Android V4 Storage & Playback API Reference for Realtime Apps

The PubNub Storage and Playback Service provides realtime access to history for all messages published to PubNub. Each published message is timestamped to the nearest 10 nanoseconds, and is stored across multiple availability zones in several geographical data center locations. Stored messages can be encrypted with AES-256 message encryption, ensuring that they are not readable while stored on PubNub's network.

Messages can be stored for a configurable duration or forever, as controlled by the retention policy that is configured on your account. The following options are available: 1, 3, 5, 7, 15, or 30 days, and Forever.

Fetch History

Requires Storage & Playback add-onRequires that the Storage & Playback add-on is enabled for your key. See this page on enabling add-on features on your keys:
https://support.pubnub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051974791-How-do-I-enable-add-on-features-for-my-keys-

Description

This function fetches historical messages from one or multiple channels. The includeMessageActions flag also allows you to fetch message actions along with the messages.

It's possible to control how messages are returned and in what order.

if you specify only the start parameter (without end), you will receive messages that are older than the start timetoken
if you specify only the end parameter (without start), you will receive messages from that end timetoken and newer
if you specify values for both start and end parameters, you will retrieve messages between those timetokens (inclusive of the end value)

You will receive a maximum of 100 messages for a single channel or 25 messages for multiple channels (up to 500). If more messages meet the timetoken criteria, make iterative calls while adjusting the start timetoken to fetch the entire list of messages from storage.

Method(s)

To run Fetch History, you can use the following method(s) in the Android V4 SDK:

this.pubnub.fetchMessages().channels(List<String>).maximumPerChannel(Integer).start(Long).end(Long).includeMessageActions(Boolean).includeMeta(Boolean).includeMessageType(Boolean).includeUUID(Boolean)

Parameter	Type	Required	Defaults	Description
`channels`	List	Yes		Specifies `channels` to return history messages from. Maximum of 500 channels are allowed.
`start`	Long	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the `start` of time slice (exclusive) to pull messages from.
`end`	Long	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the `end` of time slice (inclusive) to pull messages from.
`maximumPerChannel`	Integer	Optional	`100` or `25`	Specifies the number of historical messages to return per channel. Maximum value is 100 for a single channel, or 25 for multiple channels. If `includeMessageActions` is `true`, then `25` is the default (and maximum) value.
`includeMeta`	Boolean	Optional	`false`	Whether to include message metadata within response or not.
`includeMessageActions`	Boolean	Optional	`false`	The flag denoting to retrieve history messages with message actions. If `true`, the method is limited to one channel only.
`includeMessageType`	Boolean	Optional	`true`	The flag denoting to retrieve history messages with message type.
`includeUUID`	Boolean	Optional	`true`	The flag denoting to retrieve history messages with UUID of a publisher.
`async`	PNCallback	Yes		`PNCallback` of type `PNFetchMessagesResult`.

Truncated response

If you fetch messages with messages actions, the number of messages 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 history adjusting the parameters to fetch more messages.

Basic Usage

Retrieve the last message on a channel:

pubnub.fetchMessages()
        .channels(Arrays.asList("my_channel"))
        .maximumPerChannel(25)
        .includeMessageActions(true)
        .includeMeta(true)
        .includeMessageType(true)
        .includeUUID(true)
        .async(new PNCallback<PNFetchMessagesResult>() {
            @Override
            public void onResponse(PNFetchMessagesResult result, PNStatus status) {
                if (!status.isError()) {
                    Map<String, List<PNFetchMessageItem>> channels = result.getChannels();
                    for (PNFetchMessageItem messageItem : channels.get("my_channel")) {
                        System.out.println(messageItem.getMessage());
                        System.out.println(messageItem.getMeta());
                        System.out.println(messageItem.getTimetoken());
                        System.out.println(messageItem.getMessagetType());
                        System.out.println(messageItem.getUuid());
                        HashMap<String, HashMap<String, List<PNFetchMessageItem.Action>>> actions =
                                messageItem.getActions();
                        for (String type : actions.keySet()) {
                            System.out.println("Action type: " + type);
                            for (String value : actions.get(type).keySet()) {
                                System.out.println("Action value: " + value);
                                for (PNFetchMessageItem.Action action : actions.get(type).get(value)) {
                                    System.out.println("Action timetoken: " + action.getActionTimetoken());
                                    System.out.println("Action publisher: " + action.getUuid());
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                } else {
                    status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });

Returns

The fetchMessages() operation returns a list of PNFetchMessagesResult objects, each containing the following operations:

Method	Type	Description
`getMessage()`	JsonElement	Message content.
`getMeta()`	JsonElement	Message metadata if any, and if requested via `includeMeta(true)`.
`getTimetoken()`	Long	Publish timetoken.
`getActionTimetoken()`	Long	Timestamp when the message action was created.
`getActions()`	HashMap	Actions data of the message, if any, and if requested via `includeMessageActions(true)`.
`getMessageType()`	Integer	Message type `0` - message, `1` - signal, `2` - object, `3` - message action, `4` - files
`getUuid()`	String	UUID of the publisher

Other Examples

Paging History Responses:

package com.we.pubnubtest.utils;

import com.pubnub.api.models.consumer.history.PNFetchMessagesResult;

public abstract class CallbackSkeleton {

    public CallbackSkeleton() {
    }

    public abstract void handleResponse(PNFetchMessagesResult result);

    public abstract void finish();

}

package com.we.pubnubtest.utils;

import com.pubnub.api.PubNub;
import com.pubnub.api.callbacks.PNCallback;
import com.pubnub.api.models.consumer.PNStatus;
import com.pubnub.api.models.consumer.history.PNFetchMessagesResult;
import com.pubnub.api.models.consumer.pubsub.PNMessageResult;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;

public class PubnubRecursiveHistoryFetcher {
    private PubNub pubNub;
    private String channels;

    public PubnubRecursiveHistoryFetcher(PubNub pubNub, String channels) {
        this.pubNub = pubNub;
        this.channels = channels;
    }

    public void getAllMessages(CallbackSkeleton callback) {
        getAllMessages(null, callback);
    }

    public void getAllMessages(Long startTimestamp, final CallbackSkeleton callback) {
        final CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
        final Long timeToken;

        if (startTimestamp == null) {
            startTimestamp = -1L;
        }

        timeToken = startTimestamp;

        pubNub.fetchMessages()
            .channels(Arrays.asList(channels)) // where to fetch history from
            .start(startTimestamp) // first timestamp
            .maximumPerChannel(25)
            .async(new PNCallback<PNFetchMessagesResult>() {
                @Override
                public void onResponse(PNFetchMessagesResult result, PNStatus status) {
                    // handle resposne here
                    if (!status.isError() && result.getChannels().size()!=0) {

                        callback.handleResponse(result);

                        Long timetoken = timeToken;

                        for (List<PNMessageResult> itens: result.getChannels().values()) {

                            for (PNMessageResult item: itens) {
                                if (item.getTimetoken()<timetoken) {
                                    timetoken = item.getTimetoken();
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        getAllMessages(timetoken, callback);
                    } else {
                        callback.finish();
                    }
                }
            });
    }
}

Fetch Messages From Multiple Channels:

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");
        }
    }
});

Delete Messages from History

Requires Storage & Playback add-on Requires that the Storage & Playback add-on is enabled for your key. See this page on enabling add-on features on your keys:
https://support.pubnub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051974791-How-do-I-enable-add-on-features-for-my-keys-

Description

Removes the messages from the history of a specific channel.

Note

There is a setting to accept delete from history requests for a key, which you must enable by checking the Enable Delete-From-History checkbox in the key settings for your key in the Admin Portal.

Requires Initialization with secret key.

Method(s)

To Delete Messages from History you can use the following method(s) in the Android V4 SDK.

this.pubnub.deleteMessages().channels(Array).start(Long).end(Long)

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channels`	Array	Yes	Specifies `channels` to delete messages from.
`start`	Long	Optional	Timetoken delimiting the `start` of time slice (inclusive) to delete messages from.
`end`	Long	Optional	Timetoken delimiting the `end` of time slice (exclusive) to delete messages from.
`async`	PNCallback	Yes	`PNCallback` of type `PNDeleteMessagesResult`.

Basic Usage

pubnub.deleteMessages()
    .channels(Arrays.asList("channel_1", "channel_2"))
    .start(1460693607379L)
    .end(1460893617271L)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNDeleteMessagesResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNDeleteMessagesResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // The deleteMessages() method does not return actionable data, be sure to check the status
            // object on the outcome of the operation by checking the status.isError().
        }
    });

Other Examples

Delete specific message from history

To delete a specific message, pass the publish timetoken (received from a successful publish) in the End parameter and timetoken +/- 1 in the Start parameter. e.g. if 15526611838554310 is the publish timetoken, pass 15526611838554309 in Start and 15526611838554310 in End parameters respectively as shown in the following code snippet.

pubnub.deleteMessages()
    .channels(Arrays.asList("channel_1"))
    .start(15526611838554310L)
    .end(15526611838554309L)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNDeleteMessagesResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNDeleteMessagesResult result, PNStatus status) {
            // The deleteMessages() method does not return actionable data, be sure to check the status
            // object on the outcome of the operation by checking the status.isError().
        }
    });

Message Counts

Requires Storage & Playback add-on Requires that the Storage & Playback add-on is enabled for your key. See this page on enabling add-on features on your keys:
https://support.pubnub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051974791-How-do-I-enable-add-on-features-for-my-keys-

Description

Returns the number of messages published on one or more channels since a given time. The count returned is the number of messages in history with a timetoken value greater than or equal to than the passed value in the channelsTimetokenparameter.

Note

For keys with unlimited message retention enabled, this method considers only messages published in the last 7 days.

Method(s)

You can use the following method(s) in the Android V4 SDK:

this.pubnub.messageCounts().channels(Array).channelsTimetoken(Array)

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channels`	Array	Yes	The `channels` to fetch the message count
`channelsTimetoken`	Array	Yes	List of `timetokens`, in order of the channels list. Specify a single `timetoken` to apply it to all channels. Otherwise, the list of `timetokens` must be the same length as the list of channels, or the function returns a `PNStatus`with an error flag.
`async`	PNCallback	Yes	PNCallback of type `PNMessageCountResult`.

Basic Usage

Long lastHourTimetoken = (Calendar.getInstance().getTimeInMillis() - TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(1)) * 10000L;

pubnub.messageCounts()
    .channels(Arrays.asList("news"))
    .channelsTimetoken(Arrays.asList(lastHourTimetoken))
    .async(new PNCallback<PNMessageCountResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNMessageCountResult result, PNStatus status) {
            if (!status.isError()) {
                for (Map.Entry<String, Long> messageCountEntry : result.getChannels().entrySet()) {
                    messageCountEntry.getKey(); // the channel name
                    messageCountEntry.getValue(); // number of messages for that channel
                }
            } else {
                // Handle error accordingly.
                status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    });

Returns

The operation returns a PNMessageCountResult which contains the following operations

Method	Type	Description
`getChannels()`	Map<String, Long>	A map with values of `Long` for each channel. `Channels` without messages have a count of 0. `Channels` with 10,000 messages or more have a count of 10000.

Other Examples

Retrieve count of messages using different timetokens for each channel

Long lastHourTimetoken = (Calendar.getInstance().getTimeInMillis() - TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(1)) * 10000L;
Long lastDayTimetoken = (Calendar.getInstance().getTimeInMillis() - TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(1)) * 10000L;

pubnub.messageCounts()
    .channels(Arrays.asList("news", "info"))
    .channelsTimetoken(Arrays.asList(lastHourTimetoken, lastDayTimetoken))
    .async(new PNCallback<PNMessageCountResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNMessageCountResult result, PNStatus status) {
            if (!status.isError()) {
                for (Map.Entry<String, Long> messageCountEntry : result.getChannels().entrySet()) {
                    messageCountEntry.getKey(); // the channel name
                    messageCountEntry.getValue(); // number of messages for that channel
                }
            } else {
                // Handle error accordingly.
                status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    });

History (deprecated)

Requires Storage & Playback add-on Requires that the Storage & Playback add-on is enabled for your key. See this page on enabling add-on features on your keys:
https://support.pubnub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051974791-How-do-I-enable-add-on-features-for-my-keys-

Note

This method is deprecated. Use fetch history instead.

Description

This function fetches historical messages of a channel.

It is possible to control how messages are returned and in what order, for example you can:

Search for messages starting on the newest end of the timeline (default behavior - reverse = false)
Search for messages from the oldest end of the timeline by setting reverse to true.
Page through results by providing a start OR end timetoken.
Retrieve a slice of the time line by providing both a start AND end timetoken.
Limit the number of messages to a specific quantity using the count parameter.

Start & End parameter usage clarity:

If only the start parameter is specified (without end), you will receive messages that are older than and up to that start timetoken value. If only the end parameter is specified (without start) you will receive messages that match that end timetoken value and newer Specifying values for both start and end parameters will return messages between those timetoken values (inclusive on the end value). Keep in mind that you will still receive a maximum of 100 messages even if there are more messages that meet the timetoken values. Iterative calls to history adjusting the start timetoken is necessary to page through the full set of results if more than 100 messages meet the timetoken values.

Method(s)

To run History you can use the following method(s) in the Android V4 SDK:

this.pubnub.history().channel(String).reverse(Boolean).includeTimetoken(Boolean).includeMeta(Boolean).start(Long).end(Long).count(Integer);

Parameter	Type	Required	Defaults	Description
`channel`	String	Yes		Specifies `channel`to return history messages from.
`reverse`	Boolean	Optional	`false`	Setting to `true` traverses the time line in reverse, starting with the oldest message first.
`includeTimetoken`	Boolean	Optional	`false`	Whether event dates `timetokens` should be included in response or not.
`includeMeta`	Boolean	Optional	`false`	Whether to include message metadata within response or not.
`start`	Long	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the `start` of time slice (exclusive) to pull messages from.
`end`	Long	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the `end` of time slice (inclusive) to pull messages from.
`count`	Int	Optional	`100`	Specifies the number of historical messages to return.
`async`	PNCallback	Yes		`PNCallback` of type `PNHistoryResult`.

Using the `reverse` parameter:

Messages are always returned sorted in ascending time direction from Storage/History regardless of reverse. The reverse direction matters when you have more than 100 (or count, if it's set) messages in the time interval, in which case reverse determines the end of the time interval from which it should start retrieving the messages.

Basic Usage

Retrieve the last 100 messages on a channel:

pubnub.history()
    .channel("history_channel") // where to fetch history from
    .count(100) // how many items to fetch
    .async(new PNCallback<PNHistoryResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNHistoryResult result, PNStatus status) {

        }
    });

Returns

The history() operation returns a PNHistoryResult which contains the following operations:

Method	Type	Description
`getMessages()`	List	List of messages of type `PNHistoryItemResult`. See PNHistoryItemResult for more details.
`getStartTimetoken()`	Long	Start `timetoken`.
`getEndTimetoken()`	Long	End `timetoken`.

PNHistoryItemResult:

Method	Type	Description
`getTimetoken()`	Long	`Timetoken` of the message.
`getEntry()`	JsonElement	Message.

Other Examples

Use history() to retrieve the three oldest messages by retrieving from the time line in reverse:

pubnub.history()
    .channel("my_channel") // where to fetch history from
    .count(3) // how many items to fetch
    .reverse(true) // should go in reverse?
    .async(new PNCallback<PNHistoryResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNHistoryResult result, PNStatus status) {

        }
    });

Response:

if (!status.isError()) {
    for (PNHistoryItemResult pnHistoryItemResult: result.getMessages()) {
        pnHistoryItemResult.getEntry(); // custom JSON structure for message
    }
}

Use history() to retrieve messages newer than a given timetoken by paging from oldest message to newest message starting at a single point in time (exclusive):

pubnub.history()
    .channel("my_channel") // where to fetch history from
    .start(13847168620721752L) // first timestamp
    .reverse(true) // should go in reverse?
    .async(new PNCallback<PNHistoryResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNHistoryResult result, PNStatus status) {

        }
    });

Response:

if (!status.isError()) {
    for (PNHistoryItemResult pnHistoryItemResult: result.getMessages()) {
        pnHistoryItemResult.getEntry(); // custom JSON structure for message
    }
}

Use history() to retrieve messages until a given timetoken by paging from newest message to oldest message until a specific end point in time (inclusive):

pubnub.history()
    .channel("my_channel") // where to fetch history from
    .count(100) // how many items to fetch
    .start(-1) // first timestamp
    .end(13847168819178600L) // last timestamp
    .reverse(true) // should go in reverse?
    .async(new PNCallback<PNHistoryResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNHistoryResult result, PNStatus status) {

        }
    });

Response:

[
    ["Pub3","Pub4","Pub5"],
    13406746780720711,
    13406746845892666
]

History Paging Example

Usage!

You can call the method by passing 0 or a valid timetoken as the argument.

package com.pubnub.api;

import com.pubnub.api.PNConfiguration;
import com.pubnub.api.PubNub;
import com.pubnub.api.callbacks.PNCallback;
import com.pubnub.api.models.consumer.PNStatus;
import com.pubnub.api.models.consumer.history.PNHistoryItemResult;
import com.pubnub.api.models.consumer.history.PNHistoryResult;

public class PubNubRecursiveHistoryFetcher {

    private PubNub pubnub;

    private static abstract class CallbackSkeleton {
        public abstract void handleResponse(PNHistoryResult result);
    }

    private PubNubRecursiveHistoryFetcher() {
        // NOTICE: for demo/demo pub/sub keys Storage & Playback is disabled,
        // so use your pub/sub keys instead
        PNConfiguration pnConfiguration = new PNConfiguration();
        pnConfiguration.setSubscribeKey("demo");
        pubnub = new PubNub(pnConfiguration);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        PubNubRecursiveHistoryFetcher fetcher = new PubNubRecursiveHistoryFetcher();
        fetcher.getAllMessages("my_channel", null, 10, new CallbackSkeleton() {
            @Override
            public void handleResponse(PNHistoryResult result) {
                for (PNHistoryItemResult message : result.getMessages()) {
                    System.out.println(message.getEntry());
                }
            }
        });
    }

    /**
     * Fetches channel history in a recursive manner, in chunks of specified size, starting from the most recent,
     * with every subset (with predefined size) sorted by the timestamp the messages were published.
     *
     * @param channel  The channel where to fetch history from
     * @param start    The timetoken which the fetching starts from
     * @param count    Chunk size
     * @param callback Callback which fires when a chunk is fetched
     */
    private void getAllMessages(final String channel, Long start, final int count, final CallbackSkeleton callback) {
        pubnub.history()
                .channel(channel)
                .count(count)
                .start(start)
                .includeTimetoken(true)
                .async(new PNCallback<PNHistoryResult>() {
                    @Override
                    public void onResponse(PNHistoryResult result, PNStatus status) {
                        if (!status.isError() && !result.getMessages().isEmpty()) {
                            callback.handleResponse(result);
                            getAllMessages(channel, result.getMessages().get(0).getTimetoken(), count, callback);
                        }
                    }
                });
    }
}

Include timetoken in history response:

pubnub.history()
    .channel("history_channel") // where to fetch history from
    .count(100) // how many items to fetch
    .includeTimetoken(true) // include timetoken with each entry
    .async(new PNCallback<PNHistoryResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNHistoryResult result, PNStatus status) {

        }
    });

Fetch History

Description

Method(s)

Truncated response

Basic Usage

Returns

Other Examples

Delete Messages from History

Description

Note

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Other Examples

Message Counts

Description

Note

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Returns

Other Examples

History (deprecated)

Note

Description

Start & End parameter usage clarity:

Method(s)

Using the reverse parameter:

Basic Usage

Returns

Other Examples

Usage!

Using the `reverse` parameter: