Cocoa Message Persistence API Reference for Real-time Apps

The PubNub Message Persistence Service provides real-time 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.

History

Requires Message Persistence add-on Requires that the Message Persistence 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 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 = NO)
Search for messages from the oldest end of the timeline by setting reverse to YES.
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 limit 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 Cocoa SDK:

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block;

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	`History` pull processing completion `block` which pass two arguments: result - in case of successful request processing data field will contain results of `history` request operation; status - in case if error occurred during request processing.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel withMetadata:(BOOL)shouldIncludeMetadata completion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`shouldIncludeMetadata`	BOOL	Yes	Whether event metadata should be included in response or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull completion `block`.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel withMessageActions:(BOOL)shouldIncludeMessageActions completion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`shouldIncludeMessageActions`	BOOL	Yes	Whether event actions should be included in response or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull completion `block`.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel withMetadata:(BOOL)shouldIncludeMetadata messageActions:(BOOL)shouldIncludeMessageActions completion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`shouldIncludeMetadata`	BOOL	Yes	Whether event metadata should be included in response or not.
`shouldIncludeMessageActions`	BOOL	Yes	Whether event actions should be included in response or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull completion `block`.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block;

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`startDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events.
`endDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull processing completion `block` which pass two arguments: result - in case of successful request processing data field will contain results of history request operation; status - in case if error occurred during request processing.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate includeMetadata:(BOOL)shouldIncludeMetadata withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`startDate`	NSNumber	No	Timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events. Value will be converted to required precision internally.
`endDate`	NSNumber	No	Timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out. Value will be converted to required precision internally.
`shouldIncludeMetadata`	BOOL	Yes	Whether event metadata should be included in response or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull completion `block`.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate includeMessageActions:(BOOL)shouldIncludeMessageActions withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`startDate`	NSNumber	No	Timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events. Value will be converted to required precision internally.
`endDate`	NSNumber	No	Timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out. Value will be converted to required precision internally.
`shouldIncludeMessageActions`	BOOL	Yes	Whether event actions should be included in response or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull completion `block`.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate includeMetadata:(BOOL)shouldIncludeMetadata includeMessageActions:(BOOL)shouldIncludeMessageActions withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`startDate`	NSNumber	No	Timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events. Value will be converted to required precision internally.
`endDate`	NSNumber	No	Timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out. Value will be converted to required precision internally.
`shouldIncludeMetadata`	BOOL	Yes	Whether event metadata should be included in response or not.
`shouldIncludeMessageActions`	BOOL	Yes	Whether event actions should be included in response or not. Throws an exception in case if API called with more than one `channel`.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull completion `block`.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate limit:(NSUInteger)limit withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block;

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`startDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events.
`endDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out.
`limit`	NSUInteger	Yes	Maximum number of events which should be returned in response (not more then 100).
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull processing completion `block` which pass two arguments: result - in case of successful request processing data field will contain results of history request operation; status - in case if error occurred during request processing.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate includeTimeToken:(BOOL)shouldIncludeTimeToken withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block;

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`startDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events.
`endDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out.
`shouldIncludeTimeToken`	Bool	Yes	Whether event dates (timetokens) should be included in response or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull processing completion `block` which pass two arguments: result - in case of successful request processing data field will contain results of history request operation; status - in case if error occurred during request processing.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate limit:(NSUInteger)limit includeTimeToken:(BOOL)shouldIncludeTimeToken withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block;

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`startDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events.
`endDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out.
`limit`	NSUInteger	Yes	Maximum number of events which should be returned in response (not more then 100).
`shouldIncludeTimeToken`	Bool	Yes	Whether event dates (timetokens) should be included in response or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull processing completion `block` which pass two arguments: result - in case of successful request processing data field will contain results of history request operation; status - in case if error occurred during request processing.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate limit:(NSUInteger)limit reverse:(BOOL)shouldReverseOrder withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block;

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`startDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events.
`endDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out.
`limit`	NSUInteger	Yes	Maximum number of events which should be returned in response (not more then 100).
`shouldReverseOrder`	Bool	Yes	Whether events order in response should be reversed or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull processing completion `block` which pass two arguments: result - in case of successful request processing data field will contain results of history request operation; status - in case if error occurred during request processing.

- (void)historyForChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate limit:(NSUInteger)limit reverse:(BOOL)shouldReverseOrder includeTimeToken:(BOOL)shouldIncludeTimeToken withCompletion:(PNHistoryCompletionBlock)block;

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	NSString	Yes	`Channel` name to retrieve the History information.
`startDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events.
`endDate`	NSNumber	No	Reference on timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out.
`limit`	NSUInteger	Yes	Maximum number of events which should be returned in response (not more then 100).
`shouldReverseOrder`	Bool	Yes	Whether events order in response should be reversed or not.
`shouldIncludeTimeToken`	Bool	Yes	Whether event dates (timetokens) should be included in response or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull processing completion `block` which pass two arguments: result - in case of successful request processing data field will contain results of history request operation; status - in case if error occurred during request processing.

Using the `reverse` parameter:

Messages are always returned sorted in ascending time direction from history regardless of reverse. The reverse direction matters when you have more than 100 (or limit, 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:

[self.client historyForChannel: @"my_channel" start:nil end:nil limit:100
                withCompletion:^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

    if (!status) {

        /**
         Handle downloaded history using:
            result.data.start - oldest message time stamp in response
            result.data.end - newest message time stamp in response
            result.data.messages - list of messages
         */
    }
    else {

        /**
         Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property
         to find out possible reason because of which request did fail.
         Review 'errorData' property (which has PNErrorData data type) of status
         object to get additional information about issue.

         Request can be resent using: [status retry];
         */
    }
}];

Response

The response object which is returned by the client when the history API is used:

@interface PNHistoryData : PNServiceData

// Channel history messages.
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) NSArray *messages;
// History time frame start time.
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) NSNumber *start;
// History time frame end time.
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) NSNumber *end;

@end

@interface PNHistoryResult : PNResult

// Stores reference on channel history request processing information.
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) PNHistoryData *data;

@end

Other Examples

Use historyForChannel to retrieve the three oldest messages by retrieving from the time line in reverse:

[self.client historyForChannel:@"my_channel" start:nil end:nil limit:3 reverse:YES
                withCompletion:^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

    if (!status) {

        /**
         Handle downloaded history using:
            result.data.start - oldest message time stamp in response
            result.data.end - newest message time stamp in response
            result.data.messages - list of messages
         */
    }
    else {

        /**
         Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property
         to find out possible reason because of which request did fail.
         Review 'errorData' property (which has PNErrorData data type) of status
         object to get additional information about issue.

         Request can be resent using: [status retry];
         */
    }
}];

Response:

[
    ["Pub1","Pub2","Pub3"],
    13406746729185766,
    13406746780720711
]

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

[self.client historyForChannel:@"my_channel" start:@(13406746780720711) end:nil limit:100
                       reverse:YES withCompletion:^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

    if (!status) {

        /**
         Handle downloaded history using:
            result.data.start - oldest message time stamp in response
            result.data.end - newest message time stamp in response
            result.data.messages - list of messages
         */
    }
    else {

        /**
         Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property
         to find out possible reason because of which request did fail.
         Review 'errorData' property (which has PNErrorData data type) of status
         object to get additional information about issue.

         Request can be resent using: [status retry];
         */
    }
}];

Response

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

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

[self.client historyForChannel:@"my_channel" start:nil end:@(13406746780720711) limit:100
              includeTimeToken:NO withCompletion:^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

    if (!status) {

        /**
         Handle downloaded history using:
            result.data.start - oldest message time stamp in response
            result.data.end - newest message time stamp in response
            result.data.messages - list of messages
         */
    }
    else {

        /**
         Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property
         to find out possible reason because of which request did fail.
         Review 'errorData' property (which has PNErrorData data type) of status
         object to get additional information about issue.

         Request can be resent using: [status retry];
         */
    }
}];

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.

// Pull out all messages newer than message sent at 14395051270438477.
[self historyFromStartDate:@(14395051270438477) onChannel:@"history_channel"
       withCompletionBlock:^(NSArray *messages) {

    NSLog(@"Messages from history: %@", messages);
}];

- (void)historyNewerThan:(NSNumber *)beginTime onChannel:(NSString *)channelName
     withCompletionBlock:(void (^)(NSArray *messages))block {

    NSMutableArray *msgs = [NSMutableArray new];
    [self historyFromStartDate:beginTime onChannel:channelName
                  withProgress:^(NSArray *objects) {

        [msgs addObjectsFromArray:objects];
        if (objects.count < 100) { block(msgs); }
    }];
}

- (void)historyFromStartDate:(NSNumber *)beginTime onChannel:(NSString *)channelName
                withProgress:(void (^)(NSArray *objects))block {

    __weak __typeof(self) weakSelf = self;
    [self.client historyForChannel:channelName start:beginTime end:nil limit:100
                           reverse:NO includeTimeToken:YES
                    withCompletion:^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

        __strong __typeof__(weakSelf) strongSelf = weakSelf;
        if (!status) {

            block(result.data.messages);
            if ([result.data.messages count] == 100) {

                [strongSelf historyFromStartDate:result.data.start onChannel:channelName
                                    withProgress:block];
            }
        }
        else {

            /**
             Handle message history download error. Check the 'category' property
             to find out why the request failed.
             Review the 'errorData' property (of type PNErrorData) of the status
             object to get additional information about the issue.

             Request can be resent using: [status retry];
            */
        }
    }];
}

Fetch messages with metadata

[self.client historyForChannel:@"storage" withMetadata:YES
                    completion:^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

    if (!status.isError) {
       /**
        * Fetched data available here:
        *   result.data.channels - dictionary with single key (name of requested channel) and
        *       list of dictionaries as value. Each entry will include two keys: "message" - for
        *       body and "metadata" for meta which has been added during message publish.
        */
    } else {
       /**
        * Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property to find out possible
        * issue because of which request did fail.
        *
        * Request can be resent using: [status retry];
        */
    }
}];

Fetch messages with actions

[self.client historyForChannel:@"chat" withMessageActions:YES
                    completion:^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

    if (!status.isError) {
       /**
        * Fetched data available here:
        *   result.data.channels - dictionary with single key (name of requested channel) and
        *       list of dictionaries. Each entry will include two keys: "message" - for body and
        *       "actions" for list of added actions.
        */
    } else {
       /**
        * Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property to find out possible
        * issue because of which request did fail.
        *
        * Request can be resent using: [status retry];
        */
    }
}];

Fetch messages with metadata and actions

[self.client historyForChannel:@"chat" withMetadata:YES messageActions:YES
                    completion:^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

    if (!status.isError) {
       /**
        * Fetched data available here:
        *   result.data.channels - dictionary with single key (name of requested channel) and
        *       list of dictionaries. Each entry will include three keys: "message" - for body,
        *       "metadata" for meta which has been added during message publish and "actions"
        *       for list of added actions.
        */
    } else {
       /**
        * Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property to find out possible
        * issue because of which request did fail.
        *
        * Request can be resent using: [status retry];
        */
    }
}];

History (Builder Pattern)

Description

This function fetches historical messages of a channel.

This method uses the builder pattern; you can omit any optional arguments.

Method(s)

To get channel history using the Builder pattern, use the following method(s) in the Cocoa SDK:

- history().channels(NSArray *).start(NSNumber *).end(NSNumber *).limit(NSUInteger).reverse(BOOL).includeMetadata(BOOL).shouldIncludeMessageType(BOOL).shouldIncludeUUID(BOOL).includeMessageActions(BOOL).includeTimeToken(BOOL).performWithCompletion(PNHistoryCompletionBlock);

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channels`	NSString	Yes	List of `channels` for which history should be returned.
`start`	NSNumber	No	Timetoken for oldest event starting from which next should be returned events. Value will be converted to required precision internally.
`end`	NSNumber	No	Timetoken for latest event till which events should be pulled out. Value will be converted to required precision internally.
`limit`	NSUInteger	No	Maximum number of messages which should be returned for each channel. Default and maximum value is 100 for a single channel, 25 for multiple channels, and 25 when `includeMessageActions` is `YES`.
`reverse`	BOOL	No	Setting to `YES` traverses the time line in reverse, starting with the oldest message first.
`includeMetadata`	BOOL	No	Whether event metadata should be included in response or not.
`shouldIncludeMessageType`	BOOL	No	Pass `YES` to receive the message type with each history message. Default is `YES`.
`shouldIncludeUUID`	BOOL	No	Pass `YES` to receive the publisher uuid with each history message. Default is `YES`.
`includeMessageActions`	BOOL	No	Whether event actions should be included in response or not. When `YES`, throws an exception if you call the method with more than one `channel`.
`includeTimeToken`	BOOL	No	Whether event dates (timetokens) should be included in response or not.
`block`	PNHistoryCompletionBlock	Yes	History pull completion `block`.

Using the `reverse` parameter:

Basic Usage

self.client.history().channels(@[@"my_channel"]).limit(15).performWithCompletion(^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

    if (status == nil) {

        /**
         Handle downloaded history using:
         result.data.channels - dictionary with channels' history. Each key is channel name and value is
                                list of fetched messages.
         */
    }
    else {

        /**
         Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property
         to find out possible reason because of which request did fail.
         Review 'errorData' property (which has PNErrorData data type) of status
         object to get additional information about issue.

         Request can be resent using: [status retry]
         */
    }
});

Response

Response objects which is returned by client when fetch messages History API is used:

@interface PNHistoryData : PNServiceData

/**
 * Channel history messages.
 *
 * Set only for PNHistoryOperation operation and will be empty array for other operation types.
 */
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) NSArray *messages;

/**
 * Channels history.
 *
 * Each key represent name of channel for which messages has been received and values is list of
 * messages from channel's storage.
 *
 * For PNHistoryOperation operation this property always will be empty dictionary.
 */
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) NSDictionary<NSString *, NSArray *> *channels;

/**
 * Fetched history time frame start time.
 *
 * Set only for PNHistoryOperation operation and will be 0 for other operation types.
 */
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) NSNumber *start;

/**
 * Fetched history time frame end time.
 *
 * Set only for PNHistoryOperation operation and will be 0 for other operation types.
 */
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) NSNumber *end;

@end

@interface PNHistoryResult : PNResult

// Fetch history request processed information.
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) PNHistoryData *data;

@end

Error response which is used in case of History API call failure:

@interface PNErrorData : PNServiceData

// Stringified error information.
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) NSString *information;

@end

@interface PNErrorStatus : PNStatus

// Whether status object represent error or not.
@property (nonatomic, readonly, assign, getter = isError) BOOL error;

// Additional information related to error status object.
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) PNErrorData *errorData;

@end

Other Examples

Fetch messages with metadata

self.client.history()
    .channel(@"storage")
    .includeMetadata(YES)
    .performWithCompletion(^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {
        if (!status.isError) {
           /**
            * Fetched data available here:
            *   result.data.channels - dictionary with single key (name of requested channel) and
            *       list of dictionaries as value. Each entry will include two keys: "message" - for
            *       body and "metadata" for meta which has been added during message publish.
            */
        } else {
           /**
            * Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property to find out possible
            * issue because of which request did fail.
            *
            * Request can be resent using: [status retry];
            */
        }
    });

Fetch messages with actions

self.client.history()
    .channel(@"chat")
    .includeMessageActions(YES)
    .performWithCompletion(^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {
        if (!status.isError) {
           /**
            * Fetched data available here:
            *   result.data.channels - dictionary with single key (name of requested channel) and
            *       list of dictionaries. Each entry will include two keys: "message" - for body and
            *       "actions" for list of added actions.
            */
        } else {
           /**
            * Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property to find out possible
            * issue because of which request did fail.
            *
            * Request can be resent using: [status retry];
            */
        }
    });

Fetch messages with metadata and actions

self.client.history()
    .channel(@"chat")
    .includeMetadata(YES)
    .includeMessageActions(YES)
    .performWithCompletion(^(PNHistoryResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {
        if (!status.isError) {
           /**
            * Fetched data available here:
            *   result.data.channels - dictionary with single key (name of requested channel) and
            *       list of dictionaries. Each entry will include three keys: "message" - for body,
            *       "metadata" for meta which has been added during message publish and "actions"
            *       for list of added actions.
            */
        } else {
           /**
            * Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property to find out possible
            * issue because of which request did fail.
            *
            * Request can be resent using: [status retry];
            */
        }
    });

Delete Messages from History

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 Cocoa SDK.

- (void)deleteMessagesFromChannel:(NSString *)channel start:(nullable NSNumber *)startDate end:(nullable NSNumber *)endDate withCompletion:(nullable PNMessageDeleteCompletionBlock)block

Basic Usage

[self.client deleteMessagesFromChannel:@"channel" start:@15101397027611671 end:@15101397427611671
                        withCompletion:^(PNAcknowledgmentStatus *status) {

    if (!status.isError) {
        // Messages within specified time frame has been removed.
    } else {
       /**
        * Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property to find out possible
        * issue because of which request did fail.
        *
        * Request can be resent using: [status retry];
        */
    }
}];

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.

[self.client deleteMessagesFromChannel:@"channel" start:@15526611838554310 end:@15526611838554309
                        withCompletion:^(PNAcknowledgmentStatus *status) {

    if (!status.isError) {
        // Messages within specified time frame has been removed.
    } else {
       /**
        * Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property to find out possible
        * issue because of which request did fail.
        *
        * Request can be resent using: [status retry];
        */
    }
}];

Delete Messages from History (Builder Pattern)

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 Cocoa SDK.

- deleteMessage().channel(NSString *).start(NSNumber *).end(NSNumber *).performWithCompletion(PNAcknowledgmentStatus *)

Basic Usage

self.client.deleteMessage().channel(@"channel").start(@15101397027611671).end(@15101397427611671)
    .performWithCompletion(^(PNAcknowledgmentStatus *status) {

    if (!status.isError) {
        // Messages within specified time frame has been removed.
    } else {
       /**
        * Handle message history download error. Check 'category' property to find out possible
        * issue because of which request did fail.
        *
        * Request can be resent using: [status retry];
        */
    }
});

Message Counts

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 timetokensparameter.

Note

For keys with unlimited message retention enabled, this method considers only messages published in the last 30 days.

Method(s)

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

messageCounts().channels(NSArray<NSString *> *).timetokens(NSArray<NSNumber *> *).performWithCompletion(PNMessageCountCompletionBlock)

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channels`	NSArray<NSString >	Yes	The `channels` to fetch the message count
`timetokens`	NSArray<NSNumber >	Yes	List with single or multiple timetokens, where each timetoken position in correspond to target `channel` location in channel names list.
`completion`	PNMessageCountCompletionBlock	Yes	Messages count fetch completion closure which pass two arguments: `result` - in case of successful request processing data field will contain results of message count fetch operation; `status` - in case of error occurred during request processing.

Basic Usage

self.client.messageCounts().channels(@[@"unread-channel-1", @"unread-channel-2"])
    .timetokens(@[@(15501015683744028)])
    .performWithCompletion(^(PNMessageCountResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

        if (!status.isError) {
            // Client state retrieved number of messages for channels.
        } else {
            /**
             Handle client state modification error. Check 'category' property
             to find out possible reason because of which request did fail.
             Review 'errorData' property (which has PNErrorData data type) of status
             object to get additional information about issue.

             Request can be resent using: [status retry]
            */
        }
    });

Returns

Note

Channels without messages have a count of 0. Channels with 10,000 messages or more have a count of 10000.

@interface PNMessageCountData : PNServiceData

/**
 * @brief Dictionary where each key is name of channel and value is number of messages in it.
 */
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) NSDictionary<NSString *, NSNumber *> *channels;

@end

@interface PNMessageCountResult : PNResult

/**
 * @brief Message count request processing information.
 */
@property (nonatomic, readonly, strong) PNMessageCountData *data;

@end

Other Examples

Retrieve count of messages using different timetokens for each channel

self.client.messageCounts().channels(@[@"unread-channel-1", @"unread-channel-2"])
    .timetokens(@[@(15501015683744028), @(15501015683744130)])
    .performWithCompletion(^(PNMessageCountResult *result, PNErrorStatus *status) {

        if (!status.isError) {
            // Client state retrieved number of messages for channels.
        } else {
            /**
             Handle client state modification error. Check 'category' property
             to find out possible reason because of which request did fail.
             Review 'errorData' property (which has PNErrorData data type) of status
             object to get additional information about issue.

             Request can be resent using: [status retry]
            */
        }
    });

History

Description

Start & End parameter usage clarity:

Method(s)

Using the reverse parameter:

Basic Usage

Response

Other Examples

Usage!

History (Builder Pattern)

Description

Method(s)

Using the reverse parameter:

Basic Usage

Response

Other Examples

Delete Messages from History

Description

Note

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Other Examples

Delete Messages from History (Builder Pattern)

Description

Note

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Message Counts

Description

Note

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Returns

Note

Other Examples

Using the `reverse` parameter:

Using the `reverse` parameter: