PubSub - React Native

PubSub is a concise acronym for the Publish-Subscribe mechanism. This mechanism is employed to send and receive messages within a specified topic. As the name implies, to send a message, one must specify the topic and the message to be published. Similarly, to receive a message, a subscriber must be connected to that particular topic.

Here is a visual to better understand the publish-subscribe mechanism.

usePubSub

To utilize PubSub in a meeting, VideoSDK provides a hook called usePubSub. This hook enables you to subscribe to any topic and publish to any topic, facilitating the exchange of messages and instructions seamlessly during the meeting.

publish()

• This method is used for publishing a message for a specific topic.
• It can be accessed from the usePubSub hook by specifying the topic for which publish() will be used.
• It will accept following parameters as input:
  • message: This parameter represents the actual message to be published and should be in String format.
  • options: This object specifies the options for publishing. You can set following properties :
    • persist : When set to true, this option retains the message for the duration of the session. If persist is true, the message will be available for upcoming participants and can be accessed in the VideoSDK Session Dashboard in CSV format after the session is completed.
    • sendOnly: If you want to send a message to specific participants, you can pass their respective participantId here. If you don't provide any IDs, the message will be sent to all participants by default.
  • payload: If you need to include additional information along with a message, you can pass it here as an object.

// importing usePubSub hook from react-native-sdk
import { usePubSub } from "@videosdk.live/react-native-sdk";
import { TouchableOpacity, Text } from "react-native";

function MeetingView() {
  // destructure publish method from usePubSub hook
  const { publish } = usePubSub("CHAT");

  const handlePublishMessage = () => {
    // publish message
    const message = "Hello Everyone!";
    publish(message, { persist: true });
  };

  return (
    <>
      <TouchableOpacity
        onPress={() => {
          handlePublishMessage();
        }}
      >
        <Text>Publish Message</Text>
      </TouchableOpacity>
    </>
  );
}

Receiving the messages

• The messages property of the usePubSub hook is an array of objects that stores both past and upcoming messages for a particular topic.

It contains the following properties:

• senderId: Represents the participantId of the participant who sent the message.
• senderName: Represents the displayName of the participant who sent the message.
• message: The acatual message that was sent.
• timestamp: The timestamp for when the message was published.
• topic: The name of the topic the message was published to.
• payload: The data that was sent along with message.

Example

// importing usePubSub hook from react-native-sdk
import { usePubSub } from "@videosdk.live/react-native-sdk";
import { TouchableOpacity, Text } from "react-native";

function ChatView() {
  // destructure publish method and messages from usePubSub hook
  const { publish, messages } = usePubSub("CHAT");

  const handlePublishMessage = () => {
    // publish message
    const message = "Hello Everyone!";
    publish(message, { persist: true });
  };

  return (
    <>
      <TouchableOpacity
        onPress={() => {
          handlePublishMessage();
        }}
      >
        <Text>Publish Message</Text>
      </TouchableOpacity>
      <Text>Messages: </Text>
      {messages.map((message) => {
        return (
          <Text style={{ fontSize: 12 }}>
            {messsage.senderName} says {message.message}
          </Text>
        );
      })}
    </>
  );
}

Events associated with PubSub

onMessageReceived()

• This event callback is triggered when a new message is received on the subscribed topic.

onOldMessagesReceived()

• This event callback is triggered when you subscribe to the topic, and it contains all the past messages from that topic that were published with persist : true.

// importing usePubSub hook from react-native-sdk
import { usePubSub } from "@videosdk.live/react-native-sdk";

function MeetingView() {
  // destructure publish method from usePubSub hook
  const { publish } = usePubSub("CHAT", {
    onMessageReceived: (message) => {
      console.log("New Message Recieved", message);
    },
    onOldMessagesReceived: (messages) => {
      console.log("Old Message publsihed with persist:true Recieved", messages);
    },
  });

  const handlePublishMessage = () => {
    // publish message
    const message = "Hello Everyone!";
    publish(message, { persist: true });
  };

  return (
    <>
      <TouchableOpacity
        onPress={() => {
          handlePublishMessage();
        }}
      >
        <Text>Publish Message</Text>
      </TouchableOpacity>
    </>
  );
}

Applications of usePubSub

PubSub is a very powerful mechanism which can be used to do alot of things which can make your meeting experience much more interactive. Some of the most common usecase that we have come across for the PubSub during a meeting are listed below:

1. Chat: You can utilise this to develop features, like Private Chat or Group Chat. You can follow our chat integration guide here.
2. Raise Hand: You can allow attendees to raise their hands at any point during the meeting, informing everyone else that someone has a question or input.
3. Layout Switching: You can change the meeting's layout for every participant at once during the meeting, such as from Grid layout to Spotlight or from Grid Layout to Sidebar,etc.
4. Whiteboard: You can develop an interactive whiteboard functionality that is completely functional.
5. Poll: You can make polls, let users respond to them, and display the results at the end of a poll.
6. Question Answer Session: You can also design interactive features based on a question-and-answer format.

Downloading PubSub Messages

All the messages from PubSub published with persist : true can be downloaded as an .csv file. This file will be accessible in the VideoSDK dashboard and through the Sessions API.

API Reference

The API references for all the methods and events utilised in this guide are provided below.

• usePubSub()