Pub/sub API reference

Detailed documentation on the pub/sub API

Publish a message to a given topic

This endpoint lets you publish data to multiple consumers who are listening on a topic. Dapr guarantees at least once semantics for this endpoint.

HTTP Request

  1. POST http://localhost:<daprPort>/v1.0/publish/<pubsubname>/<topic>[?<metadata>]

HTTP Response codes

CodeDescription
204Message delivered
403Message forbidden by access controls
404No pubsub name or topic given
500Delivery failed

URL Parameters

ParameterDescription
daprPortthe Dapr port
pubsubnamethe name of pubsub component
topicthe name of the topic
metadataquery parameters for metadata as described below

Note, all URL parameters are case-sensitive.

  1. curl -X POST http://localhost:3500/v1.0/publish/pubsubName/deathStarStatus \
  2. -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  3. -d '{
  4. "status": "completed"
  5. }'

Headers

The Content-Type header tells Dapr which content type your data adheres to when constructing a CloudEvent envelope. The value of the Content-Type header populates the datacontenttype field in the CloudEvent. Unless specified, Dapr assumes text/plain. If your content type is JSON, use a Content-Type header with the value of application/json.

If you want to send your own custom CloundEvent, use the application/cloudevents+json value for the Content-Type header.

Metadata

Metadata can be sent via query parameters in the request’s URL. It must be prefixed with metadata. as shown below.

ParameterDescription
metadata.ttlInSecondsthe number of seconds for the message to expire as described here
metadata.rawPayloadboolean to determine if Dapr should publish the event without wrapping it as CloudEvent as described here

Additional metadata parameters are available based on each pubsub component.

Optional Application (User Code) Routes

Provide a route for Dapr to discover topic subscriptions

Dapr will invoke the following endpoint on user code to discover topic subscriptions:

HTTP Request

  1. GET http://localhost:<appPort>/dapr/subscribe

URL Parameters

ParameterDescription
appPortthe application port

HTTP Response body

A json encoded array of strings.

Example:

  1. [
  2. {
  3. "pubsubname": "pubsub",
  4. "topic": "newOrder",
  5. "route": "/orders",
  6. "metadata": {
  7. "rawPayload": "true",
  8. }
  9. }
  10. ]

Note, all subscription parameters are case-sensitive.

Metadata

Optionally, metadata can be sent via the request body.

ParameterDescription
rawPayloadboolean to subscribe to events that do not comply with CloudEvent specification, as described here

Provide route(s) for Dapr to deliver topic events

In order to deliver topic events, a POST call will be made to user code with the route specified in the subscription response.

The following example illustrates this point, considering a subscription for topic newOrder with route orders on port 3000: POST http://localhost:3000/orders

HTTP Request

  1. POST http://localhost:<appPort>/<path>

Note, all URL parameters are case-sensitive.

URL Parameters

ParameterDescription
appPortthe application port
pathroute path from the subscription configuration

Expected HTTP Response

An HTTP 2xx response denotes successful processing of message. For richer response handling, a JSON encoded payload body with the processing status can be sent:

  1. {
  2. "status": "<status>"
  3. }
StatusDescription
SUCCESSmessage is processed successfully
RETRYmessage to be retried by Dapr
DROPwarning is logged and message is dropped
Otherserror, message to be retried by Dapr

Dapr assumes a JSON encoded payload response without status field or an empty payload responses with HTTP 2xx, as SUCCESS.

The HTTP response might be different from HTTP 2xx, the following are Dapr’s behavior in different HTTP statuses:

HTTP StatusDescription
2xxmessage is processed as per status in payload (SUCCESS if empty; ignored if invalid payload).
404error is logged and message is dropped
otherwarning is logged and message to be retried

Message envelope

Dapr Pub/Sub adheres to version 1.0 of CloudEvents.

Last modified September 17, 2021 : Merge pull request #1757 from georgestevens99/1440SecretKeyRefExplanation (620a5f8)