Message receipts and reactions
Message receipts enable users to track delivery of messages in a channel. Receipts are most useful in direct one-to-one chats, or in small group chats to indicate that users have read a particular message. They're not commonly used in high-occupancy chats, or in broadcasts with many users.
There are two kinds of receipts:
- Delivered receipts indicate that the message has been delivered to a user
- Read receipts indicate that a user has read the message
Add a receipt
Use the addMessageAction method to add a receipt on a channel by passing the timetoken of a message. Set the value to message_delivered or message_read to indicate if the message was delivered and received by the user, or if it was read.
Your application needs to implement client-side logic to determine when receipts should be added. Add receipts when the user comes and goes from a channel, or periodically after every few messages. For efficiency, assume that when a message is marked read, all messages published before that message are also read by the user.
pubnub.addMessageAction(
{
channel: 'ch-1'
messageTimetoken: '15610547826970040',
action: {
type: 'receipt',
value: 'read',
},
},
function(status, response) {
}
);
extension MyAppMessageAction: MessageAction {}
let action = MyAppMessageAction(type: "receipt", value: "read")
pubnub.addMessageAction(
channel: "ch-1",
message: action,
messageTimetoken: 15610547826970040
) { result in
switch result {
case let .success(response):
print("Successfully Message Action Add Response: \(response)")
case let .failure(error):
print("Error from failed response: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
})
pubnub.addMessageAction()
.channel("ch-1")
.messageAction(new PNMessageAction()
.setType("receipt")
.setValue("read")
.setMessageTimetoken(15610547826970040L)
)
.async(new PNCallback<PNAddMessageActionResult>() {
@Override
public void onResponse(PNAddMessageActionResult result, PNStatus status) {
if (!status.isError()) {
System.out.println(result.getType());
System.out.println(result.getValue());
System.out.println(result.getUuid());
System.out.println(result.getActionTimetoken());
System.out.println(result.getMessageTimetoken());
} else {
status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace();
}
}
})
MessageActionAdd messageAct = new MessageActionAdd();
messageAct.ActionType = "receipt";
messageAct.ActionValue = "read";
pubnub.AddMessageActions().Channel("ch-1").MessageAction(messageAct).MessageTimetoken(15610547826970040).Async((result, status) => {
if (!status.Error) {
Debug.Log("result.ActionTimetoken: " + result.ActionTimetoken);
Debug.Log("result.ActionType: " + result.ActionType);
Debug.Log("result.ActionValue: " + result.ActionValue);
Debug.Log("result.MessageTimetoken: " + result.MessageTimetoken);
Debug.Log("result.UUID: " + result.UUID);
} else {
Debug.Log(status.Error);
Debug.Log(status.ErrorData.Info);
}
});
Remove a receipt
Use the removeMessageAction() method to remove a receipt from a message by providing an actionTimetoken and messageTimetoken for the original message.
pubnub.removeMessageAction(
{
channel: 'ch-1'
messageTimetoken: '15610547826970040',
actionTimetoken: '15610547826999081',
},
function(status, response) {
}
);
pubnub.removeMessageActions(
channel: "ch-1",
message: 15610547826970040,
action: 15610547826999081
) { result in
switch result {
case let .success(response):
print("Successfully Message Action Remove Response: \(response)")
case let .failure(error):
print("Error from failed response: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
})
pubnub.removeMessageAction()
.channel("ch-1")
.messageTimetoken(15610547826970040L)
.actionTimetoken(15610547826999081L)
.async(new PNCallback<PNRemoveMessageActionResult>() {
@Override
public void onResponse(PNRemoveMessageActionResult result, PNStatus status) {
if (!status.isError()) {
// result has no actionable data
// it's enough to check if the status itself is not an error
} else {
status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace();
}
}
});
pubnub.RemoveMessageActions().ActionTimetoken(15610547826999081).Channel("ch-1").MessageTimetoken(15610547826970040).Async((result, status) => {
if (!status.Error) {
// result has no actionable data
} else {
Debug.Log(status.Error);
Debug.Log(status.ErrorData.Info);
}
});
Fetch receipts in channel
Receipts are stored in history alongside messages when they are added by a user.
Use the getMessageActions method to fetch receipts in a channel. The method works much like other PubNub history methods, and allows you to pass a start and end timetoken and fetch all message actions that were published during that time. Your app can parse through these actions and update the message state locally.
pubnub.getMessageActions(
{
channel: 'chats.room1',
start: '15901706735798836',
end: '15901706735370016',
limit: 100,
},
function(status, response) {
console.log(status, response);
}
);
pubnub.fetchMessageActions(
channel: "chats.room1") { result in
switch result {
case let .success(response):
print("Successfully Message Action Fetch Response: \(response)")
case let .failure(error):
print("Error from failed response: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
})
PNFetchMessageActionsRequest *request =
[PNFetchMessageActionsRequest requestWithChannel:@"chats.room1"];
request.start = @(1234567891);
request.limit = 100;
[self.pubnub fetchMessageActionsWithRequest:request
completion:^(PNFetchMessageActionsResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {
if (!status.isError) {
}
else {
}
}];
pubnub.getMessageActions()
.channel("chats.room1")
.async(new PNCallback<PNGetMessageActionsResult>() {
@Override
public void onResponse(PNGetMessageActionsResult result, PNStatus status) {
if (!status.isError()) {
List<PNMessageAction> actions = result.getActions();
for (PNMessageAction action : actions) {
System.out.println(action.getType());
System.out.println(action.getValue());
System.out.println(action.getUuid());
System.out.println(action.getActionTimetoken());
System.out.println(action.getMessageTimetoken());
}
}
else {
status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace();
}
}
});
pubnub.GetMessageActions()
.Channel("chats.room1")
.Execute(new PNGetMessageActionsResultExt((result, status) =>
{
}));
Return Type: PNGetMessageActionsResult
{
"MessageActions":[{
"MessageTimetoken":15610547826970040,
"Action":{
"type":"reaction",
"value":"smiley_face"
},
"Uuid":"pn-5903a053-592c-4a1e-8bfd-81d92c962968",
"ActionTimetoken":15610547826999081
}],
}
pubnub.get_message_actions()
.channel('chats.room1')
.start(15901706735798836) # Some start timetoken or None
.end(15901706735370016) # Some end timetoken or None
.pn_async(message_action_callback)
Fetch messages with receipts
Use the fetchMessages method with the includeMessageActions parameter set to fetch past messages in a channel along with receipts that were added to those messages. When you're fetching messages with their receipts, you can only fetch on a single channel at a time.
Message Receipt Events
PubNub triggers events to notify clients when receipts are added to or removed from messages. To receive these events, clients should be subscribed to the channel, and add a messageAction listener in the code.
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Message Action Added | Generated when a message action is added to a message. |
| Message Action Removed | Generated when a message action is removed from a message. |
Message Action Added:
{
"channel":"my_channel",
"subscription":null,
"timetoken":"15610547826970040",
"publisher":"user-1",
"message":{
"source":"actions",
"version":"1.0",
"action":"added",
"data":{
"type":"receipt",
"value":"read",
"messageTimetoken":"15610547826970040",
"actionTimetoken":"15610547826999081"
}
}
}
Message Action Removed:
{
"channel":"my_channel",
"subscription":null,
"timetoken":"15610547826970040",
"publisher":"user-1",
"message":{
"source":"actions",
"version":"1.0",
"action":"removed",
"data":{
"type":"receipt",
"value":"read",
"messageTimetoken":"15610547826970040",
"actionTimetoken":"15610547826999081"
}
}
}