Publish and receive messages in Pub/Sub by using a client library

The Pub/Sub service allows applications to exchange messages reliably, quickly, and asynchronously. The following is the sequence of events:

  1. A producer of data publishes a message to a Pub/Sub topic.
  2. A subscriber client creates a subscription to that topic and consumes messages from the subscription.

You can set up a Pub/Sub environment by using any of the following methods: Google Cloud console, Cloud Shell, client libraries, or REST APIs. This page shows you how to get started publishing messages with Pub/Sub using client libraries.

Pub/Sub offers a high-level and a low-level auto-generated client library. By default, as in this quickstart, we recommend the high-level client library.

To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Guide me

Before you begin

  1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.
  2. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  3. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

    gcloud init

  4. Create or select a Google Cloud project.

    • Create a Google Cloud project:

      gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.

    • Select the Google Cloud project that you created:

      gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

  5. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  6. Enable the Pub/Sub API: 

    gcloud services enable pubsub.googleapis.com

  7. Create local authentication credentials for your user account: 

    gcloud auth application-default login

  8. Grant roles to your user account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles: roles/pubsub.admin 

    gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="USER_IDENTIFIER" --role=ROLE
    • Replace PROJECT_ID with your project ID.

    • Replace USER_IDENTIFIER with the identifier for your user account. For example, user:myemail@example.com.

    • Replace ROLE with each individual role.
    9.
  9. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  10. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

    gcloud init

  11. Create or select a Google Cloud project.

    • Create a Google Cloud project:

      gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.

    • Select the Google Cloud project that you created:

      gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

  12. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  13. Enable the Pub/Sub API: 

    gcloud services enable pubsub.googleapis.com

  14. Create local authentication credentials for your user account: 

    gcloud auth application-default login

  15. Grant roles to your user account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles: roles/pubsub.admin 

    gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="USER_IDENTIFIER" --role=ROLE
    • Replace PROJECT_ID with your project ID.

    • Replace USER_IDENTIFIER with the identifier for your user account. For example, user:myemail@example.com.

    • Replace ROLE with each individual role.
    16.

Install the client libraries

The following samples show you how to install the client libraries:

Python

For more on setting up your Python development environment, refer to Python Development Environment Setup Guide. 

# ensure that you are using virtualenv
# as described in the python dev setup guide

pip install --upgrade google-cloud-pubsub

C++

For more information about installing the C++ library, see the GitHub README.

C#

Install-Package Google.Cloud.PubSub.V1 -Pre

Go

go get cloud.google.com/go/pubsub

Java

If you are using Maven, add the following to your pom.xml file. For more information about BOMs, see The Google Cloud Platform Libraries BOM.

<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
      <artifactId>libraries-bom</artifactId>
      <version>26.49.0</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-cloud-pubsub</artifactId>
  </dependency>

</dependencies>

If you are using Gradle, add the following to your dependencies:

implementation platform('com.google.cloud:libraries-bom:26.49.0')

implementation 'com.google.cloud:google-cloud-pubsub'

If you are using sbt, add the following to your dependencies:

libraryDependencies += "com.google.cloud" % "google-cloud-pubsub" % "1.134.1"

If you're using Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, or Eclipse, you can add client libraries to your project using the following IDE plugins:

The plugins provide additional functionality, such as key management for service accounts. Refer to each plugin's documentation for details.

Node.js

npm install --save @google-cloud/pubsub

PHP

composer require google/cloud-pubsub

Ruby

gem install google-cloud-pubsub

Create a topic and a subscription

After you create a topic, you can subscribe or publish to it.

Use the following gcloud pubsub topics create command to create a topic named my-topic. Don't change the name of the topic, because it's referenced throughout the rest of the tutorial.

gcloud pubsub topics create my-topic

Use the gcloud pubsub subscriptions create command to create a subscription. Only messages published to the topic after the subscription is created are available to subscriber applications.

gcloud pubsub subscriptions create my-sub --topic my-topic

For more information about naming your topics and subscriptions, see Resource names.

Publish messages

Before running the following samples, make sure you uncomment and fill in any of the required values that are marked in the code. This is required to link the sample to your project and Pub/Sub resources that you created earlier.

Use my-topic for your topic ID.

Python

from google.cloud import pubsub_v1

# TODO(developer)
# project_id = "your-project-id"
# topic_id = "your-topic-id"

publisher = pubsub_v1.PublisherClient()
# The `topic_path` method creates a fully qualified identifier
# in the form `projects/{project_id}/topics/{topic_id}`
topic_path = publisher.topic_path(project_id, topic_id)

for n in range(1, 10):
    data_str = f"Message number {n}"
    # Data must be a bytestring
    data = data_str.encode("utf-8")
    # When you publish a message, the client returns a future.
    future = publisher.publish(topic_path, data)
    print(future.result())

print(f"Published messages to {topic_path}.")

C++

#include "google/cloud/pubsub/publisher.h"
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) try {
  if (argc != 3) {
    std::cerr << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " <project-id> <topic-id>\n";
    return 1;
  }

  std::string const project_id = argv[1];
  std::string const topic_id = argv[2];

  // Create a namespace alias to make the code easier to read.
  namespace pubsub = ::google::cloud::pubsub;

  auto publisher = pubsub::Publisher(
      pubsub::MakePublisherConnection(pubsub::Topic(project_id, topic_id)));
  auto id =
      publisher
          .Publish(pubsub::MessageBuilder{}.SetData("Hello World!").Build())
          .get();
  if (!id) throw std::move(id).status();
  std::cout << "Hello World published with id=" << *id << "\n";

  return 0;
} catch (google::cloud::Status const& status) {
  std::cerr << "google::cloud::Status thrown: " << status << "\n";
  return 1;
}

C#


using Google.Cloud.PubSub.V1;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public class PublishMessagesAsyncSample
{
    public async Task<int> PublishMessagesAsync(string projectId, string topicId, IEnumerable<string> messageTexts)
    {
        TopicName topicName = TopicName.FromProjectTopic(projectId, topicId);
        PublisherClient publisher = await PublisherClient.CreateAsync(topicName);

        int publishedMessageCount = 0;
        var publishTasks = messageTexts.Select(async text =>
        {
            try
            {
                string message = await publisher.PublishAsync(text);
                Console.WriteLine($"Published message {message}");
                Interlocked.Increment(ref publishedMessageCount);
            }
            catch (Exception exception)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"An error occurred when publishing message {text}: {exception.Message}");
            }
        });
        await Task.WhenAll(publishTasks);
        return publishedMessageCount;
    }
}

Go

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"

	"cloud.google.com/go/pubsub"
)

func publish(w io.Writer, projectID, topicID, msg string) error {
	// projectID := "my-project-id"
	// topicID := "my-topic"
	// msg := "Hello World"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := pubsub.NewClient(ctx, projectID)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("pubsub: NewClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	t := client.Topic(topicID)
	result := t.Publish(ctx, &pubsub.Message{
		Data: []byte(msg),
	})
	// Block until the result is returned and a server-generated
	// ID is returned for the published message.
	id, err := result.Get(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("pubsub: result.Get: %w", err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Published a message; msg ID: %v\n", id)
	return nil
}

Java


import com.google.api.core.ApiFuture;
import com.google.cloud.pubsub.v1.Publisher;
import com.google.protobuf.ByteString;
import com.google.pubsub.v1.PubsubMessage;
import com.google.pubsub.v1.TopicName;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class PublisherExample {
  public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "your-project-id";
    String topicId = "your-topic-id";

    publisherExample(projectId, topicId);
  }

  public static void publisherExample(String projectId, String topicId)
      throws IOException, ExecutionException, InterruptedException {
    TopicName topicName = TopicName.of(projectId, topicId);

    Publisher publisher = null;
    try {
      // Create a publisher instance with default settings bound to the topic
      publisher = Publisher.newBuilder(topicName).build();

      String message = "Hello World!";
      ByteString data = ByteString.copyFromUtf8(message);
      PubsubMessage pubsubMessage = PubsubMessage.newBuilder().setData(data).build();

      // Once published, returns a server-assigned message id (unique within the topic)
      ApiFuture<String> messageIdFuture = publisher.publish(pubsubMessage);
      String messageId = messageIdFuture.get();
      System.out.println("Published message ID: " + messageId);
    } finally {
      if (publisher != null) {
        // When finished with the publisher, shutdown to free up resources.
        publisher.shutdown();
        publisher.awaitTermination(1, TimeUnit.MINUTES);
      }
    }
  }
}

Node.js

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.
 */
// const topicNameOrId = 'YOUR_TOPIC_NAME_OR_ID';
// const data = JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar'});

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {PubSub} = require('@google-cloud/pubsub');

// Creates a client; cache this for further use
const pubSubClient = new PubSub();

async function publishMessage(topicNameOrId, data) {
  // Publishes the message as a string, e.g. "Hello, world!" or JSON.stringify(someObject)
  const dataBuffer = Buffer.from(data);

  // Cache topic objects (publishers) and reuse them.
  const topic = pubSubClient.topic(topicNameOrId);

  try {
    const messageId = topic.publishMessage({data: dataBuffer});
    console.log(`Message ${messageId} published.`);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(`Received error while publishing: ${error.message}`);
    process.exitCode = 1;
  }
}

Node.js

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.
 */
// const topicNameOrId = 'YOUR_TOPIC_NAME_OR_ID';
// const data = JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar'});

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
import {PubSub} from '@google-cloud/pubsub';

// Creates a client; cache this for further use
const pubSubClient = new PubSub();

async function publishMessage(topicNameOrId: string, data: string) {
  // Publishes the message as a string, e.g. "Hello, world!" or JSON.stringify(someObject)
  const dataBuffer = Buffer.from(data);

  // Cache topic objects (publishers) and reuse them.
  const topic = pubSubClient.topic(topicNameOrId);

  try {
    const messageId = topic.publishMessage({data: dataBuffer});
    console.log(`Message ${messageId} published.`);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(
      `Received error while publishing: ${(error as Error).message}`
    );
    process.exitCode = 1;
  }
}

PHP

use Google\Cloud\PubSub\MessageBuilder;
use Google\Cloud\PubSub\PubSubClient;

/**
 * Publishes a message for a Pub/Sub topic.
 *
 * @param string $projectId  The Google project ID.
 * @param string $topicName  The Pub/Sub topic name.
 * @param string $message  The message to publish.
 */
function publish_message($projectId, $topicName, $message)
{
    $pubsub = new PubSubClient([
        'projectId' => $projectId,
    ]);

    $topic = $pubsub->topic($topicName);
    $topic->publish((new MessageBuilder)->setData($message)->build());

    print('Message published' . PHP_EOL);
}

Ruby

# topic_id = "your-topic-id"

pubsub = Google::Cloud::Pubsub.new

topic = pubsub.topic topic_id
topic.publish "This is a test message."

puts "Message published."

Receive messages

Set up a subscriber to pull the messages you just published. Every subscriber must acknowledge each message within a configurable time window. Unacknowledged messages are redelivered. Note that Pub/Sub occasionally delivers a message more than once to ensure that all messages make it to a subscriber at least once.

Before running the following samples, make sure you uncomment and fill in any of the required values that are marked in the code. This is required to link the sample to your project and Pub/Sub resources that you created earlier

Use my-sub for your subscription ID.

For more examples that show how to pull messages, see Client Library code samples.

Python

from concurrent.futures import TimeoutError
from google.cloud import pubsub_v1

# TODO(developer)
# project_id = "your-project-id"
# subscription_id = "your-subscription-id"
# Number of seconds the subscriber should listen for messages
# timeout = 5.0

subscriber = pubsub_v1.SubscriberClient()
# The `subscription_path` method creates a fully qualified identifier
# in the form `projects/{project_id}/subscriptions/{subscription_id}`
subscription_path = subscriber.subscription_path(project_id, subscription_id)

def callback(message: pubsub_v1.subscriber.message.Message) -> None:
    print(f"Received {message}.")
    message.ack()

streaming_pull_future = subscriber.subscribe(subscription_path, callback=callback)
print(f"Listening for messages on {subscription_path}..\n")

# Wrap subscriber in a 'with' block to automatically call close() when done.
with subscriber:
    try:
        # When `timeout` is not set, result() will block indefinitely,
        # unless an exception is encountered first.
        streaming_pull_future.result(timeout=timeout)
    except TimeoutError:
        streaming_pull_future.cancel()  # Trigger the shutdown.
        streaming_pull_future.result()  # Block until the shutdown is complete.

C++

#include "google/cloud/pubsub/message.h"
#include "google/cloud/pubsub/subscriber.h"
#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) try {
  if (argc != 3) {
    std::cerr << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " <project-id> <subscription-id>\n";
    return 1;
  }

  std::string const project_id = argv[1];
  std::string const subscription_id = argv[2];

  auto constexpr kWaitTimeout = std::chrono::seconds(30);

  // Create a namespace alias to make the code easier to read.
  namespace pubsub = ::google::cloud::pubsub;

  auto subscriber = pubsub::Subscriber(pubsub::MakeSubscriberConnection(
      pubsub::Subscription(project_id, subscription_id)));

  auto session =
      subscriber.Subscribe([&](pubsub::Message const& m, pubsub::AckHandler h) {
        std::cout << "Received message " << m << "\n";
        std::move(h).ack();
      });

  std::cout << "Waiting for messages on " + subscription_id + "...\n";

  // Blocks until the timeout is reached.
  auto result = session.wait_for(kWaitTimeout);
  if (result == std::future_status::timeout) {
    std::cout << "timeout reached, ending session\n";
    session.cancel();
  }

  return 0;
} catch (google::cloud::Status const& status) {
  std::cerr << "google::cloud::Status thrown: " << status << "\n";
  return 1;
}

C#


using Google.Cloud.PubSub.V1;
using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public class PullMessagesAsyncSample
{
    public async Task<int> PullMessagesAsync(string projectId, string subscriptionId, bool acknowledge)
    {
        SubscriptionName subscriptionName = SubscriptionName.FromProjectSubscription(projectId, subscriptionId);
        SubscriberClient subscriber = await SubscriberClient.CreateAsync(subscriptionName);
        // SubscriberClient runs your message handle function on multiple
        // threads to maximize throughput.
        int messageCount = 0;
        Task startTask = subscriber.StartAsync((PubsubMessage message, CancellationToken cancel) =>
        {
            string text = message.Data.ToStringUtf8();
            Console.WriteLine($"Message {message.MessageId}: {text}");
            Interlocked.Increment(ref messageCount);
            return Task.FromResult(acknowledge ? SubscriberClient.Reply.Ack : SubscriberClient.Reply.Nack);
        });
        // Run for 5 seconds.
        await Task.Delay(5000);
        await subscriber.StopAsync(CancellationToken.None);
        // Lets make sure that the start task finished successfully after the call to stop.
        await startTask;
        return messageCount;
    }
}

Go

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"sync/atomic"
	"time"

	"cloud.google.com/go/pubsub"
)

func pullMsgs(w io.Writer, projectID, subID string) error {
	// projectID := "my-project-id"
	// subID := "my-sub"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := pubsub.NewClient(ctx, projectID)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("pubsub.NewClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	sub := client.Subscription(subID)

	// Receive messages for 10 seconds, which simplifies testing.
	// Comment this out in production, since `Receive` should
	// be used as a long running operation.
	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, 10*time.Second)
	defer cancel()

	var received int32
	err = sub.Receive(ctx, func(_ context.Context, msg *pubsub.Message) {
		fmt.Fprintf(w, "Got message: %q\n", string(msg.Data))
		atomic.AddInt32(&received, 1)
		msg.Ack()
	})
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("sub.Receive: %w", err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Received %d messages\n", received)

	return nil
}

Java


import com.google.cloud.pubsub.v1.AckReplyConsumer;
import com.google.cloud.pubsub.v1.MessageReceiver;
import com.google.cloud.pubsub.v1.Subscriber;
import com.google.pubsub.v1.ProjectSubscriptionName;
import com.google.pubsub.v1.PubsubMessage;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;

public class SubscribeAsyncExample {
  public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "your-project-id";
    String subscriptionId = "your-subscription-id";

    subscribeAsyncExample(projectId, subscriptionId);
  }

  public static void subscribeAsyncExample(String projectId, String subscriptionId) {
    ProjectSubscriptionName subscriptionName =
        ProjectSubscriptionName.of(projectId, subscriptionId);

    // Instantiate an asynchronous message receiver.
    MessageReceiver receiver =
        (PubsubMessage message, AckReplyConsumer consumer) -> {
          // Handle incoming message, then ack the received message.
          System.out.println("Id: " + message.getMessageId());
          System.out.println("Data: " + message.getData().toStringUtf8());
          consumer.ack();
        };

    Subscriber subscriber = null;
    try {
      subscriber = Subscriber.newBuilder(subscriptionName, receiver).build();
      // Start the subscriber.
      subscriber.startAsync().awaitRunning();
      System.out.printf("Listening for messages on %s:\n", subscriptionName.toString());
      // Allow the subscriber to run for 30s unless an unrecoverable error occurs.
      subscriber.awaitTerminated(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
    } catch (TimeoutException timeoutException) {
      // Shut down the subscriber after 30s. Stop receiving messages.
      subscriber.stopAsync();
    }
  }
}

Node.js

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.
 */
// const subscriptionNameOrId = 'YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_NAME_OR_ID';
// const timeout = 60;

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {PubSub} = require('@google-cloud/pubsub');

// Creates a client; cache this for further use
const pubSubClient = new PubSub();

function listenForMessages(subscriptionNameOrId, timeout) {
  // References an existing subscription; if you are unsure if the
  // subscription will exist, try the optimisticSubscribe sample.
  const subscription = pubSubClient.subscription(subscriptionNameOrId);

  // Create an event handler to handle messages
  let messageCount = 0;
  const messageHandler = message => {
    console.log(`Received message ${message.id}:`);
    console.log(`\tData: ${message.data}`);
    console.log(`\tAttributes: ${message.attributes}`);
    messageCount += 1;

    // "Ack" (acknowledge receipt of) the message
    message.ack();
  };

  // Listen for new messages until timeout is hit
  subscription.on('message', messageHandler);

  // Wait a while for the subscription to run. (Part of the sample only.)
  setTimeout(() => {
    subscription.removeListener('message', messageHandler);
    console.log(`${messageCount} message(s) received.`);
  }, timeout * 1000);
}

PHP

use Google\Cloud\PubSub\PubSubClient;

/**
 * Pulls all Pub/Sub messages for a subscription.
 *
 * @param string $projectId  The Google project ID.
 * @param string $subscriptionName  The Pub/Sub subscription name.
 */
function pull_messages($projectId, $subscriptionName)
{
    $pubsub = new PubSubClient([
        'projectId' => $projectId,
    ]);
    $subscription = $pubsub->subscription($subscriptionName);
    foreach ($subscription->pull() as $message) {
        printf('Message: %s' . PHP_EOL, $message->data());
        // Acknowledge the Pub/Sub message has been received, so it will not be pulled multiple times.
        $subscription->acknowledge($message);
    }
}

Ruby

# subscription_id = "your-subscription-id"

pubsub = Google::Cloud::Pubsub.new

subscription = pubsub.subscription subscription_id
subscriber   = subscription.listen do |received_message|
  puts "Received message: #{received_message.data}"
  received_message.acknowledge!
end

subscriber.start
# Let the main thread sleep for 60 seconds so the thread for listening
# messages does not quit
sleep 60
subscriber.stop.wait!

How did it go?

Clean up (optional)

  1. To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used in this guide, you can use the command line to delete the topic and subscription. 
      gcloud pubsub subscriptions delete my-sub
  gcloud pubsub topics delete my-topic

  2. Optional: Revoke the authentication credentials that you created, and delete the local credential file. 

    gcloud auth application-default revoke

  3. Optional: Revoke credentials from the gcloud CLI. 

    gcloud auth revoke

What's next