Message Actions API for Ruby SDK

Use message actions to add or remove metadata on published messages. Common uses include receipts and reactions. Clients subscribe to a channel to receive message action events. Clients can also fetch past message actions from Message Persistence independently or when they fetch original messages.

Reactions

"Message Reactions" is a specific application of the Message Actions API for emoji or social reactions.

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 to a published message. The response includes the added action.

Method(s)

Use this Ruby method:

1add_message_action(
2    channel: channel,
3    type: type,
4    value: value,
5    message_timetoken: message_timetoken,
6    http_sync: http_sync,
7    callback: callback
8)

* required

Parameter	Description
channel * Type: String Default: n/a	Channel name to add the message action to.
type * Type: String Default: n/a	Message action type (max 15 characters).
value * Type: String Default: n/a	Message action value.
message_timetoken * Type: Integer Default: n/a	Timetoken of the target message.
http_sync Type: Boolean Default: false	When true, executes synchronously and returns an array of envelopes.
callback Type: Lambda accepting one parameter Default: n/a	Callback invoked for each envelope (for async calls, use value to retrieve the envelope).

Sample code

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.

1require 'pubnub'
2

3def add_message_action(pubnub)
4  puts "Adding message action..."
5  pubnub.add_message_action(
6    channel: 'chat',
7    type: 'emotion',
8    value: 'smile',
9    message_timetoken: 16701562382648731
10  ) do |envelope|
11    if envelope.status[:error]
12      puts "Error adding message action: #{envelope.status[:data]}"
13    else
14      puts "Message action added successfully:"
15      puts "Type: #{envelope.result[:data][:type]}"
16      puts "Value: #{envelope.result[:data][:value]}"
17      puts "UUID: #{envelope.result[:data][:uuid]}"
18      puts "Action Timetoken: #{envelope.result[:data][:action_timetoken]}"
19      puts "Message Timetoken: #{envelope.result[:data][:message_timetoken]}"
20    end
21  end
22  sleep 1 # Allow time for the async operation to complete
23end
24

25def main
26  # Configuration for PubNub instance
27  pubnub = Pubnub.new(
28    subscribe_key: ENV.fetch('SUBSCRIBE_KEY', 'demo'),
29    user_id: 'myUniqueUserId'
30  )
31

32  # Add message action
33  add_message_action(pubnub)
34end
35

36if __FILE__ == $0
37  main
38  puts "Done."
39end

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Response

1#<Pubnub::Envelope
2    @result = {
3        :data => {
4            :type => "emotion",
5            :value => "smile",
6            :uuid => "sender-uuid",
7            :action_timetoken => 16701656660127890,
8            :message_timetoken => 16701562382648731
9        }
10    },
11    @status = {
12        :code => 200
13    }
14>

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 from a published message. The response is empty.

Method(s)

Use this Ruby method:

1remove_message_action(
2    channel: channel,
3    message_timetoken: message_timetoken,
4    action_timetoken: action_timetoken,
5    http_sync: http_sync,
6    callback: callback
7)

* required

Parameter	Description
channel * Type: String Default: n/a	Channel name to remove the message action from.
message_timetoken * Type: Integer Default: n/a	Timetoken of the target message.
action_timetoken * Type: Integer Default: n/a	Timetoken of the message action to remove.
http_sync Type: Boolean Default: false	When true, executes synchronously and returns an array of envelopes.
callback Type: Lambda accepting one parameter Default: n/a	Callback invoked for each envelope (for async calls, use value to retrieve the envelope).

Sample code

1pubnub.add_message_action(
2    channel: 'chat',
3    message_timetoken: 16701562382648731,
4    action_timetoken: 16701656660127890
5) do |envelope|
6    puts envelope
7end

Response

1#<Pubnub::Envelope
2    @status = {
3        :code => 200,
4        :category => :ack,
5        :error => false,
6    }
7>

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. The response sorts actions by the action timetoken in ascending order.

How to use the start and end parameters

PubNub retrieves messages by searching backward through time (newest to oldest). Because of this, the parameter names are the reverse of their intuitive meaning:

• start is the newer boundary (higher timetoken value) - search begins here, exclusive
• end is the older boundary (lower timetoken value) - search stops here, inclusive

When you provide both parameters, start must be a higher timetoken than end.

9:00 AM10:00 AM11:00 AM11:59 AM

Results are always returned in oldest-first order.

Method(s)

Use this Ruby method:

1get_message_actions(
2    channel: channel,
3    start: start,
4    end: end,
5    limit: limit,
6    http_sync: http_sync,
7    callback: callback
8)

* required

Parameter	Description
channel * Type: String Default: n/a	Channel name to list message actions for.
start Type: Integer Default: n/a	Newer boundary of the query (exclusive). Must be a higher timetoken value than end when both are provided.
end Type: Integer Default: n/a	Older boundary of the query (inclusive). Must be a lower timetoken value than start when both are provided.
limit Type: Integer Default: n/a	Number of message actions to return.
http_sync Type: Boolean Default: false	When true, executes synchronously and returns an array of envelopes.
callback Type: Lambda accepting one parameter Default: n/a	Callback invoked for each envelope (for async calls, use value to retrieve the envelope).

Sample code

1pubnub.get_message_actions(
2    channel: 'chat',
3    start: 16701562382648731,
4    end: 16701562382348728
5) do |envelope|
6    puts envelope
7end

Response

1#<Pubnub::Envelope
2    @result = {
3        :data => {
4            :message_actions => [
5                {
6                    :type => "emotion_type_2",
7                    :uuid => "sender-uuid-1",
8                    :value => "surprised",
9                    :message_timetoken => 16703307481706612,
10                    :action_timetoken => 16703307649086202,
11                },
12                {
13                    :type => "emotion_type_3",
14                    :uuid => "sender-uuid-2",
15                    :value => "lol",
16                    :message_timetoken => 16703307492166434,
17                    :action_timetoken => 16703307659619240,
18                },
19                {
20                    :type => "emotion_type_1",
21                    :uuid => "sender-uuid-1",
22                    :value => "tada",
23                    :message_timetoken => 16703307461212395,
24                    :action_timetoken => 16703307702035502,
25                }
26            ],
27            :more => {
28                :start => 16703307481706612,
29                :end => 16703307481706612,
30                :limit => 3
31            }
32        }
33    },
34    @status = {
35        :code => 200
36    }
37>

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