PHP API & SDK Docs 8.0.2

In this guide, we'll create a simple "Hello, World" application that demonstrates the core concepts of PubNub:

  • Setting up a connection
  • Sending messages
  • Receiving messages in real-time

Overview​

This guide will help you get up and running with PubNub in your PHP application. We'll create a simple application that demonstrates how to connect to PubNub, subscribe to channels, and publish messages.

The code examples will work in both web environments and command-line scripts, with notes indicating any environment-specific considerations when relevant.

Prerequisites​

Before we dive in, make sure you have:

  • A basic understanding of PHP (v7.0 or newer recommended)
  • PHP installed on your system (either on a web server or as CLI)
  • Composer (recommended) or the ability to manually manage dependencies
  • A PubNub account (we'll help you set this up!)

Setup​

Get your PubNub keys​

First things first – you'll need your PubNub keys to get started. Here's how to get them:

  • Sign in or create an account on the PubNub Admin Portal.
  • Create a new app (or use an existing one).
  • Find your publish and subscribe keys in the app's dashboard.

When you create a new app, PubNub automatically generates your first set of keys. While you can use the same keys for development and production, we recommend creating separate keysets for each environment for better security and management.

Install the SDK​

SDK version

Always use the latest SDK version to have access to the newest features and avoid security vulnerabilities, bugs, and performance issues.

Install the PHP SDK using Composer.

  1. For a fresh project (no existing code), run the following command in the project directory.

    composer init

  2. Then, run this command (for both the existing Composer projects and the newly initiated ones).

    composer require pubnub/pubnub‌

Steps​

Initialize PubNub​

Create a PHP file to initialize the PubNub client:

<?php

// Include Composer autoloader (adjust path if needed)
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

use PubNub\PNConfiguration;
use PubNub\PubNub;

// Create a new configuration instance
$pnConfiguration = new PNConfiguration();

// Set subscribe key (required)
$pnConfiguration->setSubscribeKey("demo"); // Replace with your subscribe key

// Set publish key (only required if publishing)
show all 28 lines

For more information, refer to the Configuration section of the SDK documentation.

Set up event listeners​

Listeners help your app react to events and messages. You can implement custom app logic to respond to each type of message or event.

There are two main types of listeners you'll need to set up:

  • Status listener - for connection state changes and operational events
  • Event listener - for messages and presence events

Set up listeners to handle events and messages:

<?php

use PubNub\Callbacks\SubscribeCallback;
use PubNub\Enums\PNStatusCategory;

class MySubscribeCallback extends SubscribeCallback {
    function status($pubnub, $status) {
        if ($status->getCategory() === PNStatusCategory::PNUnexpectedDisconnectCategory) {
            // This event happens when radio / connectivity is lost
            echo "Unexpected disconnect - network may be down" . PHP_EOL;
        } else if ($status->getCategory() === PNStatusCategory::PNConnectedCategory) {
            // Connect event. You can do stuff like publish, and know you'll get it
            echo "Connected to PubNub!" . PHP_EOL;
        } else if ($status->getCategory() === PNStatusCategory::PNDecryptionErrorCategory) {
            // Handle message decryption error
show all 39 lines

For more information, refer to the Listeners section of the SDK documentation.

Create a subscription​

To receive messages, you need to subscribe to a channel:

// Subscribe to a channel
$pubnub->subscribe()
    ->channels("hello_world")
    ->withPresence(true)  // Optional: subscribe to presence events
    ->execute();

This operation will block execution since the subscription is a long-running operation.

For web applications, you might want to:

  • Run subscriptions in a separate process that logs to a database.
  • Use AJAX or server-sent events to push updates to the client.
  • Consider using the PubNub JavaScript SDK for client-side real-time updates.

Publish messages​

When you publish a message to a channel, PubNub delivers that message to everyone who is subscribed to that channel.

A message can be any type of JSON-serializable data (such as objects, arrays, integers, strings) that is smaller than 32 KiB.

To send messages, use the publish() method:

<?php

use PubNub\Exceptions\PubNubServerException;
use PubNub\Exceptions\PubNubException;

// Assuming $pubnub is already initialized

try {
    // Create message data
    $messageData = [
        "text" => "Hello from PHP SDK!",
        "timestamp" => time(),
        "sender" => [
            "name" => "PHP Publisher",
            "id" => $pnConfiguration->getUserId()
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Run the app​

For the best experience with PHP, we recommend setting up two separate files:

  1. subscribe.php - Handles subscription and message reception
  2. publish.php - Handles message publishing

To run your PHP application:

  1. Open two terminal windows or sessions

  2. In the first terminal, run the subscriber script:

    php subscribe.php

  3. In the second terminal, run the publisher script:

    php publish.php

When running the subscriber, you should see a connection message:

Connected to PubNub!

After publishing a message, you should see output similar to:

Received message: {"text":"Hello from PHP SDK!","timestamp":1678912345,"sender":{"name":"PHP Publisher","id":"php-demo"}}
Publisher: php-publisher-demo
Channel: hello_world
Timetoken: 16789123450000000
Web environment

If you're working in a web environment, you'll likely need a different approach for subscriptions. Consider using the PubNub JavaScript SDK for real-time browser updates, or implement a polling mechanism to retrieve messages from history.

Complete example​

Here's a complete working example that puts everything together using two separate PHP files.

subscribe.php​

<?php

require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

use PubNub\PubNub;
use PubNub\Enums\PNStatusCategory;
use PubNub\Callbacks\SubscribeCallback;
use PubNub\PNConfiguration;

// Create configuration
$pnConfiguration = new PNConfiguration();
$pnConfiguration->setSubscribeKey("demo");
$pnConfiguration->setPublishKey("demo");
$pnConfiguration->setUserId("php-sdk-subscriber");

show all 58 lines

publish.php​

<?php

require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

use PubNub\PNConfiguration;
use PubNub\PubNub;
use PubNub\Exceptions\PubNubServerException;
use PubNub\Exceptions\PubNubException;

// Create configuration with demo keys
$pnConfig = new PNConfiguration();
$pnConfig->setSubscribeKey("demo");
$pnConfig->setPublishKey("demo");
$pnConfig->setUserId("php-publisher-demo");

show all 66 lines

Troubleshooting​

If you don't see the expected output, here are some common issues and how to fix them:

IssuePossible Solutions
No connection message
  • Check your internet connection.
  • Verify your publish and subscribe keys are correct.
  • Make sure you're not behind a firewall blocking PubNub's connections.
Message not received
  • Double-check that you're subscribed to the correct channel.
  • Verify that the message was actually sent (check for any error messages).
  • Make sure the subscriber is running before publishing messages.
Build errors
  • Ensure you've added the PubNub dependency correctly via Composer.
  • Check that you're using PHP 7.0 or higher.
  • Make sure all imports are correct.
Script terminates
  • For web environments, PHP scripts may timeout. Consider alternative approaches for long-running processes.
  • For CLI scripts, make sure nothing is causing the script to exit.

Next steps​

Great job! 🎉 You've successfully created your first PubNub application with PHP. Here are some exciting things you can explore next:

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