Message Reactions API for PubNub Python SDK

Add or remove reactions 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 reaction events on that channel. They can also fetch past message reactions 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)
Terminology

All message reactions in code are collectively called message reactions in the docs and the term applies both to reacting to a message (through emojis) and acting on a message (by deleting it).

Add Message Reaction​

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.

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

Method(s)​

To Add a Message Reaction 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)
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
channelStringYesThe channel name to which to add the message reaction
message_actionPNMessageActionYesMessage reaction information
message_action.typeStringYesWhat feature this message reaction represents
message_action.valueStringYesValue to be stored along with the message reaction
message_action.message_timetokenIntegerYesTimetoken of the message to which to add the action
message_action_callbackFunctionYesHandles returned data for successful and unsuccessful add message reaction operations. Details on the callback are here

Basic Usage​

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

Returns​

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

FieldTypeDescription
resultPNAddMessageActionResultA detailed object containing the result of the operation.
statusPNStatusA status object with additional information.

PNAddMessageActionResult​

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

Remove Message Reaction​

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.

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

Method(s)​

To Remove a Message Reaction 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)
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
channelStringYesThe channel name from which to remove the message reaction
action_timetokenIntegerYesTimetoken of the message reaction to be removed
message_timetokenIntegerYesTimetoken of the message from which to remove the action
message_action_callbackFunctionYesHandles returned data for successful and unsuccessful remove message reaction 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​

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

FieldTypeDescription
resultPNRemoveMessageActionResultA detailed object containing the result of the operation.
statusPNStatusA status object with additional information.

PNRemoveMessageActionResult​

# in case of success (empty object)
{}

Get Message Reactions​

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.

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

Method(s)​

To Get Message Reactions 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)
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
channelStringYesThe channel name for which to retrieve the list of message reactions
startStringNoMessage reaction timetoken denoting the start of the range requested. Return values will be less than start. If not specified, defaults to the current time.
endStringNoMessage reaction 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.
limitIntegerNoMaximum number of message reactions 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_callbackFunctionYesHandles returned data for successful and unsuccessful retrieve message reaction 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​

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

FieldTypeDescription
resultPNGetMessageActionsResultA detailed object containing the result of the operation.
statusPNStatusA 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 Reaction type: {envelope.type}")
        print(f"Message Reaction value: {envelope.value}")
        print(f"Message Reaction timetoken: {envelope.message_timetoken}")
        print(f"Message Reaction uuid: {envelope.uuid}")
        print(f"Message Reaction timetoken: {envelope.action_timetoken}")
    elif isinstance(envelope, PNRemoveMessageActionResult):
        # Envelope here is an empty dictionary {}
        pass
    elif isinstance(envelope, PNGetMessageActionsResult):
        print("Message Reactions Result:\n")
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