Publish/Subscribe API for PubNub Go SDK

The foundation of the PubNub service is the ability to send a message and have it delivered anywhere in less than 100ms. Send a message to just one other person, or broadcast to thousands of subscribers at once.

For higher-level conceptual details on publishing and subscribing, refer to Connection Management and to Publish Messages.

Publish

The Publish() function is used to send a message to all subscribers of a channel. To publish a message you must first specify a valid PublishKey at initialization. A successfully published message is replicated across the PubNub Real-Time Network and sent simultaneously to all subscribed clients on a channel.

Messages in transit can be secured from potential eavesdroppers with SSL/TLS by setting ssl to true during initialization.

Publish Anytime

It's not required to be subscribed to a channel in order to publish to that channel.

Message Data

The message argument can contain any JSON serializable data, including: Objects, Arrays, Ints and Strings. data should not contain special Go classes or functions as these will not serialize. String content can include any single-byte or multi-byte UTF-8 character.

Don't JSON serialize

It is important to note that you should not JSON serialize when sending signals/messages via PUBNUB. Why? Because the serialization is done for you automatically. Instead just pass the full object as the message payload. PubNub takes care of everything for you.

Message Size

The maximum number of characters per message is 32 KiB by default. The maximum message size is based on the final escaped character count, including the channel name. An ideal message size is under 1800 bytes which allows a message to be compressed and sent using single IP datagram (1.5 KiB) providing optimal network performance.

If the message you publish exceeds the configured size, you will receive the following message:

Message Too Large Error

["PUBLISHED",[0,"Message Too Large","13524237335750949"]]

For further details, check Calculating Message Payload Size Before Publish.

Message Publish Rate

Messages can be published as fast as bandwidth conditions will allow. There is a soft limit based on max throughput since messages will be discarded if the subscriber can't keep pace with the publisher.

For example, if 200 messages are published simultaneously before a subscriber has had a chance to receive any messages, the subscriber may not receive the first 100 messages because the message queue has a limit of only 100 messages stored in memory.

Publishing to Multiple Channels

It is not possible to publish a message to multiple channels simultaneously. The message must be published to one channel at a time.

Publishing Messages Reliably

There are some best practices to ensure messages are delivered when publishing to a channel:

Publish to any given channel in a serial manner (not concurrently).
Check that the return code is success (for example, [1,"Sent","136074940..."])
Publish the next message only after receiving a success return code.
If a failure code is returned ([0,"blah","<timetoken>"]), retry the publish.
Avoid exceeding the in-memory queue's capacity of 100 messages. An overflow situation (aka missed messages) can occur if slow subscribers fail to keep up with the publish pace in a given period of time.
Throttle publish bursts in accordance with your app's latency needs, for example, Publish no faster than 5 msgs per second to any one channel.

Method(s)

To Publish a message you can use the following method(s) in the Go SDK:

pn.Publish().
    Message(interface{}).
    Channel(string).
    ShouldStore(bool).
    UsePost(bool).
    Meta(interface{}).
    QueryParam(queryParam).
    Execute()

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`Message`	interface	Yes		The payload
`Channel`	string	Yes		Destination of `Message`
`ShouldStore`	bool	Optional	`account default`	Store in history
`UsePost`	bool	Optional	`false`	Use POST to `Publish`
`Meta`	interface	Optional	`null`	Meta data object which can be used with the filtering ability
`TTL`	int	Optional		Set a per message time to live in Message Persistence. If `ShouldStore` = `true`, and `TTL` = `0`, the message is stored with no expiry time. If `ShouldStore` = `true` and `TTL` = `X` (`X` is an Integer value), the message is stored with an expiry time of `X` hours. If `ShouldStore` = `false`, the `TTL` parameter is ignored. If `TTL` is not specified, then expiration of the message defaults back to the expiry value for the key.
`QueryParam`	map[string]string	Optional	`nil`	QueryParam accepts a map, the keys and values of the map are passed as the query string parameters of the URL called by the API.

Basic Usage

Publish a message to a channel

res, status, err := pn.Publish().
    Channel("my-channel").
    Message([]string{"Hello", "there"}).
    UsePost(true).
    Execute()

fmt.Println(res, status, err)

Subscribe to the channel

Before running the above publish example, either using the Debug Console or in a separate script running in a separate terminal window, subscribe to the same channel that is being published to.

Response

Method	Type	Description
`Timestamp`	int	An `int` representation of the timetoken when the message was published

Other Examples

Publish with metadata

res, status, err := pn.Publish().
    Channel("my-channel").
    Message([]string{"Hello", "there"}).
    Meta(map[string]interface{}{
        "name": "Alex",
    }).
    Execute()

Publish Array

res, status, err := pn.Publish().
    Channel("my-channel").
    Message([]string{"Hello", "there"}).
    Meta([]string{"1a", "2b", "3c"}).
    Execute()

Store the published message for 10 hours

res, status, err := pn.Publish().
    Channel("my-channel").
    Message("test").
    ShouldStore(true).
    TTL(10).
    Execute()

Push Payload Helper

You can use the helper method as an input to the Message parameter, to format the payload for publishing Push messages. For more info on the helper method, check Create Push Payload Helper Section

aps := pubnub.PNAPSData{
    Alert: "apns alert",
    Badge: 1,
    Sound: "ding",
    Custom: map[string]interface{}{
        "aps_key1": "aps_value1",
        "aps_key2": "aps_value2",
    },
}

apns := pubnub.PNAPNSData{
    APS: aps,
    Custom: map[string]interface{}{
        "apns_key1": "apns_value1",
        "apns_key2": "apns_value2",
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Fire

The fire endpoint allows the client to send a message to Functions Event Handlers. These messages will go directly to any Event Handlers registered on the channel that you fire to and will trigger their execution. The content of the fired request will be available for processing within the Event Handler. The message sent via fire() isn't replicated, and so won't be received by any subscribers to the channel. The message is also not stored in history.

Method(s)

To Fire a message you can use the following method(s) in the Go SDK:

pn.Fire().
    Message(interface{}).
    Channel(string).
    UsePost(bool).
    Meta(interface{}).
    QueryParam(queryParam).
    Execute()

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`Message`	interface	Yes		The payload
`Channel`	string	Yes		Destination of `Message`
`UsePost`	bool	Optional	`false`	Use POST to `Publish`
`Meta`	interface	Optional	`null`	Meta data object which can be used with the filtering ability
`TTL`	int	Optional		Set a per message time to live in Message Persistence. If `ShouldStore` = `true`, and `TTL` = `0`, the message is stored with no expiry time. If `ShouldStore` = `true` and `TTL` = `X` (`X` is an Integer value), the message is stored with an expiry time of `X` hours. If `ShouldStore` = `false`, the `TTL` parameter is ignored. If `TTL` is not specified, then expiration of the message defaults back to the expiry value for the key.
`QueryParam`	map[string]string	Optional	`nil`	QueryParam accepts a map, the keys and values of the map are passed as the query string parameters of the URL called by the API.

Basic Usage

Fire a message to a channel

res, status, err := pn.Fire().
            Channel("my-channel").
            Message("test").
            Execute()

Signal

The signal() function is used to send a signal to all subscribers of a channel.

By default, signals are limited to a message payload size of 64 bytes. This limit applies only to the payload, and not to the URI or headers. If you require a larger payload size, please contact support.

Method(s)

To Signal a message you can use the following method(s) in the Go SDK:

pubnub.Signal().
    Message(interface{}).
    Channel(string).
    Execute()

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`Message`	interface	Yes		The payload.
`Channel`	string	Yes		Destination of `Message`.

Basic Usage

Signal a message to a channel

result, status, err := pubnub.Signal().
    Message([]string{
        "Hello", "Signals"
    }).
    Channel("foo").
    Execute();

Response

Method	Type	Description
`Timestamp`	int	An `int` representation of the timetoken when Signal was sent

Receive messages

Your app receives messages and events via event listeners. The event listener is a single point through which your app receives all the messages, signals, and events that are sent in any channel you are subscribed to.

For more information about adding a listener, refer to the Event Listeners section.

Description

This function causes the client to create an open TCP socket to the PubNub Real-Time Network and begin listening for messages on a specified channel. To subscribe to a channel the client must send the appropriate SubscribeKey at initialization. By default a newly subscribed client will only receive messages published to the channel after the Subscribe() call completes.

Connectivity notification

You can be notified of connectivity via the envelope.status. By waiting for the envelope.status to return before attempting to publish, you can avoid a potential race condition on clients that subscribe and immediately publish messages before the subscribe has completed.

Using Go SDK, if a client becomes disconnected from a channel, it can automatically attempt to reconnect to that channel and retrieve any available messages that were missed during that period by setting restore to true. By default a client will attempt to reconnect after exceeding a 320 second connection timeout.

Unsubscribing from all channels

Unsubscribing from all channels, and then subscribing to a new channel Y is not the same as subscribing to channel Y and then unsubscribing from the previously-subscribed channel(s). Unsubscribing from all channels resets the last-received timetoken and thus, there could be some gaps in the subscription that may lead to message loss.

Method(s)

To Subscribe to a channel you can use the following method(s) in the Go SDK:

pn.Subscribe().
    Channels([]string).
    ChannelGroups([]string).
    Timetoken(int64).
    WithPresence(bool).
    QueryParam(queryParam).
    Execute()

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`Channels`	[]string	Optional	Subscribe to `channels`, Either `channel` or `channel_group` is required.
`ChannelGroups`	[]string	Optional	Subscribe to `channel_groups`, Either `channel` or `channel_group` is required.
`Timetoken`	int64	Optional	Pass a `timetoken`.
`WithPresence`	bool	Optional	Also subscribe to related presence information
`QueryParam`	map[string]string	Optional	QueryParam accepts a map, the keys and values of the map are passed as the query string parameters of the URL called by the API.

Basic Usage

Subscribe to a channel:

pn.Subscribe().
    Channels([]string{"my-channel"}). // subscribe to channels
    Execute()

Response

PNMessage

PNMessage is returned in the Listeners

The Subscribe() operation returns a PNStatus which contains the following operations:

Property Name	Type	Description
`Category`	`StatusCategory`	Details of `StatusCategory` are here
`Error`	bool	This is `true` if an error occurred in the execution of the operation.
`ErrorData`	error	Error data of the exception (if `Error` is `true`).
`StatusCode`	int	Status code of the execution.
`Operation`	OperationType	Operation type of the request.

The Subscribe() operation returns a PNMessage for messages, for both Publish and Signal messages, which contains the following operations:

Method	Type	Description
`Message`	interface	The message sent on `channel`.
`Channel`	string	The channel on which the message was received.
`Subscription`	string	The channel group or wildcard subscription match (if exists).
`Timetoken`	int64	`Timetoken` for the message.
`UserMetadata`	interface	User `metadata`.
`SubscribedChannel`	string	Current `subscribed channel`.
`Publisher`	string	UUID of `publisher`.

The Subscribe() operation returns a PNPresence for messages which contains the following operations:

Method	Type	Description
`Event`	string	Events like `join`, `leave`, `timeout`, `state-change`.
`UUID`	string	`UUID` for event.
`Timestamp`	int64	`Timestamp` for event.
`Occupancy`	int	Current `occupancy`.
`Subscription`	string	Message has been received on `Channel`.
`Timetoken`	int64	`Timetoken` of the message.
`State`	interface	`State` of the UUID.
`UserMetadata`	map[string]interface	User `metadata`.
`SubscribedChannel`	string	Current `subscribed channel`.
`Channel`	string	The `channel` for which the message belongs.

The Subscribe() operation returns a PNUUIDEvent for UUID Events which contains the following operations:

Method	Type	Description
`Event`	PNObjectsEvent	Events like `PNObjectsEventRemove`, `PNObjectsEventSet`.
`Timestamp`	string	`Timestamp` for event.
`Subscription`	string	Event has been received on `Channel`.
`SubscribedChannel`	string	Current `subscribed channel`.
`Channel`	string	The `channel` for which the event belongs.
`UUID`	string	The UUID.
`Name`	string	Display name for the space.
`ExternalID`	string	User's identifier in an external system
`ProfileURL`	string	The URL of the user's profile picture
`Email`	string	The user's email address.
`Custom`	map[string]interface	Map of string and interface with supported data types.
`Updated`	string	Last updated date.
`ETag`	string	The ETag.

The Subscribe() operation returns a PNChannelEvent for Channel Events which contains the following operations:

Method	Type	Description
`Event`	PNObjectsEvent	Events like `PNObjectsEventRemove`, `PNObjectsEventSet`.
`Timestamp`	string	`Timestamp` for event.
`Subscription`	string	Event has been received on `Channel`.
`SubscribedChannel`	string	Current `subscribed channel`.
`Channel`	string	The `channel` for which the event belongs.
`ChannelID`	string	The Channel ID.
`Name`	string	Display name for the space.
`Description`	string	Description of the space.
`Custom`	map[string]interface	Map of string and interface with supported data types.
`Updated`	string	Last updated date.
`ETag`	string	The ETag.

The Subscribe() operation returns a PNMembershipEvent for Membership Events which contains the following operations:

Method	Type	Description
`Event`	PNObjectsEvent	Events like `PNObjectsEventRemove`, `PNObjectsEventSet`.
`Timestamp`	string	`Timestamp` for event.
`Subscription`	string	Event has been received on `Channel`.
`SubscribedChannel`	string	Current `subscribed channel`.
`Channel`	string	The `channel` for which the event belongs.
`ChannelID`	string	The Channel ID.
`UUID`	string	The UUID.
`Custom`	map[string]interface	Map of string and interface with supported data types.

The Subscribe() operation returns a PNMessageActionsEvent for Message Reactions Events which contains the following operations:

Method	Type	Description
`Event`	PNMessageActionsEventType	Events like `PNMessageActionsAdded`, `PNMessageActionsRemoved`.
`Data`	PNMessageActionsResponse	Message Reactions for event.
`Subscription`	string	Event has been received on `Channel`.
`SubscribedChannel`	string	Current `subscribed channel`.
`Channel`	string	The `channel` for which the event belongs.

Other Examples

import (
    pubnub "github.com/pubnub/go"
)

config := pubnub.NewConfig()
// publishKey from admin panel (only required if publishing)
config.PublishKey = "demo" // required
// subscribeKey from admin panel
config.SubscribeKey = "demo"

pn := pubnub.NewPubNub(config)

pn.Subscribe().
    Channels([]string{"my-channel"}).
    Execute()

Subscribing to multiple channels

It's possible to subscribe to more than one channel using the Multiplexing feature. The example shows how to do that using an array to specify the channel names.

Alternative subscription methods

You can also use Wildcard Subscribe and Channel Groups to subscribe to multiple channels at a time. To use these features, the Stream Controller add-on must be enabled on your keyset in the Admin Portal.

import (
    pubnub "github.com/pubnub/go"
)

pn.Subscribe().
    Channels([]string{"my-channel1", "my-channel2"}).
    Execute()

Subscribing to a Presence channel

Requires Presence add-on

This method requires that the Presence add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

For any given channel there is an associated Presence channel. You can subscribe directly to the channel by appending -pnpres to the channel name. For example the channel named my_channel would have the presence channel named my_channel-pnpres.

pn.Subscribe().
    Channels([]string{"my-channel"}).
    WithPresence(true).
    Execute()

Sample Responses

Join Event

if presence.Event == "join" {
    presence.UUID // 175c2c67-b2a9-470d-8f4b-1db94f90e39e
    presence.Timestamp // 1345546797
    presence.Occupancy // 2
}

Leave Event

if presence.Event == "leave" {
    presence.UUID // 175c2c67-b2a9-470d-8f4b-1db94f90e39e
    presence.Timestamp // 1345546797
    presence.Occupancy // 2
}

Timeout Event

if presence.Event == "timeout" {
    presence.UUID // 175c2c67-b2a9-470d-8f4b-1db94f90e39e
    presence.Timestamp // 1345546797
    presence.Occupancy // 2
}

Custom Presence Event (State Change)

if presence.Event == "state-change" {
    presence.Timestamp
    presence.Occupancy
}

Interval Event

if presence.Event == "interval" {
    presence.UUID // 175c2c67-b2a9-470d-8f4b-1db94f90e39e
    presence.Timestamp // 1345546797
    presence.Occupancy // 2
}

When a channel is in interval mode with presence_deltas pnconfig flag enabled, the interval message may also include the following fields which contain an array of changed UUIDs since the last interval message.

joined
left
timedout

For example, this interval message indicates there were 2 new UUIDs that joined and 1 timed out UUID since the last interval:

if presence.Event == "interval" {
    presence.Occupancy // # users in channel
    presence.Join // [uuid1 uuid2]
    presence.Timeout //[uuid3]
    presence.Timestamp // unix timestamp
}

If the full interval message is greater than 30KB (since the max publish payload is ∼32KB), none of the extra fields will be present. Instead there will be a here_now_refresh boolean field set to true. This indicates to the user that they should do a hereNow request to get the complete list of users present in the channel.

Requires Stream Controller add-on

This method requires that the Stream Controller add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal (with Enable Wildcard Subscribe checked). Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

Wildcard subscribes allow the client to subscribe to multiple channels using wildcard. For example, if you subscribe to a.* you will get all messages for a.b, a.c, a.x. The wildcarded * portion refers to any portion of the channel string name after the dot (.).

import (
    pubnub "github.com/pubnub/go"
)

pn.Subscribe().
    Channels([]string{"foo.*"}). // subscribe to channels information
    Execute()

Wildcard grants and revokes

Only one level (a.*) of wildcarding is supported. If you grant on * or a.b.*, the grant will treat * or a.b.* as a single channel named either * or a.b.*. You can also revoke permissions from multiple channels using wildcards but only if you previously granted permissions using the same wildcards. Wildcard revokes, similarly to grants, only work one level deep, like a.*.

Subscribing with State

Requires Presence add-on

This method requires that the Presence add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

Required UUID

Always set the UUID to uniquely identify the user or device that connects to PubNub. This UUID should be persisted, and should remain unchanged for the lifetime of the user or the device. If you don't set the UUID, you won't be able to connect to PubNub.

import (
    pubnub "github.com/pubnub/go"
)

config := pubnub.NewConfig()
config.SubscribeKey = "demo"
config.PublishKey = "demo"

pn := pubnub.NewPubNub(config)

listener := pubnub.NewListener()
done := make(chan bool)

go func() {
    for {
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Requires Stream Controller add-on

This method requires that the Stream Controller add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

import (
    pubnub "github.com/pubnub/go"
)

pn.Subscribe().
    Channels([]string{"ch1", "ch2"}). // subscribe to channels
    ChannelGroups([]string{"cg1", "cg2"}). // subscribe to channel groups
    Timetoken(int64(1337)). // optional, pass a timetoken
    WithPresence(true). // also subscribe to related presence information
    Execute()

ubscribe to the presence channel of a channel group

note

Requires Stream Controller and Presence add-ons

This method requires both the Stream Controller and Presence add-ons are enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

import (
    pubnub "github.com/pubnub/go"
)

pn.Subscribe().
    ChannelGroups([]string{"cg1", "cg2"}). // subscribe to channel groups
    Timetoken(int64(1337)). // optional, pass a timetoken
    WithPresence(true). // also subscribe to related presence information
    Execute()

Unsubscribe

When subscribed to a single channel, this function causes the client to issue a leave from the channel and close any open socket to the PubNub Network. For multiplexed channels, the specified channel(s) will be removed and the socket remains open until there are no more channels remaining in the list.

Unsubscribing from all channels

Method(s)

To Unsubscribe from a channel you can use the following method(s) in the Go SDK:

pn.Unsubscribe().
    Channels([]string).
    ChannelGroups([]string).
    QueryParam(queryParam).
    Execute()

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`Channels`	[]string	Optional	`false`	Unsubscribe to channels, Either `channel` or `channelGroup` is required.
`ChannelGroups`	[]string	Optional	`false`	Unsubscribe to channel groups, Either `channel` or `channelGroup` is required.
`QueryParam`	map[string]string	Optional	`nil`	QueryParam accepts a map, the keys and values of the map are passed as the query string parameters of the URL called by the API.

Basic Usage

Unsubscribe from a channel:

pn.Unsubscribe().
    Channels([]string{"my-channel"}).
    Execute()

Event listeners

The response of the subscription is handled by Listener. Please see the Listeners section for more details.

Rest Response from Server

The output below demonstrates the response to a successful call:

if presence.Event == "leave" {
    presence.UUID // left-uuid
    presence.Timestamp // 1345546797
    presence.Occupancy // 2
}

Other Examples

Unsubscribing from multiple channels

Requires Stream Controller add-on

This method requires that the Stream Controller add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

import (
    pubnub "github.com/pubnub/go"
)

pn.Unsubscribe().
    Channels([]string{"my-channel", "my-channel2"}).
    Execute()

Example Response

if presence.Event == "leave" {
    presence.UUID // left-uuid
    presence.Timestamp // 1345546797
    presence.Occupancy // 2
}

Unsubscribe from a channel group

import (
    pubnub "github.com/pubnub/go"
)

pn.Unsubscribe().
    ChannelGroups([]string{"cg1", "cg2"}).
    Execute()

Example Response:

if presence.Event == "leave" {
    presence.UUID // left-uuid
    presence.Timestamp // 1345546797
    presence.Occupancy // 2
}

Unsubscribe All

Unsubscribe from all channels and all channel groups

Method(s)

UnsubscribeAll()

Basic Usage

pn.UnsubscribeAll()

Returns

None

Publish​

Publish Anytime​

Message Data​

Don't JSON serialize

Message Size​

Message Too Large Error​

Message Publish Rate​

Publishing to Multiple Channels​

Publishing Messages Reliably​

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Publish a message to a channel​

Subscribe to the channel

Response​

Other Examples​

Publish with metadata​

Publish Array​

Store the published message for 10 hours​

Push Payload Helper​

Fire​

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Fire a message to a channel​

Signal​

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Signal a message to a channel​

Response​

Subscribe​

Receive messages​

Description​

Connectivity notification

Unsubscribing from all channels

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Response​

PNMessage

Other Examples​

Basic subscribe with logging​

Subscribing to multiple channels​

Alternative subscription methods

Subscribing to a Presence channel​

Requires Presence add-on

Sample Responses​

Join Event​

Leave Event​

Timeout Event​

Custom Presence Event (State Change)​

Interval Event​

Wildcard subscribe to channels​

Requires Stream Controller add-on

Wildcard grants and revokes

Subscribing with State​

Requires Presence add-on

Required UUID

Subscribe to a channel group​

Requires Stream Controller add-on

ubscribe to the presence channel of a channel group​

note

Unsubscribe​

Unsubscribing from all channels

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Event listeners

Rest Response from Server​

Other Examples​

Unsubscribing from multiple channels​

Requires Stream Controller add-on

Example Response​

Unsubscribe from a channel group​

Unsubscribe All​

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Returns​

Publish

Publish Anytime

Message Data

Message Size

Message Too Large Error

Message Publish Rate

Publishing to Multiple Channels

Publishing Messages Reliably

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Publish a message to a channel

Response

Other Examples

Publish with metadata

Publish Array

Store the published message for 10 hours

Push Payload Helper

Fire

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Fire a message to a channel

Signal

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Signal a message to a channel

Response

Subscribe

Receive messages

Description

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Response

Other Examples

Basic subscribe with logging

Subscribing to multiple channels

Subscribing to a Presence channel

Sample Responses

Join Event

Leave Event

Timeout Event

Custom Presence Event (State Change)

Interval Event

Wildcard subscribe to channels

Subscribing with State

Subscribe to a channel group

ubscribe to the presence channel of a channel group

Unsubscribe

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Rest Response from Server

Other Examples

Unsubscribing from multiple channels

Example Response

Unsubscribe from a channel group

Unsubscribe All

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Returns