Set Up Hackatime with Unreal Engine 4.27

This guide will walk you through setting up Hackatime to automatically track your game development time in Unreal Engine 4.27. This currently only supports Windows systems.

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Step 1: Log In to Your Hackatime Account

First, make sure you have a Hackatime account and are logged in. If you don't have an account, you can create one at hackatime.hackclub.com.

Step 2: Download UE4 WakatimeIntegration Plugin

Visit the GitHub page and download the latest release. The file name should be something like WakatimeIntegration.zip

Step 3: Install UE4 WakatimeIntegration Plugin

1. First, extract WakatimeIntegration.zip
2. Inside should be a single folder called WakatimeIntegration containing a .uplugin file among others.
3. Copy or move this folder to your Unreal Engine 4.27's plugins folder. The default location is C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.27\Engine\Plugins\

Step 4: Configure API Credentials

1. Startup the editor and load into a project
2. Open the Plugins window (Edit->Plugins...) and enable WakatimeIntegration.
3. Restart the editor when prompted
4. In editor settings (Edit->Editor Settings...) find the WakatimeIntegration category (should be under Plugins category)
5. Set the Bearer Token to the API Key found at https://hackatime.hackclub.com/my/wakatime_setup
6. Set the Endpoint to https://hackatime.hackclub.com/api/hackatime/v1
7. Set the interval to 30.
8. You may need to manually enable the plugin for each project you wish to track.

Troubleshooting

• Plugin not working?
  • First thing to try is restarting your editor to ensure the plugin loads correctly
  • If time isn't being checked, check Output Log in the engine and look for errors/logs from Wakatime Integration
  • Failed to establish connection to Wakatime endpoint.: Make sure the endpoint URL is correct and that your internet connection is working
  • Heartbeat failed due to invalid API token (401): Make sure the token is correct, it is easy to accidentally skip characters when pasting.
  • Heartbeat accepted with code: Everything should be working smoothly
  • Heartbeat failed. Code: *. Response: *: An unknown error. Look at the logs for more information, or request help in the Hack Club Slack.
• Plugin/editor crashing?
  • This plugin is built for Unreal Engine 4.27, so your editor version may be too old for the prebuilt binaries.
  • If you really need this version, you can try building the plugin from source

Building for other platforms / versions of UE4

1. Clone or download the GitHub repo
2. In the editor, create a new blank C++ project with minimal settings, targetting Desktop. This can be found under the games category.
   • This may take extra platform dependent setup
3. Inside your project folder, create a Plugins folder.
   • Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject\ on Windows
4. Move WakatimeIntegration (github repo containing Source and .uplugin) into the new Plugins folder.
5. In editor, open the Plugins tab and try to enable WakatimeIntegration
6. You should be promped to rebuild the plugin, select 'yes' and wait for the process to complete.
7. Once the build is done, open the plugins tab, search for WakatimeIntegration, and select 'package'
8. Package WakatimeIntegration to any folder, and wait for the packaging to finish.
9. Resume with Step 2 in Part 3: Install UE4 WakatimeIntegration Plugin

Once the plugin is successfully installed, your Unreal Engine 4 projects should start to appear on your Hackatime dashboard!