Python Message Actions API Reference for Realtime Apps

Python version support

Python SDK versions 5.0.0 and higher no longer support Python v2.7 and the Twisted and Tornado frameworks. If you require support for any of these, use SDK version 4.8.1.

Note that PubNub will stop supporting versions of Python lower than 3.7 by the end of 2021.

Add or remove actions on published messages to build features like receipts, reactions, or to associate custom metadata to messages. Clients can subscribe to a channel to receive message action events on that channel. They can also fetch past message actions from PubNub Storage independently or when they fetch original messages.

Add Message Action

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

Add an action on a published message. Returns the added action in the response.

Method(s)

To Add a Message Action you can use the following method(s) in the Python SDK:

pubnub.add_message_action()
  .channel(String channel)
  .message_action(PNMessageAction message_action)
  .pn_async(Function message_action_callback)

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	String	Yes	The channel name to which to add the message action
`message_action`	`PNMessageAction`	Yes	Message action information
`message_action.type`	String	Yes	What feature this message action represents
`message_action.value`	String	Yes	Value to be stored along with the message action
`message_action.message_timetoken`	Integer	Yes	Timetoken of the message to which to add the action
`message_action_callback`	Function	Yes	Handles returned data for successful and unsuccessful add message action operations. Details on the callback are here

Basic Usage

msg_action = PNMessageAction()
msg_action.type = "reaction"
msg_action.value = "smiley_face"
msg_action.message_timetoken = str(int(time.time()))

pubnub.add_message_action()\
  .channel("chats.room1")\
  .message_action(msg_action)\
  .pn_async(message_action_callback)

Returns

# Example of status
{
  'affected_channels': None,
  'affected_channels_groups': None,
  'affected_groups': None,
  'auth_key': None,
  'category': 2,
  'client_response': None,
  'error': None,
  'error_data': None,
  'operation': 42,
  'origin': 'ps.pndsn.com',
  'status_code': 200,
  'tls_enabled': True,
  'uuid': 'my_uuid'
}

# Example of envelope
{
  'action_timetoken': '15956343330507960',
  'message_timetoken': '1595634332',
  'type': 'reaction',
  'uuid': 'my_uuid',
  'value': 'smiley_face'
}

Remove Message Action

Description

Remove a previously added action on a published message. Returns an empty response.

Method(s)

To Remove a Message Action you can use the following method(s) in the JavaScript SDK:

pubnub.remove_message_action()
  .channel(String channel)
  .action_timetoken(Integer action_timetoken)
  .message_timetoken(Integer message_timetoken)
  .pn_async(message_action_callback)

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	String	Yes	The channel name from which to remove the message action
`action_timetoken`	Integer	Yes	Timetoken of the message action to be removed
`message_timetoken`	Integer	Yes	Timetoken of the message from which to remove the action
`message_action_callback`	Function	Yes	Handles returned data for successful and unsuccessful remove message action operations. Details on the callback are here

Basic Usage

pubnub.remove_message_action()\
  .channel("chats.room1")\
  .action_timetoken(15956346328442840)\
  .message_timetoken(1595634632)\
  .pn_async(message_action_callback)

Returns

# Example of status
{
  'affected_channels': None,
  'affected_channels_groups': None,
  'affected_groups': None,
  'auth_key': None,
  'category': 2,
  'client_response': None,
  'error': None,
  'error_data': None,
  'operation': 44,
  'origin': 'ps.pndsn.com',
  'status_code': 200,
  'tls_enabled': True,
  'uuid': 'my_uuid'
}

# Example of envelope in case of success (empty object)
{}

Get Message Actions

Description

Get a list of message actions in a channel. Returns a list of actions in the response.

Method(s)

To Get Message Actions you can use the following method(s) in the Python SDK:

pubnub.get_message_actions()
  .channel(String channel)
  .start(String start)
  .end(String end)
  .limit(Integer limit)
  .pn_async(message_action_callback)

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`channel`	String	Yes	The channel name for which to retrieve the list of message actions
`start`	String	No	Message action timetoken denoting the start of the range requested. Return values will be less than `start`. If not specified, defaults to the current time.
`end`	String	No	Message action timetoken denoting the end of the range requested. Return values will be greater than or equal to `end`. If `start` is specified, `end` must be less than or equal to `start`.
`limit`	Integer	No	Maximum number of message actions to return in the response. If the number of results exceeds this limit, the results will include a `more` token. Refer to the REST API documentation for details.
`message_action_callback`	Function	Yes	Handles returned data for successful and unsuccessful retrieve message action operations. Details on the callback are here

Basic Usage

# Retrieve all reactions on a single message

pubnub.get_message_actions()\
  .channel("chats.room1")\
  .start("15956342921084731")\
  .end("15956342921084730")\
  .limit(50)\
  .pn_async(message_action_callback)

Returns

# Example of status
{
  'affected_channels': None,
  'affected_channels_groups': None,
  'affected_groups': None,
  'auth_key': None,
  'category': 2,
  'client_response': None,
  'error': None,
  'error_data': None,
  'operation': 43,
  'origin': 'ps.pndsn.com',
  'status_code': 200,
  'tls_enabled': True,
  'uuid': 'my_uuid'
}

# Example of envelope
{
  'actions': [
    {
      'actionTimetoken': '15956373593404068',
      'messageTimetoken': '15956342921084730',
      'type': 'reaction',
      'uuid': 'my_uuid',
      'value': 'smiley_face'
    }
  ]
}

PNMessageAction Callback

Description

The structure of a PNMessageAction is as follows:

action = PNMessageAction({
        'uuid': 'user1',
        'type': 'reaction',
        'value': 'smiley_face',
        'actionTimetoken': '15901706735798836',
        'messageTimetoken': '15901706735795200',
    })

The following is a sample message_action_callback method you can use as a starting point for your own implementation:

def message_action_callback(envelope, status):
    if status.is_error():
        print("Uh oh. We had a problem sending the message. :( \n %s" % status)
    else:
        if isinstance(envelope, PNAddMessageActionResult):
            print("Message Action type: %s" % envelope.type)
            print("Message Action value: %s" % envelope.value)
            print("Message Action timetoken: %s" % envelope.message_timetoken)
            print("Message Action uuid: %s" % envelope.uuid)
            print("Message Action timetoken: %s" % envelope.action_timetoken)
        elif isinstance(envelope, PNRemoveMessageActionResult):
            # Envelope here is an empty dictionary {}
            pass
        elif isinstance(envelope, PNGetMessageActionsResult):
            print("Message Actions Result:\n")
            for action in envelope.actions:
                print("Message Action type: %s" % action.type)
                print("Message Action value: %s" % action.value)
                print("Message Action timetoken: %s" % action.message_timetoken)
                print("Message Action uuid: %s" % action.uuid)
                print("Message Action timetoken: %s" % action.action_timetoken)
                print("")