Presence API for PubNub JavaScript SDK

Presence enables you to track the online and offline status of users and devices in real-time and store custom state information. Presence provides authoritative information on:

• When a user has joined or left a channel
• Who, and how many, users are subscribed to a particular channel
• Which channel(s) an individual user is subscribed to
• Associated state information for these users

To learn more about Presence as a feature, visit Presence Overview.

Supported and recommended asynchronous patterns

PubNub supports Callbacks, Promises, and Async/Await for asynchronous JS operations. The recommended pattern is Async/Await and all sample requests in this document are based on it. This pattern returns a status only on detecting an error. To receive the error status, you must add the try...catch syntax to your code.

Here Now

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.

You can obtain information about the current state of a channel including a list of unique user-ids currently subscribed to the channel and the total occupancy count of the channel by calling the hereNow() function in your application.

Cache

This method has a 3 second response cache time.

Method(s)

To call Here Now, you can use the following method(s) in the JavaScript SDK:

pubnub.hereNow({
    channels: Array<string> ,
    channelGroups: Array<string> ,
    includeUUIDs: boolean ,
    includeState: boolean 
}); Promise<HereNowResponse>

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Operation Arguments	Hash	Yes		A hash of arguments.
channels	array<string>	Optional		Specifies the channel name to return occupancy results. If channel is not provided, hereNow() will return data for all channels.
channelGroups	array<string>	Optional		The channel group for which here now information should be received.
includeUUIDs	boolean	Optional	true	Setting uuid to false disables the return of uuids.
includeState	boolean	Optional	false	Setting state to true enables the return of subscriber state information.

Basic Usage

Get a list of UUIDs subscribed to channel

try {
    const result = await pubnub.hereNow({
        channels: ["ch1"],
        channelGroups: ["cg1"],
        includeUUIDs: true,
        includeState: true,
    });
} catch (status) {
    console.log(status);
}

Response

type hereNowResponse = {
    totalChannels: number, // totalChannels = get total of channels
    totalOccupancy: number, // totalOccupancy = get total of occupancies
    channels: object // channels = get a map with values for each channel with uuids and states for each occupant of the channel
}

Other Examples

Returning 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.

try {
    const result = await pubnub.hereNow({
        channels: ["my_channel"],
        includeState: true,
    });
} catch (status) {
    console.log(status);
}

Example Response

// Example of Status
{
    "error": false,
    "operation": "PNHereNowOperation",
    "statusCode": 200
}

// Example of Response
{
    "totalChannels": 1,
    "totalOccupancy": 3,
    "channels": {
        "my_channel": {
            "occupants": [
                {

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Return Occupancy Only

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.

You can return only the occupancy information for a single channel by specifying the channel and setting UUIDs to false:

try {
    const result = await pubnub.hereNow({
        channels: ["my_channel"],
        includeUUIDs: false,
    });
} catch (status) {
    console.log(status);
}

Example Response

// Example of Status
{
    "error": false,
    "operation": "PNHereNowOperation",
    "statusCode": 200
}

// Example of Response
{
    "totalChannels": 1,
    "totalOccupancy": 3,
    "channels": {
        "my_channel": {
            "occupants": [],
            "name": "my_channel",

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Channel Group Usage

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.

try {
    const result = await pubnub.hereNow({
        channelGroups: ["my_channel_group"],
    });
} catch (status) {
    console.log(status);
}

Example Response

// Example of Status
{
    "error": false,
    "operation": "PNHereNowOperation",
    "statusCode": 200
}

// Example of Response
{
    "totalChannels": 2,
    "totalOccupancy": 3,
    "channels": {
        "my_channel_1": {
            "occupants": [
                {

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Basic usage with Promises

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.

pubnub.hereNow({
    channels: ["ch1"],
    channelGroups : ["cg1"],
    includeUUIDs: true,
    includeState: true
}).then((response) => {
    console.log(response)
}).catch((error) => {
    console.log(error)
});

Where Now

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.

You can obtain information about the current list of channels to which a UUID is subscribed to by calling the whereNow function in your application.

Timeout events

If the app is killed/crashes and restarted (or the page containing the PubNub instance is refreshed on the browser) within the heartbeat window no timeout event is generated.

Method(s)

To call whereNow, you can use the following method(s) in the JavaScript SDK:

pubnub.whereNow({
    uuid: string
}): Promise<WhereNowResponse>

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Operation Arguments	Hash	Yes		A hash of arguments.
uuid	string	Optional	current uuid	Specifies the uuid to return channel list for.

Basic Usage

You simply need to define the uuid to be used to send the data to as in the example below.

Get a list of channels a UUID is subscribed to

try {
    const result = await pubnub.whereNow({
        uuid: "uuid",
    });
} catch (status) {
    console.log(status);
}

Response

// Example of Status
{
    error: false,
    operation: "PNWhereNowOperation",
    statusCode: 200
}

// Example of Response
{
    "channels": ["ch1", "ch2"]
}

Other Examples

Basic usage with Promises

pubnub.whereNow({
    uuid: "uuid"
}).then((response) => {
    console.log(response);
}).catch((error) => {
    console.log(error);
});

User 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.

The state API is used to set/get key/value pairs specific to a subscriber uuid.

State information is supplied as a JSON object of key/value pairs.

Method(s)

Set State

pubnub.setState({
    channels: Array<string> ,
    channelGroups: Array<string> ,
    state: any
}): Promise<SetStateResponse>;

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
Operation Arguments	Hash	Yes	A hash of arguments.
channels	Array	Optional	Either channels or channelGroups should be provided, Specifies the channels to set the state.
channelGroups	Array	Optional	Either channels or channelGroups should be provided, Specifies the Channel Group to set the state
state	any	Optional	JSON object of key/value pairs with supported data-types of int, float and string. Nesting of key/values is not permitted and key names beginning with prefix pn are reserved. If the state parameter is undefined, the current state for the specified uuid will be returned. If a specified key already exists for the uuid it will be over-written with the new value. Key values can be deleted by setting the particular value to null.

Get State

pubnub.getState({
    uuid: string,
    channels: Array<string>, 
    channelGroups: Array<string>
}): Promise<GetStateResponse>; 

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Operation Arguments	Hash	Yes		A hash of arguments.
uuid	String	Optional	current uuid	The subscriber uuid to get the current state.
channels	Array	Optional		Either channels or channelGroups should be provided, Specifies the channels to get the state.
channelGroups	Array	Optional		Either channels or channelGroups should be provided, Specifies the Channel Group to get the state.

Basic Usage

Set State

try {
    const result = await pubnub.setState({
        state: newState,
        channels: ["ch1"],
        channelGroups: ["cg1"],
    });
} catch (status) {
    console.log(status);
}

Get State

try {
    const result = await pubnub.getState({
        uuid: "uuid",
        channels: ["ch1"],
        channelGroups: ["cg1"],
    });
} catch (status) {
    console.log(status);
}

Response

Set State

// Example of Status
{
    error: false,
    operation: "PNSetStateOperation",
    statusCode: 200
}

// Example of Response
{
    state: {
        me: 'typing'
    }
}

Get State

// Example of Status
{
    error: false,
    operation: "PNGetStateOperation",
    statusCode: 200
}

// Example of Response
{
    channels: {
        ch1: {
            me: 'typing'
        }
    }
}

Other Examples

Set State Basic usage with Promises

pubnub.setState({
    state: newState,
    channels: ['ch1'],
    channelGroups: ['cg1']
}).then((response) => {
    console.log(response)
}).catch((error) => {
    console.log(error)
});

Get State Basic usage with Promises

pubnub.getState({
    uuid: "uuid",
    channels: ['ch1'],
    channelGroups: ['cg1']
}).then((response) => {
    console.log(response)
}).catch((error) => {
    console.log(error)
});