Message Actions API for C# SDK

Add or remove actions on published messages to build features like receipts, reactions, or to associate custom metadata to messages. Clients can subscribe to a channel to receive message action events on that channel. They can also fetch past message actions from Message Persistence independently or when they fetch original messages.

Message Actions vs. Message Reactions

Message Actions is the flexible, low-level API for adding any metadata to messages (read receipts, delivery confirmations, custom data), while Message Reactions specifically refers to using Message Actions for emoji/social reactions.

In PubNub Core and Chat SDKs, the same underlying Message Actions API is referred to as Message Reactions when used for emoji reactions - it's the same functionality, just different terminology depending on the use case.

Request execution

We recommend using try and catch statements when working with the C# SDK.

If there's an issue with the provided API parameter values, like missing a required parameter, the SDK throws an exception. However, if there is a server-side API execution issue or a network problem, the error details are contained within the status.

try
{
    PNResult<PNPublishResult> publishResponse = await pubnub.Publish()
        .Message("Why do Java developers wear glasses? Because they can't C#.")
        .Channel("my_channel")
        .ExecuteAsync();

    PNStatus status = publishResponse.Status;

    Console.WriteLine("Server status code : " + status.StatusCode.ToString());
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Request can't be executed due to error: {ex.Message}");
}

Add Message Action

Requires Message Persistence

This method requires that Message Persistence is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal.

Add an action on a published message. Returns PNAddMessageActionResult in the response.

Method(s)

To Add a Message Action you can use the following method(s) in the C# SDK:

pubnub.AddMessageAction()
        .Channel(string)
        .MessageTimetoken(long)
        .Action(PNMessageAction)

* required

Parameter	Description
Channel * Type: string	Specifies channel name to publish message actions to.
MessageTimetoken * Type: long	Timestamp when the actual message was created the message action belongs to.
Action * Type: PNMessageAction	Specify the action you want to publish of type PNMessageAction.

PNMessageAction

* required

Parameter	Description
Type * Type: string	Message action's type.
Value * Type: string	Message action's value.

Basic Usage

Reference code

This example is a self-contained code snippet ready to be run. It includes necessary imports and executes methods with console logging. Use it as a reference when working with other examples in this document.

using System;
using PubnubApi;

class AddMessageActionExample
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Configuration
        PNConfiguration pnConfiguration = new PNConfiguration(new UserId("myUniqueUserId"))
        {
            SubscribeKey = "demo",
            PublishKey = "demo",
            Secure = true
        };

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Returns

{
    "MessageTimetoken":15610547826969050,
    "ActionTimetoken":15610547826970050,
    "Action":{
        "type":"reaction",
        "value":"smiley_face"
    },
    "Uuid":"user-456"
}

Remove Message Action

Requires Message Persistence

This method requires that Message Persistence is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal.

Remove a previously added action on a published message. Returns an empty response.

Method(s)

To Remove a Message Action you can use the following method(s) in the C# SDK:

pubnub.RemoveMessageAction()
        .Channel(string)
        .MessageTimetoken(long)
        .ActionTimetoken(long)
        .Uuid(string)

* required

Parameter	Description
Channel * Type: string	Specifies channel name to publish message actions to.
MessageTimetoken * Type: long	Publish timetoken of the original message
ActionTimetoken * Type: long	Publish timetoken of the message action to be removed.
Uuid * Type: string	UUID of the message.

Basic Usage

pubnub.RemoveMessageAction()
    .Channel("my_channel")
    .MessageTimetoken(15701761818730000)
    .ActionTimetoken(15701775691010000)
    .Uuid("mytestuuid")
    .Execute(new PNRemoveMessageActionResultExt((result, status) =>
    {
        //empty result of type PNRemoveMessageActionResult.
    }));

Returns

The RemoveMessageAction() operation returns a no actionable data.

Get Message Actions

Requires Message Persistence

This method requires that Message Persistence is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal.

Get a list of message actions in a channel. Returns a list of actions sorted by the action's timetoken in ascending order.

Truncated response

Number of message actions in the response may be truncated when internal limits are hit. If the response is truncated, a more property will be returned with additional parameters. Send iterative calls to Message Persistence adjusting the parameters to fetch more message actions.

Method(s)

To Get Message Actions you can use the following method(s) in the C# SDK:

pubnub.GetMessageActions()
        .Channel(string)
        .Start(long)
        .End(long)
        .Limit(int)

* required

Parameter	Description
Channel * Type: string Default: n/a	The channel name.
Start Type: long Default: n/a	Message Action timetoken denoting the start of the range requested (return values will be less than start).
End Type: long Default: n/a	Message Action timetoken denoting the end of the range requested (return values will be greater than or equal to end).
Limit Type: int Default: 100	Specifies the number of actions to return in response. Default/Maximum is 100.

Basic Usage

pubnub.GetMessageActions()
    .Channel("my_channel")
    .Execute(new PNGetMessageActionsResultExt((result, status) =>
    {
        //result is of type PNGetMessageActionsResult.
    }));

Returns

{
"MessageActions":
    [{
    "MessageTimetoken":15610547826969050,
    "Action":{
        "type":"reaction",
        "value":"smiley_face"
    },
    "Uuid":"pn-5903a053-592c-4a1e-8bfd-81d92c962968",
    "ActionTimetoken":15717253483027900
    }],
"More": {
        "Start": 15610547826970050,
        "End": 15645905639093361,
        "Limit": 2

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