Getting started

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PubSub provides connectivity with cloud-based message-oriented middleware. You can use PubSub to pass messages between your app instances and your app's backend creating real-time interactive experiences.

PubSub is available with AWS IoT.

When using AWS IoT your PubSub HTTP requests are automatically signed when sending your messages.

Installation and Configuration

AWS IoT

In the PubSub category, AWSIoTMqttManager establishes a signed connection with AWS IoT according to Signature Version 4.

Set up AWS Mobile SDK components by including the following libraries in your app/build.gradle dependencies list.

dependencies {
  implementation 'com.amazonaws:aws-android-sdk-iot:ANDROID_SDK_VERSION'
  implementation 'com.amazonaws:aws-android-sdk-mobile-client:ANDROID_SDK_VERSION'

aws-android-sdk-iot library enables connecting to AWS IoT.
aws-android-sdk-mobile-client library gives access to the AWS credentials provider and configurations.

To use in your app, import the following classes:

import com.amazonaws.mobileconnectors.iot.AWSIotMqttManager;
import com.amazonaws.mobileconnectors.iot.AWSIotMqttNewMessageCallback;
import com.amazonaws.mobileconnectors.iot.AWSIotMqttQos;

Define your unique client ID and endpoint (incl. region) in your configuration:

// Initialize the AWSIotMqttManager with the configuration
AWSIotMqttManager mqttManager = new AWSIotMqttManager(
	"<YOUR_CLIENT_ID>",
	"xxxxxxxxxxxxx-ats.iot.<YOUR-AWS-REGION>.amazonaws.com");

You can get the endpoint information from the IoT Core -> Settings page on the AWS Console.

Create IAM policies for AWS IoT

To use PubSub with AWS IoT, you will need to create the necessary IAM policies in the AWS IoT Console, and attach them to your Amazon Cognito Identity.

Go to IoT Core and choose Secure from the left navigation pane, and then Policies from the dropdown menu. Next, click Create. The following myIOTPolicy policy will allow full access to all the topics.

Shows IoT policy dropdown on AWS Console

Attach your policy to your Amazon Cognito Identity

To attach the policy to your Cognito Identity, begin by retrieving the Cognito Identity Id from AWSMobileClient.

AWSMobileClient.getInstance().getIdentityId();

Then, you need to attach the myIOTPolicy policy to the user's Cognito Identity Id with the following AWS CLI command:

aws iot attach-principal-policy --policy-name 'myIOTPolicy' --principal '<YOUR_COGNITO_IDENTITY_ID>'

To programmatically attach the myIOTPolicy policy to the user's Cognito Identity Id, import the following classes:

import com.amazonaws.services.iot.AWSIotClient;
import com.amazonaws.mobile.client.AWSMobileClient;
import com.amazonaws.services.iot.model.AttachPolicyRequest;

Next, instantiate the AttachPolicyRequest class and attach it your IoT Client as follows:

AttachPolicyRequest attachPolicyReq = new AttachPolicyRequest();
attachPolicyReq.setPolicyName("myIOTPolicy"); // name of your IOT AWS policy
attachPolicyReq.setTarget(AWSMobileClient.getInstance().getIdentityId());
AWSIotClient mIotAndroidClient = new AWSIotClient(AWSMobileClient.getInstance());
mIotAndroidClient.setRegion(Region.getRegion("<YOUR-AWS-REGION>")); // name of your IoT Region such as "us-east-1"
mIotAndroidClient.attachPolicy(attachPolicyReq);