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:

func fetchMessageHistory(
    for channels: [String],
    includeActions actions: Bool = false,
    includeMeta: Bool = false,
    includeUUID: Bool = true,
    includeMessageType: Bool = true,
    includeCustomMessageType: Bool = false,
    page: PubNubBoundedPage? = PubNubBoundedPageBase(),
    custom requestConfig: PubNub.RequestConfiguration = PubNub.RequestConfiguration(),
    completion: ((Result<(messagesByChannel: [String: [PubNubMessage]], next: PubNubBoundedPage?), Error>) -> Void)?
)

* 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.

public protocol PubNubMessage {

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

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

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

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

  /// The channel group or wildcard subscription match (if exists)
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public protocol PubNubBoundedPage {

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

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

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

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:

Other examples

Retrieve messages newer or equal than a given `timetoken`

Retrieve messages older than a specific `timetoken`

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

Retrieve messages and their metadata

Retrieve messages and their message action data

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.

func deleteMessageHistory(
    from channel: String,
    start: Timetoken? = nil,
    end: Timetoken? = nil,
    custom requestConfig: PubNub.RequestConfiguration = PubNub.RequestConfiguration(),
    completion: ((Result<Void, Error>) -> Void)?
)

* 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

Other examples

Delete specific message from history

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:

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

* 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.

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

* 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.

Message Persistence API for Swift Native SDK

Fetch history

Requires Message Persistence

Method(s)

Truncated response

Completion handler result

Success

Failure

Sample code

Reference code

Other examples

Retrieve messages newer or equal than a given `timetoken`

Retrieve messages older than a specific `timetoken`

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

Retrieve messages and their metadata

Retrieve messages and their message action data

Delete messages from history

Requires Message Persistence

Required setting

Method(s)

Completion handler result

Success

Failure

Sample code

Other examples

Delete specific message from history

Message counts

Requires Message Persistence

Unlimited message retention

Method(s)

Completion handler result

Success

Failure

Sample code

Other examples

Retrieve message counts for multiple channels with the same `timetoken` 15526611838554310

Retrieve message counts for multiple channels with different timetokens

Fetch history​

Requires Message Persistence

Method(s)​

Truncated response

Completion handler result​

Success​

Failure​

Sample code​

Reference code

Other examples​

Retrieve messages newer or equal than a given timetoken​

Retrieve messages older than a specific timetoken​

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

Retrieve messages and their metadata​

Retrieve messages and their message action data​

Delete messages from history​

Requires Message Persistence

Required setting

Method(s)​

Completion handler result​

Success​

Failure​

Sample code​

Other examples​

Delete specific message from history​

Message counts​

Requires Message Persistence

Unlimited message retention

Method(s)​

Completion handler result​

Success​

Failure​

Sample code​

Other examples​

Retrieve message counts for multiple channels with the same timetoken 15526611838554310​

Retrieve message counts for multiple channels with different timetokens​

Fetch history

Method(s)

Completion handler result

Success

Failure

Sample code

Other examples

Retrieve messages newer or equal than a given `timetoken`

Retrieve messages older than a specific `timetoken`

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

Retrieve messages and their metadata

Retrieve messages and their message action data

Delete messages from history

Method(s)

Completion handler result

Success

Failure

Sample code

Other examples

Delete specific message from history

Message counts

Method(s)

Completion handler result

Success

Failure

Sample code

Other examples

Retrieve message counts for multiple channels with the same `timetoken` 15526611838554310

Retrieve message counts for multiple channels with different timetokens