Work with Message Storage
The Storage service allows you to persist all messages as they're published. The primary use case of Storage is to allow a device to retrieve messages that were published while that device was offline, but there are many other use cases as well. The Storage message retention can be configured for several different limited periods or for unlimited time.
When a message is published, it's stored using the channel name and the message's publish timetoken which can be used to retrieve, delete or annotate.
Network interruptions
Brief network interruptions are handled by the automatic reconnection mechanism. Refer to Connection Management for more information.
Message Retention
To retain a message, you'll need to enable the Storage feature for the given API Key in the Admin Portal. You may also want to configure the duration of the retention and whether you want to retain Presence Events. Once configured, the Storage feature is enabled for all the channels that belong to the API Key.
Immutable message retention
Once a message is stored, you can't change its retention. Changes to Storage retention only apply to messages published after the change has been made.
Retrieving Messages
Retrieving messages from Storage is accomplished using the History API. You can retrieve up to 100 messages for a single channel or 25 messages for multiple channels (up to 500) in a single request.
The History API returns regular messages, file messages, and message actions. The value of the returned messageType parameter indicates which type a particular message is.
| Message Type | Description | Saved in Storage |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Regular message | Yes |
| 1 | Signal | No |
| 2 | Objects event | No |
| 3 | Message Actions event | Yes |
| 4 | File message | Yes |
Retrieving message actions
You can retrieve messages and their associated message actions or you can just retrieve the message actions only. Refer to Retrieving Actions for more information.
You can provide start and end timetokens to get messages from a specific time range. Most use cases require retrieving only the most recent messages since a given timetoken (missed messages since last online). For this, you need only provide the end parameter with a timetoken of the last received message. The following example will retrieve the last 25 (default/max) messages on the two channels.
pubnub.fetchMessages(
{
channels: ["chats.room1", "chats.room2"],
end: '15343325004275466',
count: 25 // default/max is 25 messages for multiple channels (up to 500)
},
function(status, response) {
console.log(status, response);
}
);
pubnub.fetchMessageHistory(
for: ["chats.room1", "chats.room2"],
end: "15343325004275466"
) { result in
switch result {
case let .success(response):
print("Successful History Fetch Response: \(response)")
case let .failure(error):
print("Failed History Fetch Response: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
}
self.pubnub.history()
.channels(@[@"chats.room1", @"chats.room2"])
.end(15343325004275466).limit(25)
.performWithCompletion(^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {
// handle returned messages in result
});
pubNub.fetchMessages()
.channels(Arrays.asList("ch1", "ch2", "ch3"))
.async(new PNCallback<PNFetchMessagesResult>() {
@Override
public void onResponse(@Nullable final PNFetchMessagesResult result, @NotNull final PNStatus status) {
if (!status.isError()) {
final Map<String, List<PNFetchMessageItem>> channelToMessageItemsMap = result.getChannels();
final Set<String> channels = channelToMessageItemsMap.keySet();
for (final String channel : channels) {
List<PNFetchMessageItem> pnFetchMessageItems = channelToMessageItemsMap.get(channel);
for (final PNFetchMessageItem fetchMessageItem: pnFetchMessageItems) {
System.out.println(fetchMessageItem.getMessage());
System.out.println(fetchMessageItem.getMeta());
System.out.println(fetchMessageItem.getTimetoken());
}
}
}
else {
System.err.println("Handling error");
}
}
});
pubnub.FetchHistory()
.Channels(new string[] { "my_channel" })
.MaximumPerChannel(25)
.End(15343325004275466)
.Execute(new PNFetchHistoryResultExt((result, status) => {
// handle returned messages in result
}));
envelope = pubnub.fetch_messages()\
.channels(["chats.room1", "chats.room2"])\
.count(25)\
.end(15343325004275466)\
.sync()
If more than 25 messages are needed, you can use the timetokens of the returned message to go further back in time to retrieve more messages. In other words, you can page through a channel's timeline recursively until you all the messages you require.
| Parameters Used | Behavior |
|---|---|
start | Retrieves messages before the start timetoken, excluding any message at that timetoken |
end | Retrieves messages after to the end timetoken, including any message at that timetoken |
start & end | Retrieves messages between the start and end timetokens, excluding any message at the start timetoken and including any message at the end timetoken |
Receiving Messages and Signals
When a message, or signal is received by the client, it triggers a message or signal event, respectively. Refer to Add Listener in the Application Setup section to learn how to act upon these events.
How Messages are Fetched
The following details explain how messages are retrieved from Storage based on the start, end, and reverse parameters.
Scenario 1
Scenario 1 retrieves messages starting with the message stored before the start timetoken parameter value and continues until it has 25 messages or hits that oldest message (whichever comes first).
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
count | 25 |
start | value provided |
end | value not provided |
Channel Timeline
oldest-message --------------- start-timetoken --------------- newest-message
[ <--------]
Scenario 2
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
count | 25 |
start | value not provided |
end | value provided |
Channel Timeline
oldest-message --------------- end-timetoken --------------- newest-message
[ <---------------------]
Scenario 3
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
count | 25 |
start | value provided |
end | value provided |
Channel Timeline
oldest-message ----- end-timetoken ----------------- start-timetoken ----- newest-message
[ <----------------------]
Getting Message Counts
Rather than retrieving lots of messages from hundreds of channels, you could just get the number of missed messages and retrieve the messages later. For example, you can display the unread message count on channels that the client hasn't yet visited and retrieve those messages either when the client actually visits the channel or a lower priority background thread.
The Message Count API only returns the number of messages sent for each channel greater than or equal to the provided timetoken. You can not specify a time range because it's only intended to give the number of messages since a given timetoken. Optionally, you can specify a different timetoken per channel or one timetoken to be applied to all channels.
Note
For keys with unlimited message retention enabled, this method considers only messages published in the last 30 days.
pubnub.messageCounts({
channels: ["chats.room1", "chats.room2"],
channelTimetokens: ['15518041524300251']
}).then((response) => {
console.log(response)
}).catch((error) => {
// handle error
}
);
pubnub.messageCounts(
channels: ["chats.room1", "chats.room2"]),
timetoken: 15495750401727535
) { result in
switch result {
case let .success(response):
print("Successful Message Count Response: \(response)")
case let .failure(error):
print("Failed Message Count Response: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
}
self.client.messageCounts().channels(@[@"chats.room1", @"chats.room2"])
.timetokens(@[@(15495750401727535)])
.performWithCompletion(^(PNMessageCountResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {
if (!status.isError) {
// Client state retrieved number of messages for channels.
}
else {
// handler error condition
}
});
pubnub.messageCounts()
.channels(Arrays.asList("chats.room1", "chats.room2"))
.channelsTimetoken(Arrays.asList(15495750401727535L))
.async(new PNCallback<PNMessageCountResult>() {
@Override
public void onResponse(PNMessageCountResult result, PNStatus status) {
if (!status.isError()) {
for (Map.Entry<String, Long> entry : result.getChannels().entrySet()) {
entry.getKey(); // the channel name
entry.getValue(); // number of messages for that channel
}
}
else {
status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace();
}
}
});
pubnub.MessageCounts()
.Channels(new string[] { "chats.room1", "chats.room2" })
.ChannelsTimetoken(new long[] { 15495750401727535 })
.Execute(new PNMessageCountResultExt((result, status) => {
if (status != null && status.Error)
{
Console.WriteLine(status.ErrorData.Information);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine(pubnub.JsonPluggableLibrary.SerializeToJsonString(result));
}
}));
envelope = pubnub.message_counts()\
.channel("chats.room1", "chats.room2") \
.channel_timetokens([15495750401727535])
.sync()
print(envelope.result.channels)