Message Persistence API for PubNub AngularJS SDK

Message Persistence 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 day, 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, or Unlimited.

You can retrieve the following:

• Messages
• Message actions
• File Sharing (using File Sharing API)

History

Requires Message Persistence

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

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 AngularJS SDK:

history( {String channel, Boolean reverse, Number count, Boolean stringifiedTimeToken, Boolean includeMeta, String start, String end}, Function callback )

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Operation Arguments	Hash	Yes		A hash of arguments.
channel	String	Yes		Specifies channel to return history messages from.
reverse	Boolean	Optional	false	Setting to true will traverse the time line in reverse starting with the oldest message first.If both start and end arguments are provided, reverse is ignored and messages are returned starting with the newest message.
count	Number	Optional	100	Specifies the number of historical messages to return. Default/Maximum is 100.
stringifiedTimeToken	Boolean	Optional	false	If stringifiedTimeToken is specified as true, the SDK will return timetoken values as a strings instead of integers. Usage of setting is encouraged in javascript environments which perform round-up/down on large integers.
includeMeta	Boolean	Optional		Whether message meta information should be fetched or not.
start	String	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the start of time slice (exclusive) to pull messages from.
end	String	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the end of time slice (inclusive) to pull messages from.
callback	Function	Optional		Executes on a successful/unsuccessful history.

tip

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, // 100 is the default
        stringifiedTimeToken: true // false is the default
    },
    function (status, response) {
        // handle status, response
    }
);

Response

// Example of Status
{
    error: false,
    operation: "PNHistoryOperation",
    statusCode: 200
}

// Example of Response
{
    endTimeToken: "14867650866860159",
    messages: [
        {
            timetoken: "14867650866860159",
            entry: "[User 636] hello World"
        },

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Other Examples

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

// get last 3 messages published to my_channel

Pubnub.history(
    {
        channel: ['my_channel'],
        reverse: true, // Setting to true will traverse the time line in reverse starting with the oldest message first.
        count: 3,
        stringifiedTimeToken: true // false is the default
    },
    function (status, response) {
        // handle status, 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)

// get messages starting at timetoken order oldest first

Pubnub.history(
    {
        channel: 'my_channel',
        reverse: true, // Setting to true will traverse the time line in reverse starting with the oldest message first.
        stringifiedTimeToken: true, // false is the default
        start: '13406746780720711'
    },
    function (status, response) {
        // handle status, 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)

// return 100 messages ending on timetoken

Pubnub.history(
    {
        channel: 'my_channel',
        stringifiedTimeToken: true,
        end: '13406746780720711'
    },
    function (status, response) {
        // handle status, response
    }
);

History Paging Example

Usage!

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

getAllMessages = function(timetoken) {
    Pubnub.history(
        {
            channel: 'history_test',
            stringifiedTimeToken: true, // false is the default
            start: timetoken
        },
        function (status, response) {
            var msgs = response.messages;
            var start = response.startTimeToken;
            var end = response.endTimeToken;
            // if msgs were retrieved, do something useful with them
            if (msgs != "undefined" && msgs.length > 0) {
                console.log(msgs.length);
                console.log("start : " + start);

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Fetch messages with metadata

pubnub.history(
    {
        channel: 'my_channel',
        stringifiedTimeToken: true,
        includeMeta: true,
    },
    function (status, response) {
        // handle status, response
    }
);

Batch History

Requires Message Persistence

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

This function fetches historical messages from multiple channels. The includeMessageActions or includeActions 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. For example, you can:

• Search for messages starting on the newest end of the timeline.
• Search for messages from the oldest end of the timeline.
• 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.
• Retrieve a specific (maximum) number of messages using the count parameter.

Batch history returns up to 100 messages on a single channel, or 25 per channel on a maximum of 500 channels. Use the start and end timestamps to page through the next batch of messages.

Start & End parameter usage clarity

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.

Specify values for both start and end parameters to retrieve messages between those timetokens (inclusive of the end value).

Keep in mind that you will still receive a maximum of 100 messages (or 25, for multiple channels) even if there are more messages that meet the timetoken values. Iterative calls to history adjusting the start timetoken are necessary to page through the full set of results if more messages meet the timetoken values.

Method(s)

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

fetchMessages(
    {Array channels, Number count, Boolean stringifiedTimeToken, Boolean includeMeta, Boolean includeMessageType, Boolean includeUUID, Boolean includeMessageActions, String start, String end},
    Function callback )

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Operation Arguments	Hash	Yes		A hash of arguments.
channels	Array	Yes		Specifies channels to return history messages from.
count	Number	Optional	25	Specifies the number of historical messages to return per channel. Default/Maximum is 25 per channel.
stringifiedTimeToken	Boolean	Optional	false	If stringifiedTimeToken is specified as true, the SDK will return timetoken values as a strings instead of integers. Usage of setting is encouraged in javascript environments which perform round-up/down on large integers.
includeMessageType	Boolean	Optional	true	Pass true to receive the message type with each history message.
includeUUID	Boolean	Optional	true	Pass true to receive the publisher uuid with each history message.
includeMeta	Boolean	Optional		Whether message meta information should be fetched or not.
includeMessageActions	Boolean	Optional		Whether message added message actions should be fetched or not. Throws an exception in case if API called with more than one channel. Truncation will happen if number of actions on the messages returned is > 25000. Each message can have a maximum of 25000 actions attached to it. Consider the example of querying for 10 meesages. The first five messages have 5000 actions attached to each of them. The API will return the first 5 messages and all their 25000 actions. The response will also include a more link to get the remaining 5 messages.
start	String	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the start of time slice (exclusive) to pull messages from.
end	String	Optional		Timetoken delimiting the end of time slice (inclusive) to pull messages from.
callback	Function	Optional		Executes on a successful/unsuccessful fetchMessages.

Basic Usage

Retrieve the last message on a channel:

// assuming pubnub is an initialized instance
// start, end, count are optional
pubnub.fetchMessages(
    {
        channels: ['ch1', 'ch2', 'ch3'],
        start: "15343325214676133",
        end: "15343325004275466",
        count: 25
    },
    (status, response) => {
        // handle response
    }
);

Response

//Example of status
{
    error: false,
    operation: 'PNFetchMessagesOperation',
    statusCode: 200
}

//Example of response
{
    "channels":{
        "my-channel":[
            {
                "message":"message_1",
                "timetoken":"15483367794816642",
                "uuid":"my-uuid",

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Other Examples

Fetch messages with metadata and actions

pubnub.fetchMessages(
    {
        channels: ['my_channel'],
        stringifiedTimeToken: true,
        includeMeta: true,
        includeMessageActions: true,
    },
    function (status, response) {
        // handle status, response
    }
);

Fetch messages with metadata and actions Response

// Example of status
{
    "error": false,
    "operation": "PNFetchMessagesOperation",
    "statusCode": 200
}

// Example of response
{
    "channels":{
        "my_channel":[
            {
                "timetoken":"15741125155552287",
                "message":{
                    "text":"Hello world!",

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Delete Messages from History

Requires Message Persistence

This method requires that Message Persistence 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.

Note

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 AngularJS SDK.

Note

The Delete Messages method behaves slightly differently than other history methods. Note that the start parameter is exclusive and the end parameter is inclusive.

deleteMessages({String channel, String start, String end},Function callback)

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
Operation Arguments	Hash	Yes	A hash of arguments.
channel	String	Yes	Specifies channel messages to be deleted from history.
start	String	Optional	Timetoken delimiting the start of time slice (exclusive) to delete messages from.
end	String	Optional	Timetoken delimiting the end of time slice (inclusive) to delete messages from.
callback	Function	Optional	Is called on successful or unsuccessful execution of deleteMessages.

Basic Usage

Pubnub.deleteMessages(
    {
        channel: 'ch1',
        start: '15088506076921021',
        end: '15088532035597390'
    },
    (result) => {
        console.log(result);
    }
);

Response

{
    error: false,
    operation: 'PNDeleteMessagesOperation',
    statusCode: 200
}

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: 'ch1',
        start: '15526611838554310',
        end: '15526611838554309'
    },
    (result) => {
        console.log(result);
    }
);