companion-events.ts maps events to their layouts, colors, logos, and sub-pages.

Profile Page

The profile page at /profile/{id} calls getActiveEvent to provide event context when viewing a user's profile during a live event:

// src/pages/profile/[id]/index.tsx
endpoint: '/events/getActiveEvent'

Edge Cases

Scenario	Result
No events in the table	Returns `null`
All events have ended	Returns `null`
One event is active	Returns that event
Multiple events overlap in time	Returns the one with the earliest `startDate`
Event with `isPublished: false` but valid dates	Still returned — `getActiveEvent` does not filter by publish status

Unpublished events can be active

The getActiveEvent endpoint does not check isPublished. If an unpublished event has dates that bracket the current time, it will be returned as the active event. This means an event could show up in the companion app before it's visible on the public events page.

Performance Note

The handler scans the entire biztechEvents table (via the event-overview GSI) and applies the date filter. With a small number of events this is fine, but the scan is O(n) on total events. The DynamoDB FilterExpression does not reduce the read capacity consumed — all events are read and then filtered server-side.

Key Files

File	What it does
`services/events/handler.js` → `getActiveEvent`	The handler implementation
`services/events/serverless.yml` → `eventGetActiveEvent`	Route definition (`events/getActiveEvent`, GET, no auth)
`src/pages/profile/[id]/index.tsx`	Frontend consumer of getActiveEvent
`src/constants/companion-events.ts`	Per-event companion configuration
`src/lib/companionHelpers.ts`	`getCompanionByEventIdYear()` — lookups companion config

Events System Overview — event architecture and system dependencies
Events Service — all event endpoints
Companion App — the companion experience