Message Persistence API for PubNub Unity SDK

The message persistence service provides real-time access to the history of 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 locations. Stored messages can be encrypted with AES-256 message encryption, ensuring that they are not readable while stored on PubNub's network. For more information, refer to Message Persistence.

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.

You can retrieve the following:

Messages
Message actions
Files (using Files API)

Fetch History

Requires Presence add-on

This method requires that the Presence add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

Description

This function fetches historical messages from one or multiple channels. The includeMessageActions flag also allows you to fetch message actions along with the messages.

It's possible to control how messages are returned and in what order.

if you specify only the start parameter (without end), you will receive messages that are older than the start timetoken
if you specify only the end parameter (without start), you will receive messages from that end timetoken and newer
if you specify values for both start and end parameters, you will retrieve messages between those timetokens (inclusive of the end value)

You will receive a maximum of 100 messages for a single channel or 25 messages for multiple channels (up to 500). If more messages meet the timetoken criteria, make iterative calls while adjusting the start timetoken to fetch the entire list of messages from storage.

Method(s)

To run Fetch History, you can use the following method(s) in the Unity V4 SDK:

pubnub.FetchMessages().Channels(List<string>).Count(int).Reverse(bool).IncludeMeta(bool).IncludeMessageActions(bool).Start(long).End(long).QueryParam(Dictionary<string,string>).Async()

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`Channels`	`List<string>`	Yes		Specifies `channel` to return history messages from. Maximum of 500 channels are allowed.
`Count`	int	Optional	`100` or `25`	Specifies the number of historical messages to return. Default and maximum is 100 for a single channel, 25 for multiple channels, and 25 if `IncludeMessageActions` is `true`.
`Reverse`	bool	Optional	`false`	Setting to `true` will traverse the time line in reverse starting with the oldest message first.
`IncludeMeta`	bool	Optional	`false`	Whether meta (passed when Publishing the message) should be included in response or not.
`IncludeMessageActions`	bool	Optional		The flag denoting to retrieve history messages with `message` actions. If `true`, the method is limited to one channel only.
`Start`	long	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the `start` of time slice (exclusive) to pull messages from.
`End`	long	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the `end` of time slice (inclusive) to pull messages from.
`QueryParam`	Dictionary<string, string>	Optional		QueryParam accepts a Dictionary object, the keys and values are passed as the query string parameters of the URL called by the API.
`Async`	PNCallback	Yes		`PNCallback` of type `PNHistoryResult`.

Truncated response

If you fetch messages with messages actions, the number of messages in the response may be truncated when internal limits are hit. If the response is truncated, a more property will be returned with additional parameters. Send iterative calls to history adjusting the parameters to fetch more messages.

Basic Usage

Retrieve the last message on a channel:

pubnub.FetchMessages()
    .Channels(new List<string>{"channel2"})
    .Async ((result, status) => {
        if(status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format(" FetchMessages Error: {0} {1} {2}", status.StatusCode, status.ErrorData, status.Category));
        } else {
            Debug.Log (string.Format("In FetchMessages, result: "));//,result.EndTimetoken, result.Messages[0].ToString()));
            foreach(KeyValuePair<string, List<PNMessageResult>> kvp in result.Channels){
                Debug.Log("kvp channelname" + kvp.Key);
                foreach(PNMessageResult pnMessageResut in kvp.Value){
                    Debug.Log("Channel: " + pnMessageResut.Channel);
                    Debug.Log("payload: " + pnMessageResut.Payload.ToString());
                    Debug.Log("timetoken: " + pnMessageResut.Timetoken.ToString());
                }
            }
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Returns

The response is of the type PNFetchMessagesResult.

Key	Value	Description
`Channels`	Dictionary<string, PNMessageResult >	The returned `PNMessageResult` is the same as the one returned by the subscribe operation. Refer to the Returns section of the Subscribe documentation for more information.
`More`	Dictionary<string, object>	This field is returned when the server hasn't returned all messages. You should make another `FetchMessages()` call starting from `start` time and set the max value to `max`. If you want to use REST, you also need the `url` parameter. These three values are returned in the `More` field and you can access the using `More["url"]`.

Delete Messages from History

Requires Presence add-on

This method requires that the Presence add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

Description

Removes the messages from the history of a specific channel.

Required setting

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 Unity V4 SDK.

pubnub.DeleteMessages().Channel(string).Start(long).End(long).QueryParam(Dictionary<string,string>).Async()

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`Channels`	string	Yes	Specifies `channels` to delete messages from.
`Start`	long	Optional	Timetoken delimiting the `start` of time slice (inclusive) to delete messages from.
`End`	long	Optional	Timetoken delimiting the `end` of time slice (exclusive) to delete messages from.
`QueryParam`	Dictionary<string, string>	Optional	QueryParam accepts a Dictionary object, the keys and values are passed as the query string parameters of the URL called by the API.
`Async`	PNCallback	Yes	`PNCallback` of type `PNDeleteMessagesResult`.

Basic Usage

pubnub.DeleteMessages()
    .Channel("channel1")
    .Start(15078932998876451)
    .End(15078933628583256)
    .Async((result, status) => {
        if(!status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format("DateTime {0}, In DeleteMessages Example, Timetoken: {1}", DateTime.UtcNow , result.Message));
        } else {
            Debug.Log (status.Error);
            Debug.Log (status.StatusCode);
            Debug.Log (status.ErrorData.Info);
        }
    });

Returns

The DeleteMessages() does not return actionable data, be sure to check the status object on the outcome of the operation by checking the status.IsError().

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.

pubnub.DeleteMessages()
    .Channel("channel1")
    .Start(15526611838554310)
    .End(15526611838554309)
    .Async((result, status) => {
        if(!status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format("DateTime {0}, In DeleteMessages Example, Timetoken: {1}", DateTime.UtcNow , result.Message));
        } else {
            Debug.Log (status.Error);
            Debug.Log (status.StatusCode);
            Debug.Log (status.ErrorData.Info);
        }
    });

Message Counts

Requires Presence add-on

This method requires that the Presence add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

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 ChannelsTimetokenparameter.

Unlimited message retention

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 Unity V4 SDK:

pubnub.MessageCounts().Channels(List<string>).ChannelsTimetoken(List<long>).Async()

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`Channels`	`List<string>`	Yes	The `channels` to fetch the message count
`ChannelsTimetoken`	`List<long>`	Yes	List of `timetokens`, in order of the channels list. Specify a single `timetoken` to apply it to all channels. Otherwise, the list of `timetokens` must be the same length as the list of channels, or the function returns a `PNStatus`with an error flag.
`QueryParam`	Dictionary<string, string>	Optional	QueryParam accepts a Dictionary object, the keys and values are passed as the query string parameters of the URL called by the API.
`Async`	PNCallback	Yes	PNCallback of type `PNMessageCountsResult`.

Basic Usage

pubnub.MessageCounts().
    Channels(new List<string>{"channel2"}).
    ChannelsTimetoken(new List<long>{155179501329433}).
    Async((result, status) =>{
        if(status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format("MessageCounts Error: {0} {1} {2}", status.StatusCode, status.ErrorData, status.Category));
        } else {
            Debug.Log(string.Format("MessageCounts," + result.Channels.Count));
            foreach(KeyValuePair<string, int> kvp in result.Channels){
                Display(string.Format("MessageCounts:-> {0}:{1}", kvp.Key, kvp.Value));
            }
        }
    });

Returns

The operation returns a PNMessageCountsResult which contains the following operations

Method	Type	Description
`Channels`	Dictionary<string, int>	Dictionary with `key` as `channel name` and `value` as the `count` of history messages. `Channels` without messages have a count of 0. `Channels` with 10,000 messages or more have a count of 10000.

Other Examples

Retrieve count of messages using different timetokens for each channel

pubnub.MessageCounts().
    Channels(new List<string>{"channel2"}).
    ChannelsTimetoken(new List<long>{1551795013294,155179501329433})
    Async((result, status) =>{
        if(status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format("MessageCounts Error: {0} {1} {2}", status.StatusCode, status.ErrorData, status.Category));
        } else {
            Debug.Log(string.Format("MessageCounts," + result.Channels.Count));
            foreach(KeyValuePair<string, int> kvp in result.Channels){
                Display(string.Format("MessageCounts:-> {0}:{1}", kvp.Key, kvp.Value));
            }
        }
    });

History (deprecated)

Requires Presence add-on

This method requires that the Presence add-on is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal. Read the support page on enabling add-on features on your keys.

Deprecated method

This method is deprecated. Use fetch history instead.

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 = false)
Search for messages from the oldest end of the timeline by setting Reverse to true.
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 Count 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 Unity V4 SDK:

pubnub.History().Channel(string).Count(int).Reverse(bool).IncludeTimetoken(bool).IncludeMeta(bool).Start(long).End(long).QueryParam(Dictionary<string,string>).Async()

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`Channel`	string	Yes		Specifies `channel` to return history messages from.
`Count`	int	Optional	`100`	Specifies the number of historical messages to return.
`Reverse`	bool	Optional	`false`	Setting to `true` will traverse the time line in reverse starting with the oldest message first.
`IncludeTimetoken`	bool	Optional	`false`	Whether event dates `timetokens` should be included in response or not.
`IncludeMeta`	bool	Optional	`false`	Whether meta (passed when Publishing the message) should be included in response or not.
`Start`	long	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the `start` of time slice (exclusive) to pull messages from.
`End`	long	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the `end` of time slice (inclusive) to pull messages from.
`QueryParam`	Dictionary<string, string>	Optional		QueryParam accepts a Dictionary object, the keys and values are passed as the query string parameters of the URL called by the API.
`Async`	PNCallback	Yes		`PNCallback` of type `PNHistoryResult`.

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 Count, 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:

pubnub.History()
    .Channel("history_channel")
    .Count(100)
    .Async ((result, status) => {
        if(status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format("History Error: {0} {1} {2}", status.StatusCode, status.ErrorData, status.Category));
        } else {
            foreach (PNHistoryItemResult histItem in result.Messages){
                Debug.Log(string.Format("histItem: {0}, {1}", histItem.Entry.ToString(), histItem.Timetoken.ToString()));
            }
        }
    });

Returns

The History() operation returns a PNHistoryResult which contains the following operations:

Method	Type	Description
`Messages`	List<`PNHistoryItemResult`>	List of messages of type `PNHistoryItemResult`. See PNHistoryItemResult for more details.
`StartTimetoken`	long	Start `timetoken`.
`EndTimetoken`	long	End `timetoken`.

PNHistoryItemResult

Method	Type	Description
`Timetoken`	long	`Timetoken` of the message.
`Entry`	object	Message.
`Meta`	object	The meta data (if sent, when publishing the message).

Other Examples

Use History() to retrieve the three oldest messages by retrieving from the time line in reverse

pubnub.History()
    .Channel("my_channel")
    .Count(3)
    .Reverse(true)
    .Async ((result, status) => {
        if(status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format(" History Error: {0} {1} {2}", status.StatusCode, status.ErrorData, status.Category));
        } else {
            foreach (PNHistoryItemResult histItem in result.Messages){
                Debug.Log(string.Format("histItem: {0}, {1}", histItem.Entry.ToString(), histItem.Timetoken.ToString()));
            }
        }
    });

Response

if(!status.Error){
    foreach (PNHistoryItemResult histItem in result.Messages){
        Debug.Log(string.Format("histItem: {0}, {1}", histItem.Entry.ToString(), histItem.Timetoken.ToString()));
    }
}

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

pubnub.History()
    .Channel("my_channel")
    .Start(13847168620721752L)
    .Reverse(true)
    .Async ((result, status) => {
        if(status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format(" History Error: {0} {1} {2}", status.StatusCode, status.ErrorData, status.Category));
        } else {
            foreach (PNHistoryItemResult histItem in result.Messages){
                Debug.Log(string.Format("histItem: {0}, {1}", histItem.Entry.ToString(), histItem.Timetoken.ToString()));
            }
        }
    });

Response

if(!status.Error){
    foreach (PNHistoryItemResult histItem in result.Messages){
        Debug.Log(string.Format("histItem: {0}, {1}", histItem.Entry.ToString(), histItem.Timetoken.ToString()));
    }
}

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

pubnub.History()
    .Channel("my_channel")
    .Start(-1)
    .End(13847168819178600L)
    .Count(100)
    .Reverse(true)
    .Async ((result, status) => {
        if(status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format(" History Error: {0} {1} {2}", status.StatusCode, status.ErrorData, status.Category));
        } else {
            foreach (PNHistoryItemResult histItem in result.Messages){
                Debug.Log(string.Format("histItem: {0}, {1}", histItem.Entry.ToString(), histItem.Timetoken.ToString()));
            }
        }
    });

Response

if(!status.Error){
    foreach (PNHistoryItemResult histItem in result.Messages){
        Debug.Log(string.Format("histItem: {0}, {1}", histItem.Entry.ToString(), histItem.Timetoken.ToString()));
    }
}

History Paging Example

Usage

You can call the method by passing 0 or a valid timetoken as the argument.

void GetHistoryRecursive(long start, string channel) {
    pubnub.History()
        .Channel(channel)
        .Start(start)
        .Reverse(true)
        .IncludeTimetoken(true)
        .Async((result, status) => {
            if (status.Error) {
                Debug.Log(string.Format("In Example, History Error: {0} {1} {2}", status.StatusCode, status.ErrorData, status.Category));
            } else {
                if ((result.Messages!=null) && (result.Messages.Count>0)) {
                    foreach (PNHistoryItemResult histItem in result.Messages) {
                        Debug.Log(string.Format("histItem: {0}, {1}", histItem.Entry.ToString(), histItem.Timetoken.ToString()));
                    }
                    GetHistoryRecursive(result.EndTimetoken, channel);
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Include timetoken in history response

pubnub.History()
    .Channel("my_channel")
    .IncludeTimetoken(true)
    .Count(100)
    .Async((result, status) => {
        if(status.Error){
            Debug.Log (string.Format(" History Error: {0} {1} {2}", status.StatusCode, status.ErrorData, status.Category));
        } else {
            foreach (PNHistoryItemResult histItem in result.Messages){
                Debug.Log(string.Format("histItem: {0}, {1}", histItem.Entry.ToString(), histItem.Timetoken.ToString()));
            }
        }
    });

Fetch History​

Requires Presence add-on

Description​

Method(s)​

Truncated response

Basic Usage​

Returns​

Delete Messages from History​

Requires Presence add-on

Description​

Required setting

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Returns​

Other Examples​

Delete specific message from history​

Message Counts​

Requires Presence add-on

Description​

Unlimited message retention

Method(s)​

Basic Usage​

Returns​

Other Examples​

Retrieve count of messages using different timetokens for each channel​

History (deprecated)​

Requires Presence add-on

Deprecated method

Description​

Start & End parameter usage clarity:

Method(s)​

Using the reverse parameter:

Basic Usage​

Returns​

PNHistoryItemResult​

Other Examples​

Use History() to retrieve the three oldest messages by retrieving from the time line in reverse​

Response​

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

Response​

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

Response​

History Paging Example​

Usage

Include timetoken in history response​

Fetch History

Description

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Returns

Delete Messages from History

Description

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Returns

Other Examples

Delete specific message from history

Message Counts

Description

Method(s)

Basic Usage

Returns

Other Examples

Retrieve count of messages using different timetokens for each channel

History (deprecated)

Description

Method(s)

Using the `reverse` parameter:

Basic Usage

Returns

PNHistoryItemResult

Other Examples

Use History() to retrieve the three oldest messages by retrieving from the time line in reverse

Response

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

Response

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

Response

History Paging Example

Include timetoken in history response