Ably is the platform that powers synchronized digital experiences in realtime. Whether attending an event in a virtual venue, receiving realtime financial information, or monitoring live car performance data – consumers simply expect realtime digital experiences as standard. Ably provides a suite of APIs to build, extend, and deliver powerful digital experiences in realtime for more than 250 million devices across 80 countries each month. Organizations like Bloomberg, HubSpot, Verizon, and Hopin depend on Ably’s platform to offload the growing complexity of business-critical realtime data synchronization at global scale. For more information, see the Ably documentation.
- Android
- iOS
- Push notifications, check support section
- Flutter 2.5.0 or higher
- iOS 10 or newer
- Android API Level 19 (Android 4.4, KitKat) or newer
This project uses Java 8 language features, utilizing Desugaring to support lower versions of the Android runtime (i.e. API Levels prior to 24).
If your project needs support for SDK Version lower than 24, Android Gradle Plugin 4.0.0+ must be used. You might also need to upgrade gradle distribution accordingly.
In pubspec.yaml
file:
dependencies:
ably_flutter: ^1.2.34
import 'package:ably_flutter/ably_flutter.dart' as ably;
When increasing the version of ably_flutter
in your pubspec.yaml
, if there are breaking changes, follow the updating / migration guide.
Please check demo code snippets and flutter example app for more detailed usage.
// Create an instance of ClientOptions with Ably key
final clientOptions = ably.ClientOptions(key: '<KEY>');
// Use ClientOptions to create Realtime or REST instance
ably.Realtime realtime = ably.Realtime(options: clientOptions);
ably.Rest rest = ably.Rest(options: clientOptions);
Also see docs: Auth and Security: Basic authentication
Supplying a TokenCallback
:
// Create an instance of ClientOptions with Ably token and authCallback
ably.ClientOptions clientOptions = ably.ClientOptions(
key: '<TOKEN>',
clientId: '<CLIENT>', // Optional
authCallback: (ably.TokenParams tokenParams) async {
// `createTokenRequest` should be implemented to communicate with user server
ably.TokenRequest tokenRequest = await createTokenRequest(tokenParams);
// `authCallback` has to return an instance of TokenRequest
return tokenRequest;
}
);
// Use ClientOptions to create Realtime or REST instance
ably.Realtime realtime = ably.Realtime(options: clientOptions);
ably.Rest rest = ably.Rest(options: clientOptions);
Also see docs: Auth and Security: Token authentication
ably.Realtime realtime = ably.Realtime(options: clientOptions);
DateTime time = realtime.time()
realtime.connection
.on()
.listen((ably.ConnectionStateChange stateChange) async {
// Handle connection state change events
});
realtime.connection
.on(ably.ConnectionEvent.connected) // Any type of `ConnectionEvent` can be specified
.listen((ably.ConnectionStateChange stateChange) async {
// Handle connection state change events
});
String connectionId = realtime.connection.id;
ConnectionState state = realtime.connection.state;
String recoveryKey = await realtime.connection.createRecoveryKey(); // https://ably.com/docs/connect/states?q=recovery#connection-state-recover-options
ably.RealtimeChannel channel = realtime.channels.get('channel-name');
await channel.attach()
await channel.detach()
channel
.on()
.listen((ably.ChannelStateChange stateChange) async {
// Handle channel state change events
});
channel
.on(ably.ChannelEvent.failed) // Any type of `ConnectionEvent` can be specified
.listen((ably.ChannelStateChange stateChange) async {
// Handle channel state change events
});
StreamSubscription<ably.Message> subscription =
channel
.subscribe()
.listen((ably.Message message) {
// Handle channel message
});
StreamSubscription<ably.Message> subscription =
channel
.subscribe(name: 'event1')
.listen((ably.Message message) {
// Handle channel messages with name 'event1'
});
StreamSubscription<ably.Message> subscription =
channel
.subscribe(names: ['event1', 'event2'])
.listen((ably.Message message) {
// Handle channel messages with name 'event1' or `event2`
});
await subscription.cancel()
// Publish simple message
await channel.publish(
name: "event1",
data: "hello world",
);
// Publish message data as json-encodable object
await channel.publish(
name: "event1",
data: {
"hello": "world",
"hey": "ably",
},
);
// Publish message as array of json-encodable objects
await channel.publish(
name: "event1",
data: [
{
"hello": {
"world": true,
},
"ably": {
"serious": "realtime",
},
],
);
// Publish message as an `ably.Message` object
await channel.publish(
message: ably.Message(
name: "event1",
data: {
"hello": "world",
}
),
);
await channel.publish(
messages: [
ably.Message(
name: "event1",
data: {
"hello": "world",
}
),
ably.Message(
name: "event1",
data: {
"hello": "ably",
}
),
],
);
// Get channel history with default parameters
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.Message> history = await channel.history()
// Get channel history with custom parameters
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.Message> filteredHistory = await channel.history(
ably.RealtimeHistoryParams(
direction: 'forwards',
limit: 10,
)
)
// Enter using client ID from `ClientOptions`
await channel.presence.enter();
// Enter using client ID from `ClientOptions` with additional data
await channel.presence.enter("hello");
await channel.presence.enter([1, 2, 3]);
await channel.presence.enter({"key": "value"});
// Enter with specified client ID
await channel.presence.enterClient("user1");
// Enter with specified client ID and additional data
await channel.presence.enterClient("user1", "hello");
await channel.presence.enterClient("user1", [1, 2, 3]);
await channel.presence.enterClient("user1", {"key": "value"});
// Update using client ID from `ClientOptions`
await channel.presence.update();
// Update using client ID from `ClientOptions` with additional data
await channel.presence.update("hello");
await channel.presence.update([1, 2, 3]);
await channel.presence.update({"key": "value"});
// Update with specified client ID
await channel.presence.updateClient("user1");
// Update with specified client ID and additional data
await channel.presence.updateClient("user1", "hello");
await channel.presence.updateClient("user1", [1, 2, 3]);
await channel.presence.updateClient("user1", {"key": "value"});
// Leave using client ID from `ClientOptions`
await channel.presence.leave();
// Leave using client ID from `ClientOptions` with additional data
await channel.presence.leave("hello");
await channel.presence.leave([1, 2, 3]);
await channel.presence.leave({"key": "value"});
// Leave with specified client ID
await channel.presence.leaveClient("user1");
// Leave with specified client ID and additional data
await channel.presence.leaveClient("user1", "hello");
await channel.presence.leaveClient("user1", [1, 2, 3]);
await channel.presence.leaveClient("user1", {"key": "value"});
// Get all presence messages
List<ably.PresenceMessage> presenceMessages = await channel.presence.get();
// Get presence messages with specific Client ID
presenceMessages = await channel.presence.get(
ably.RealtimePresenceParams(
clientId: 'clientId',
),
);
// Get presence messages with specific Connection ID
presenceMessages = await channel.presence.get(
ably.RealtimePresenceParams(
connectionId: 'connectionId',
),
);
// Get presence history with default parameters
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.PresenceMessage> history = await channel.presence.history()
// Get presence history with custom parameters
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.PresenceMessage> filteredHistory = await channel.presence.history(
ably.RealtimeHistoryParams(
direction: 'forwards',
limit: 10,
)
)
StreamSubscription<ably.PresenceMessage> subscription =
channel
.presence
.subscribe()
.listen((presenceMessage) {
// Handle presence message
},
);
StreamSubscription<ably.PresenceMessage> subscription =
channel
.presence
.subscribe(action: PresenceAction.enter)
.listen((presenceMessage) {
// Handle `enter` presence message
},
);
StreamSubscription<ably.PresenceMessage> subscription =
channel
.presence
.subscribe(actions: [
PresenceAction.enter,
PresenceAction.update,
])
.listen((presenceMessage) {
// Handle `enter` and `update` presence message
},
);
ably.Rest rest = ably.Rest(options: clientOptions);
DateTime time = rest.time()
ably.RestChannel channel = rest.channels.get('channel-name');
// Publish simple message
await channel.publish(
name: "event1",
data: "hello world",
);
// Publish message data as json-encodable object
await channel.publish(
name: "event1",
data: {
"hello": "world",
"hey": "ably",
},
);
// Publish message as array of json-encodable objects
await channel.publish(
name: "event1",
data: [
{
"hello": {
"world": true,
},
"ably": {
"serious": "realtime",
},
],
);
// Publish message as an `ably.Message` object
await channel.publish(
message: ably.Message(
name: "event1",
data: {
"hello": "world",
}
),
);
await channel.publish(
messages: [
ably.Message(
name: "event1",
data: {
"hello": "world",
}
),
ably.Message(
name: "event1",
data: {
"hello": "ably",
}
),
],
);
// Get channel history with default parameters
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.Message> history = await channel.history()
// Get channel history with custom parameters
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.Message> filteredHistory = await channel.history(
ably.RestHistoryParams(
direction: 'forwards',
limit: 10,
)
)
// Get all presence messages
List<ably.PresenceMessage> presenceMessages = await channel.presence.get();
// Get presence messages with specific Client ID
presenceMessages = await channel.presence.get(
ably.RestPresenceParams(
clientId: 'clientId',
),
);
// Get presence messages with specific Connection ID
presenceMessages = await channel.presence.get(
ably.RestPresenceParams(
connectionId: 'connectionId',
),
);
// Get presence history with default parameters
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.PresenceMessage> history = await channel.presence.history();
// Get presence history with custom parameters
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.PresenceMessage> filteredHistory = await channel.presence.history(
ably.RestHistoryParams(
direction: 'forwards',
limit: 10,
)
);
// Example PaginatedResult returned from channel history
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.Message> paginatedResult = await channel.history(params);
// Get list of items from result
List<ably.Message> items = paginatedResult.items;
// Example PaginatedResult returned from channel history
ably.PaginatedResult<ably.Message> paginatedResult = await channel.history(params);
// Check if next page is available
bool hasNextPage = paginatedResult.hasNext();
// Fetch next page if it's available
if (hasNextPage) {
paginatedResult = await paginatedResult.next();
}
String key = 'base64EncodedKey'; // Can also be an UInt8List
CipherParams cipherParams = ably.Crypto.getDefaultParams(key: key);
// For Realtime
RealtimeChannelOptions realtimeChannelOptions = ably.RealtimeChannelOptions(cipherParams: cipherParams);
RealtimeChannel channel = realtime.channels.get("channel-name");
channel.setOptions(realtimeChannelOptions)
// For REST
RestChannelOptions restChannelOptions = ably.RestChannelOptions(cipherParams: cipherParams);
RestChannel channel = rest.channels.get("channel-name");
channel.setOptions(restChannelOptions)
Features that we do not currently support, but we do plan to add in the future:
Using the Streams based approach doesn't fully conform with RTE6a from our client library features specification.
StreamSubscription subscriptionToBeCancelled;
// Listener registered 1st
realtime.connection.on().listen((ably.ConnectionStateChange stateChange) async {
if (stateChange.event == ably.ConnectionEvent.connected) {
await subscriptionToBeCancelled.cancel(); // Cancelling 2nd listener
}
});
// Listener registered 2nd
subscriptionToBeCancelled = realtime.connection.on().listen((ably.ConnectionStateChange stateChange) async {
print('State changed');
});
In the example above, the 2nd listener is cancelled when the 1st listener is notified about the "connected" event. As per RTE6a, the 2nd listener should also be triggered. It will not be as the 2nd listener was registered after the 1st listener and stream subscription is cancelled immediately after 1st listener is triggered.
This wouldn't have happened if the 2nd listener had been registered before the 1st was.
Instead of await subscriptionToBeCancelled.cancel();
, use
Future<void>.delayed(Duration.zero, () {
subscriptionToBeCancelled.cancel();
});
By default, push-related components in the sample app won't work on Android, because of a dummy google-services.json file. In order to use push messaging features of Ably SDK, additional FCM/APNS configuration is required.
See PushNotifications.md for detailed information on getting PN working with the example app.
See Ably feature support matrix for a list of features supported by this SDK.
Please visit ably.com/support for access to our knowledge base and to ask for any assistance.
To see what has changed in recent versions, see the CHANGELOG.
For guidance on how to contribute to this project, see CONTRIBUTING.md.