Message Actions API for Python SDK

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 Message Persistence independently or when they fetch original messages.

Request execution and return values

You can decide whether to perform the Python SDK operations synchronously or asynchronously.

.sync() returns an Envelope object, which has two fields: Envelope.result, whose type differs for each API, and Envelope.status of type PnStatus.
```
pubnub.publish() \
    .channel("myChannel") \
    .message("Hello from PubNub Python SDK") \
    .sync()
```

.pn_async(callback) returns None and passes the values of Envelope.result and Envelope.status to a callback you must define beforehand.

def my_callback_function(result, status):
    print(f'TT: {result.timetoken}, status: {status.category.name}')

pubnub.publish() \
    .channel("myChannel") \
    .message("Hello from PubNub Python SDK") \
    .pn_async(my_callback_function)

Message Actions vs. Message Reactions

Message Actions is the flexible, low-level API for adding any metadata to messages (read receipts, delivery confirmations, custom data), while Message Reactions specifically refers to using Message Actions for emoji/social reactions.

In PubNub Core and Chat SDKs, the same underlying Message Actions API is referred to as Message Reactions when used for emoji reactions - it's the same functionality, just different terminology depending on the use case.

Add Message Action

Requires Message Persistence

This method requires that Message Persistence is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal.

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) \
    .message_action(PNMessageAction) \
    .pn_async(Function message_action_callback)

* required

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

Basic Usage

Reference code

This example is a self-contained code snippet ready to be run. It includes necessary imports and executes methods with console logging. Use it as a reference when working with other examples in this document.

Builder Pattern
Named Arguments

import os
import time
from pubnub.pnconfiguration import PNConfiguration
from pubnub.pubnub import PubNub
from pubnub.models.consumer.message_actions import PNMessageAction


def add_message_action(pubnub: PubNub):
    msg_action = PNMessageAction()
    msg_action.type = "reaction"
    msg_action.value = "smiley_face"
    msg_action.message_timetoken = str(int(time.time()))

    result = pubnub.add_message_action() \
        .channel("chats.room1") \
show all 42 lines

import os
import time
from pubnub.pnconfiguration import PNConfiguration
from pubnub.pubnub import PubNub
from pubnub.models.consumer.message_actions import PNMessageAction


def add_message_action(pubnub: PubNub):
    msg_action = PNMessageAction()
    msg_action.type = "reaction"
    msg_action.value = "smiley_face"
    msg_action.message_timetoken = str(int(time.time()))

    result = pubnub.add_message_action(
        channel="chats.room1",
show all 42 lines

Returns

The add_message_action() operation returns an Envelope which contains the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
result	`PNAddMessageActionResult`	A detailed object containing the result of the operation.
status	`PNStatus`	A status object with additional information.

PNAddMessageActionResult

{
  'action_timetoken': '15956343330507960',
  'message_timetoken': '1595634332',
  'type': 'reaction',
  'uuid': 'my_uuid',
  'value': 'smiley_face'
}

Remove Message Action

Requires Message Persistence

This method requires that Message Persistence is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal.

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) \
    .action_timetoken(Integer) \
    .message_timetoken(Integer) \
    .pn_async(message_action_callback)

* required

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

Basic Usage

Builder Pattern
Named Arguments

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

from pubnub.models.consumer.message_actions import PNMessageAction

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

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

Returns

The remove_message_action() operation returns an Envelope which contains the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
result	`PNRemoveMessageActionResult`	A detailed object containing the result of the operation.
status	`PNStatus`	A status object with additional information.

PNRemoveMessageActionResult

# in case of success (empty object)
{}

Get Message Actions

Requires Message Persistence

This method requires that Message Persistence is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal.

Get a list of message actions in a channel. Returns a list of actions sorted by the action's timetoken in ascending order.

Method(s)

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

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

* required

Parameter	Description
`channel` * Type: String	The channel name for which to retrieve the list of message actions
`start` Type: String	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` Type: String	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` Type: Integer	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` * Type: Function	Handles returned data for successful and unsuccessful retrieve message action operations. Details on the callback are here

Basic Usage

Builder Pattern
Named Arguments

# Retrieve all actions on a single message

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

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

Returns

The get_message_actions operation returns an Envelope which contains the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
result	`PNGetMessageActionsResult`	A detailed object containing the result of the operation.
status	`PNStatus`	A status object with additional information.

PNGetMessageActionsResult

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

PNMessageAction Callback

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(f"Uh oh. We had a problem sending the message. :( \n {status}")
        return
    if isinstance(envelope, PNAddMessageActionResult):
        print(f"Message Action type: {envelope.type}")
        print(f"Message Action value: {envelope.value}")
        print(f"Message Action timetoken: {envelope.message_timetoken}")
        print(f"Message Action uuid: {envelope.uuid}")
        print(f"Message Action timetoken: {envelope.action_timetoken}")
    elif isinstance(envelope, PNRemoveMessageActionResult):
        # Envelope here is an empty dictionary {}
        pass
    elif isinstance(envelope, PNGetMessageActionsResult):
        print("Message Actions Result:\n")
show all 22 lines

Request execution and return values

Message Actions vs. Message Reactions

Add Message Action​

Requires Message Persistence

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Reference code

Returns​

PNAddMessageActionResult​

Remove Message Action​

Requires Message Persistence

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Returns​

PNRemoveMessageActionResult​

Get Message Actions​

Requires Message Persistence

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Returns​

PNGetMessageActionsResult​

PNMessageAction Callback​

Add Message Action

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Returns

PNAddMessageActionResult

Remove Message Action

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Returns

PNRemoveMessageActionResult

Get Message Actions

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Returns

PNGetMessageActionsResult

PNMessageAction Callback