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

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

HTTP Response codes

URL Parameters

Note, all URL parameters are case-sensitive.

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

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.

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

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

URL Parameters

HTTP Response body

A json encoded array of strings.

Example:

[
  {
    "pubsubname": "pubsub",
    "topic": "newOrder",
    "route": "/orders"
  }
]

Note, all subscription parameters are case-sensitive.

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

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

Note, all URL parameters are case-sensitive.

URL Parameters

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:

{
  "status": "<status>"
}

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:

Message envelope

Dapr Pub/Sub adheres to version 1.0 of CloudEvents.

Related links

• How to publish to and consume topics
• Sample for pub/sub

Last modified March 18, 2021: Merge pull request #1321 from dapr/aacrawfi/logos (9a399d5)