Message Persistence API for Swift Native SDK

Message Persistence gives you real-time access to the history of messages published to PubNub. Each message is timestamped to the nearest 10 nanoseconds and stored across multiple availability zones in several geographic locations. You can encrypt stored messages with AES-256 so they are not readable on PubNub’s network. For details, see Message Persistence.

You control how long messages are stored through your account’s retention policy. Options include: 1 day, 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, or Unlimited.

You can retrieve the following:

• Messages
• Message reactions
• Files (using the File Sharing API)

Fetch history

Requires Message Persistence

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

Fetch historical messages from one or more channels. Use includeMessageActions to include message actions.

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

• If you specify only the start parameter (without end), you receive messages older than the start timetoken.
• If you specify only the end parameter (without start), you receive messages from that end timetoken and newer.
• If you specify both start and end, you receive messages between those timetokens (inclusive of end).

This function returns up to 100 messages on a single channel, or 25 per channel on up to 500 channels. To page, iteratively update the start timetoken.

Method(s)

Use the following method(s) in the Swift SDK:

1func fetchMessageHistory(
2    for channels: [String],
3    includeActions actions: Bool = false,
4    includeMeta: Bool = false,
5    includeUUID: Bool = true,
6    includeMessageType: Bool = true,
7    includeCustomMessageType: Bool = false,
8    page: PubNubBoundedPage? = PubNubBoundedPageBase(),
9    custom requestConfig: PubNub.RequestConfiguration = PubNub.RequestConfiguration(),
10    completion: ((Result<(messagesByChannel: [String: [PubNubMessage]], next: PubNubBoundedPage?), Error>) -> Void)?
11)

* required

Parameter	Description
for * Type: [String] Default: n/a	The list of channels to fetch history messages from. Maximum of 500 channels are allowed.
includeActions Type: Bool Default: false	If true any Message Actions will be included in the response. When set to true the method is limited to retrieving history from a single channel.
includeMeta Type: Bool Default: false	If true the meta properties of messages will be included in the response.
includeUUID Type: Bool Default: true	If true the user ID of the sender will be included in the response.
includeMessageType Type: Bool Default: true	Indicates whether to retrieve messages with PubNub message type. For more information, refer to Retrieving Messages.
includeCustomMessageType Type: Bool Default: false	Indicates whether to retrieve messages with the custom message type. For more information, refer to Retrieving Messages.
page Type: PubNubBoundedPage? Default: PubNubBoundedPageBase()	The paging object used for pagination. It allows you to specify a range of messages to retrieve based on specific time bounds. Set limit to control the number of results per page. Maximum value is 100 for a single channel, 25 for multiple channels, and 25 when includeActions is true.
custom Type: PubNub.RequestConfiguration Default: PubNub.RequestConfiguration()	An object that allows for per-request customization of PubNub configuration or network session. For more information, refer to the Request Configuration section.
completion Type: ((Result<(messagesByChannel: [String: [PubNubMessage]], next: PubNubBoundedPage?), Error>) -> Void)? Default: nil	The async Result of the method call.

Truncated response

If truncated, a next property is returned with additional parameters. Make iterative calls adjusting parameters.

Completion handler result

Success

A dictionary of channels mapped to their message lists, and the next page cursor when available.

1public protocol PubNubMessage {
2

3  /// The message sent on the channel
4  var payload: JSONCodable { get set }
5

6  /// Message reactions associated with this message
7  var actions: [PubNubMessageAction] { get set }
8

9  /// Message sender identifier
10  var publisher: String? { get set }
11

12  /// The channel for which the message belongs
13  var channel: String { get }
14

15  /// The channel group or wildcard subscription match (if exists)
16  var subscription: String? { get }
17

18  /// Timetoken for the message
19  var published: Timetoken { get set }
20

21  /// Meta information for the message
22  var metadata: JSONCodable? { get set }
23

24  /// The type of message that was received
25  var messageType: PubNubMessageType { get set }
26

27  /// A user-provided custom message type
28  var customMessageType: String? { get set }
29

30  /// Message actions associated with this message
31  var actions: [PubNubMessageAction] { get set }
32

33  /// The channel for which the message belongs
34  var channel: String { get }
35

36  /// Timetoken for the message
37  var published: Timetoken { get set }
38

39  /// Meta information for the message
40  var metadata: JSONCodable? { get set }
41}

show all 41 lines

1public protocol PubNubBoundedPage {
2

3  /// The start value for the next set of remote data
4  var start: Timetoken? { get }
5

6  /// The bounded end value that will be eventually fetched to
7  var end: Timetoken? { get }
8

9  /// The previous limiting value (if any)
10  var limit: Int? { get }
11}

Failure

An error describing the failure.

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.

Retrieve the last message on a channel:

1

Other examples

Retrieve messages newer or equal than a given timetoken

1

Retrieve messages older than a specific timetoken

1

Retrieve the last 10 messages on channelSwift, otherChannel, and myChannel

1

Retrieve messages and their metadata

1

Retrieve messages and their message action data

1

Delete messages from history

Requires Message Persistence

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

Removes the messages from the history of a specific channel.

Required setting

Enable Delete-From-History in key settings and initialize with a secret key.

Method(s)

To Delete Messages from History you can use the following method(s) in the Swift SDK.

1func deleteMessageHistory(
2    from channel: String,
3    start: Timetoken? = nil,
4    end: Timetoken? = nil,
5    custom requestConfig: PubNub.RequestConfiguration = PubNub.RequestConfiguration(),
6    completion: ((Result<Void, Error>) -> Void)?
7)

* required

Parameter	Description
from * Type: String Default: n/a	The channel to delete the messages from.
start Type: timetoken? Default: nil	timetoken delimiting the start of time slice (inclusive) to delete messages from.
end Type: timetoken? Default: nil	timetoken delimiting the end of time slice (exclusive) to delete messages from.
custom Type: PubNub.RequestConfiguration Default: PubNub.RequestConfiguration()	An object that allows for per-request customization of PubNub configuration or network session. For more information, refer to the Request Configuration section.
completion Type: ((Result<Void, Error>) -> Void)? Default: nil	The async Result of the method call

Completion handler result

Success

A Void indicating a success.

Failure

An Error describing the failure.

Sample code

1

Other examples

Delete specific message from history

1

Message counts

Requires Message Persistence

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

Return the number of messages published since the given time; the count is messages with timetoken ≥ the provided value.

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 Swift SDK:

1func messageCounts(
2    channels: [String: Timetoken],
3    custom requestConfig: PubNub.RequestConfiguration = PubNub.RequestConfiguration(),
4    completion: ((Result<[String: Int], Error>) -> Void)?
5)

* required

Parameter	Description
channels * Type: [String: timetoken] Default: n/a	The map of channels and the timetoken to get the message count for.
custom Type: PubNub.RequestConfiguration Default: PubNub.RequestConfiguration()	An object that allows for per-request customization of PubNub configuration or network session. For more information, refer to the Request Configuration section.
completion Type: ((Result<[String: Int], Error>) -> Void)? Default: nil	The async Result of the method call.

1func messageCounts(
2    channels: [String],
3    timetoken: Timetoken = 1,
4    custom requestConfig: PubNub.RequestConfiguration = PubNub.RequestConfiguration(),
5    completion: ((Result<[String: Int], Error>) -> Void)?
6)

* required

Parameter	Description
channels * Type: [String] Default: n/a	The list of channels to get message counts for.
timetoken Type: timetoken Default: 1	The timetoken for all channels in the list to get message counts for.
custom Type: PubNub.RequestConfiguration Default: PubNub.RequestConfiguration()	An object that allows for per-request customization of PubNub configuration or network session. For more information, refer to the Request Configuration section.
completion Type: ((Result<[String: Int], Error>) -> Void)? Default: nil	The async Result of the method call.

Completion handler result

Success

A Dictionary of channels mapped to their respective message count.

Failure

An Error describing the failure.

Sample code

1

Other examples

Retrieve message counts for multiple channels with the same timetoken 15526611838554310

1

Retrieve message counts for multiple channels with different timetokens

1