Pusher Channels HTTP Go Library

The Golang library for interacting with the Pusher Channels HTTP API.
This package lets you trigger events to your client and query the state of your Pusher channels. When used with a server, you can validate Pusher Channels webhooks and authenticate private-
or presence-
channels.
Register for free at https://pusher.com/channels and use the application credentials within your app as shown below.
Supported Platforms
- Go - supports Go 1.5 or greater.
Table of Contents
Installation
$ go get github.com/pusher/pusher-http-go
Getting Started
package main
import (
"github.com/pusher/pusher-http-go"
)
func main(){
pusherClient := pusher.Client{
AppID: "APP_ID",
Key: "APP_KEY",
Secret: "APP_SECRET",
Cluster: "APP_CLUSTER",
}
data := map[string]string{"message": "hello world"}
err := pusherClient.Trigger("my-channel", "my_event", data)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
}
Configuration
The easiest way to configure the library is by creating a new Pusher
instance:
pusherClient := pusher.Client{
AppID: "APP_ID",
Key: "APP_KEY",
Secret: "APP_SECRET",
Cluster: "APP_CLUSTER",
}
Additional options
Instantiation From URL
pusherClient := pusher.ClientFromURL("http://<key>:<secret>@api-<cluster>.pusher.com/apps/app_id")
Note: the API URL differs depending on the cluster your app was created in:
http://key:secret@api-eu.pusher.com/apps/app_id
http://key:secret@api-ap1.pusher.com/apps/app_id
Instantiation From Environment Variable
pusherClient := pusher.ClientFromEnv("PUSHER_URL")
This is particularly relevant if you are using Pusher Channels as a Heroku add-on, which stores credentials in a "PUSHER_URL"
environment variable.
HTTPS
To ensure requests occur over HTTPS, set the Secure
property of a pusher.Client
to true
.
pusherClient.Secure = true
This is false
by default.
Request Timeouts
If you wish to set a time-limit for each HTTP request, create a http.Client
instance with your specified Timeout
field and set it as the Pusher Channels instance's Client
:
httpClient := &http.Client{Timeout: time.Second * 3}
pusherClient.HTTPClient = httpClient
If you do not specifically set a HTTP client, a default one is created with a timeout of 5 seconds.
Changing Host
Changing the pusher.Client
's Host
property will make sure requests are sent to your specified host.
pusherClient.Host = "foo.bar.com"
By default, this is "api.pusherapp.com"
.
Changing the Cluster
Setting the pusher.Client
's Cluster
property will make sure requests are sent to the cluster where you created your app.
NOTE! If Host
is set then Cluster
will be ignored.
pusherClient.Cluster = "eu"
End to End Encryption
This library supports end to end encryption of your private channels. This means that only you and your connected clients will be able to read your messages. Pusher cannot decrypt them. You can enable this feature by following these steps:
-
You should first set up Private channels. This involves creating an authentication endpoint on your server.
-
Next, generate a 32 byte master encryption key, base64 encode it and store
it securely.
This is secret and you should never share this with anyone. Not even Pusher.
To generate a suitable key from a secure random source, you could use:
openssl rand -base64 32
-
Pass the encoded key when constructing your pusher.Client
pusherClient := pusher.Client{
AppID: "APP_ID",
Key: "APP_KEY",
Secret: "APP_SECRET",
Cluster: "APP_CLUSTER",
EncryptionMasterKeyBase64 "<output from command above>",
}
-
Channels where you wish to use end to end encryption should be prefixed with private-encrypted-
.
-
Subscribe to these channels in your client, and you're done! You can verify it is working by checking out the debug console on the https://dashboard.pusher.com/ and seeing the scrambled ciphertext.
Important note: This will not encrypt messages on channels that are not prefixed by private-encrypted-.
Google App Engine
As of version 1.0.0, this library is compatible with Google App Engine's urlfetch library. Pass in the HTTP client returned by urlfetch.Client
to your Pusher Channels initialization struct.
package helloworldapp
import (
"appengine"
"appengine/urlfetch"
"fmt"
"github.com/pusher/pusher-http-go"
"net/http"
)
func init() {
http.HandleFunc("/", handler)
}
func handler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
c := appengine.NewContext(r)
urlfetchClient := urlfetch.Client(c)
pusherClient := pusher.Client{
AppID: "APP_ID",
Key: "APP_KEY",
Secret: "APP_SECRET",
HTTPClient: urlfetchClient,
}
pusherClient.Trigger("my-channel", "my_event", map[string]string{"message": "hello world"})
fmt.Fprint(w, "Hello, world!")
}
Usage
Triggering events
It is possible to trigger an event on one or more channels. Channel names can contain only characters which are alphanumeric, _
or -
and have to be at most 200 characters long. Event name can be at most 200 characters long too.
Single channel
func (c *Client) Trigger
channel string | The name of the channel you wish to trigger on. |
event string | The name of the event you wish to trigger |
data interface{} | The payload you wish to send. Must be marshallable into JSON. |
data := map[string]string{"hello": "world"}
pusherClient.Trigger("greeting_channel", "say_hello", data)
Multiple channels
func (c. *Client) TriggerMulti
channels []string | A slice of channel names you wish to send an event on. The maximum length is 10. |
event string | As above. |
data interface{} | As above. |
Example
pusherClient.TriggerMulti([]string{"a_channel", "another_channel"}, "event", data)
Excluding event recipients
func (c *Client) TriggerExclusive
and func (c *Client) TriggerMultiExclusive
follow the patterns above, except a socket_id
is given as the last parameter.
These methods allow you to exclude a recipient whose connection has that socket_id
from receiving the event. You can read more here.
Examples
On one channel:
pusherClient.TriggerExclusive("a_channel", "event", data, "123.12")
On multiple channels:
pusherClient.TriggerMultiExclusive([]string{"a_channel", "another_channel"}, "event", data, "123.12")
Batches
func (c. *Client) TriggerBatch
batch []Event | A list of events to publish |
Example
pusherClient.TriggerBatch([]pusher.Event{
{ Channel: "a_channel", Name: "event", Data: "hello world", nil },
{ Channel: "a_channel", Name: "event", Data: "hi my name is bob", nil },
})
Authenticating Channels
Application security is very important so Pusher Channels provides a mechanism for authenticating a user’s access to a channel at the point of subscription.
This can be used both to restrict access to private channels, and in the case of presence channels notify subscribers of who else is also subscribed via presence events.
This library provides a mechanism for generating an authentication signature to send back to the client and authorize them.
For more information see our docs.
Private channels
func (c *Client) AuthenticatePrivateChannel
params []byte | The request body sent by the client |
response []byte | The response to send back to the client, carrying an authentication signature |
err error | Any errors generated |
Example
func pusherAuth(res http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
params, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(req.Body)
response, err := pusherClient.AuthenticatePrivateChannel(params)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Fprintf(res, string(response))
}
func main() {
http.HandleFunc("/pusher/auth", pusherAuth)
http.ListenAndServe(":5000", nil)
}
Example (JSONP)
func pusherJsonpAuth(res http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
var (
callback, params string
)
{
q := r.URL.Query()
callback = q.Get("callback")
if callback == "" {
panic("callback missing")
}
q.Del("callback")
params = []byte(q.Encode())
}
response, err := pusherClient.AuthenticatePrivateChannel(params)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
res.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/javascript; charset=utf-8")
fmt.Fprintf(res, "%s(%s);", callback, string(response))
}
func main() {
http.HandleFunc("/pusher/auth", pusherJsonpAuth)
http.ListenAndServe(":5000", nil)
}
Authenticating presence channels
Using presence channels is similar to private channels, but in order to identify a user, clients are sent a user_id and, optionally, custom data.
func (c *Client) AuthenticatePresenceChannel
params []byte | The request body sent by the client |
member pusher.MemberData | A struct representing what to assign to a channel member, consisting of a UserID and any custom UserInfo . See below |
Custom Types
pusher.MemberData
type MemberData struct {
UserID string
UserInfo map[string]string
}
Example
params, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(req.Body)
presenceData := pusher.MemberData{
UserID: "1",
UserInfo: map[string]string{
"twitter": "jamiepatel",
},
}
response, err := pusherClient.AuthenticatePresenceChannel(params, presenceData)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Fprintf(res, response)
Application state
This library allows you to query our API to retrieve information about your application's channels, their individual properties, and, for presence-channels, the users currently subscribed to them.
Get the list of channels in an application
func (c *Client) Channels
additionalQueries map[string]string | A map with query options. A key with "filter_by_prefix" will filter the returned channels. To get number of users subscribed to a presence-channel, specify an "info" key with value "user_count" .
Pass in nil if you do not wish to specify any query attributes. |
channels *pusher.ChannelsList | A struct representing the list of channels. See below. |
err error | Any errors encountered |
Custom Types
pusher.ChannelsList
type ChannelsList struct {
Channels map[string]ChannelListItem
}
pusher.ChannelsListItem
type ChannelListItem struct {
UserCount int
}
Example
channelsParams := map[string]string{
"filter_by_prefix": "presence-",
"info": "user_count",
}
channels, err := pusherClient.Channels(channelsParams)
Get the state of a single channel
func (c *Client) Channel
name string | The name of the channel |
additionalQueries map[string]string | A map with query options. An "info" key can have comma-separated values of "user_count" , for presence-channels, and "subscription_count" , for all-channels. To use the "subscription_count" value, first check the "Enable subscription counting" checkbox in your App Settings on your Pusher Channels dashboard.
Pass in nil if you do not wish to specify any query attributes. |
channel *pusher.Channel | A struct representing a channel. See below. |
err error | Any errors encountered |
Custom Types
pusher.Channel
type Channel struct {
Name string
Occupied bool
UserCount int
SubscriptionCount int
}
Example
channelParams := map[string]string{
"info": "user_count,subscription_count",
}
channel, err := pusherClient.Channel("presence-chatroom", channelParams)
Get a list of users in a presence channel
func (c *Client) GetChannelUsers
name string | The channel name |
users *pusher.Users | A struct representing a list of the users subscribed to the presence-channel. See below |
err error | Any errors encountered. |
Custom Types
pusher.Users
type Users struct {
List []User
}
pusher.User
type User struct {
ID string
}
Example
users, err := pusherClient.GetChannelUsers("presence-chatroom")
Webhook validation
On your dashboard, you can set up webhooks to POST a payload to your server after certain events. Such events include channels being occupied or vacated, members being added or removed in presence-channels, or after client-originated events. For more information see https://pusher.com/docs/webhooks.
This library provides a mechanism for checking that these POST requests are indeed from Pusher, by checking the token and authentication signature in the header of the request.
func (c *Client) Webhook
header http.Header | The header of the request to verify |
body []byte | The body of the request |
webhook *pusher.Webhook | If the webhook is valid, this method will return a representation of that webhook that includes its timestamp and associated events. If invalid, this value will be nil . |
err error | If the webhook is invalid, an error value will be passed. |
Custom Types
pusher.Webhook
type Webhook struct {
TimeMs int
Events []WebhookEvent
}
pusher.WebhookEvent
type WebhookEvent struct {
Name string
Channel string
Event string
Data string
SocketID string
}
Example
func pusherWebhook(res http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
body, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(req.Body)
webhook, err := pusherClient.Webhook(req.Header, body)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Webhook is invalid :(")
} else {
fmt.Printf("%+v\n", webhook.Events)
}
}
Feature Support
Trigger event on single channel | ✔ |
Trigger event on multiple channels | ✔ |
Trigger events in batches | ✔ |
Excluding recipients from events | ✔ |
Authenticating private channels | ✔ |
Authenticating presence channels | ✔ |
Get the list of channels in an application | ✔ |
Get the state of a single channel | ✔ |
Get a list of users in a presence channel | ✔ |
WebHook validation | ✔ |
Heroku add-on support | ✔ |
Debugging & Logging | ✔ |
Cluster configuration | ✔ |
Timeouts | ✔ |
HTTPS | ✔ |
HTTP Proxy configuration | ✘ |
HTTP KeepAlive | ✘ |
Helper Functionality
These are helpers that have been implemented to to ensure interactions with the HTTP API only occur if they will not be rejected e.g. channel naming conventions.
Channel name validation | ✔ |
Limit to 10 channels per trigger | ✔ |
Limit event name length to 200 chars | ✔ |
Developing the Library
Feel more than free to fork this repo, improve it in any way you'd prefer, and send us a pull request :)
Running the tests
$ go test
License
This code is free to use under the terms of the MIT license.