Manage Flexible Sync Subscriptions - Java SDK

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Overview

Subscribe to Queryable Fields
Add a Subscription
Wait for Subscription Changes to Sync
Update Subscriptions with a New Query
Remove Subscriptions
Flexible Sync RQL Requirements and Limitations
Indexed Queryable Fields Subscription Requirements
Unsupported Query Operators in Flexible Sync
List Queries
Embedded or Linked Objects

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Overview

Flexible Sync uses subscriptions and permissions to determine which data to sync with your App.

To use Flexible Sync in the SDK:

You can add, update, and remove query subscriptions to determine which data syncs to the client device.

Tip

Subscribe to Queryable Fields

When you configure Flexible Sync on the backend, you specify which fields your client application can query. In the client application, use the subscriptions API to manage a set of subscriptions to specific queries on queryable fields. You can construct queries with the Java SDK's fluent interface or Realm Query Language.

Important

Flexible Sync does not support all the operators available in Realm Query Language. See Flexible Sync RQL Limitations for details.

You can:

Add subscriptions
React to subscription state
Update subscriptions with new queries
Remove individual subscriptions or all subscriptions for an object type

Data matching the subscription, where the user has the appropriate permissions, syncs between clients and the backend application.

You can specify an optional string name for your subscription.

Tip

Always Specify a Subscription Name

Always specify a subscription name if your application uses multiple subscriptions. This makes your subscriptions easier to look up, update, and delete elsewhere in your app.

When you create a subscription, Realm looks for data matching a query on a specific object type. You can have multiple subscription sets on different object types. You can also have multiple queries on the same object type.

You can create a subscription with an explicit name. Then, you can search for that subscription by name to update or remove it.

SyncConfiguration config = new SyncConfiguration.Builder(app.currentUser())
        .initialSubscriptions(new SyncConfiguration.InitialFlexibleSyncSubscriptions() {
            @Override
            public void configure(Realm realm, MutableSubscriptionSet subscriptions) {
                // add a subscription with a name
                subscriptions.add(Subscription.create("frogSubscription",
                        realm.where(Frog.class)
                            .equalTo("species", "spring peeper")));
            }
        })
        .build();
Realm.getInstanceAsync(config, new Realm.Callback() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(Realm realm) {
        Log.v("EXAMPLE", "Successfully opened a realm.");
        // later, you can look up this subscription by name
        Subscription subscription = realm.getSubscriptions().find("frogSubscription");
    }
});

val config = SyncConfiguration.Builder(app.currentUser())
    .initialSubscriptions { realm, subscriptions ->
        // add a subscription with a name
        subscriptions.add(
            Subscription.create(
                "frogSubscription",
                realm.where(Frog::class.java)
                    .equalTo("species", "spring peeper")
            )
        )
    }
    .build()
Realm.getInstanceAsync(config, object : Realm.Callback() {
    override fun onSuccess(realm: Realm) {
        Log.v("EXAMPLE", "Successfully opened a realm.")
        // later, you can look up this subscription by name
        val subscription =
            realm.subscriptions.find("frogSubscription")
    }
})

You can also search subscriptions by query. If you omit the name when creating a subscription, this is the only way to look up your subscription.

SyncConfiguration config = new SyncConfiguration.Builder(app.currentUser())
        .initialSubscriptions(new SyncConfiguration.InitialFlexibleSyncSubscriptions() {
            @Override
            public void configure(Realm realm, MutableSubscriptionSet subscriptions) {
                // add a subscription without assigning a name
                subscriptions.add(Subscription.create(
                        realm.where(Frog.class)
                                .equalTo("species", "spring peeper")));
            }
        })
        .build();
Realm.getInstanceAsync(config, new Realm.Callback() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(Realm realm) {
        Log.v("EXAMPLE", "Successfully opened a realm.");
        // later, you can look up this subscription by query
        Subscription subscription = realm.getSubscriptions().find(realm.where(Frog.class)
                .equalTo("species", "spring peeper"));
    }
});

val config = SyncConfiguration.Builder(app.currentUser())
    .initialSubscriptions { realm, subscriptions ->
        // add a subscription without assigning a name
        subscriptions.add(
            Subscription.create(
                realm.where(Frog::class.java)
                    .equalTo("species", "spring peeper")
            )
        )
    }
    .build()
Realm.getInstanceAsync(config, object : Realm.Callback() {
    override fun onSuccess(realm: Realm) {
        Log.v("EXAMPLE", "Successfully opened a realm.")
        // later, you can look up this subscription by query
        val subscription =
            realm.subscriptions.find(
                realm.where(
                    Frog::class.java
                ).equalTo("species", "spring peeper")
            )
    }
})

Note

Duplicate subscriptions

Subscription names must be unique. Adding a subscription with the same name as an existing subscription throws an error.

If you do not explicitly name a subscription, and instead subscribe to the same unnamed query more than once, Realm does not persist duplicate queries to the subscription set.

If you subscribe to the same query more than once under different names, Realm persists both subscriptions to the subscription set.

Add a Subscription

Add a subscription in a subscriptions write block. You append each new subscription to the client's Realm subscriptions.

SyncConfiguration config = new SyncConfiguration.Builder(app.currentUser())
        .initialSubscriptions(new SyncConfiguration.InitialFlexibleSyncSubscriptions() {
            @Override
            public void configure(Realm realm, MutableSubscriptionSet subscriptions) {
                subscriptions.add(Subscription.create("subscriptionName",
                        realm.where(Frog.class)
                            .equalTo("species", "spring peeper")));
            }
        })
        .build();
// instantiate a realm instance with the flexible sync configuration
Realm.getInstanceAsync(config, new Realm.Callback() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(Realm realm) {
        Log.v("EXAMPLE", "Successfully opened a realm.");
    }
});

val config = SyncConfiguration.Builder(app.currentUser())
    .initialSubscriptions { realm, subscriptions ->
        subscriptions.add(
            Subscription.create(
                "subscriptionName",
                realm.where(Frog::class.java)
                    .equalTo("species", "spring peeper")
            )
        )
    }
    .build()
// instantiate a realm instance with the flexible sync configuration
Realm.getInstanceAsync(config, object : Realm.Callback() {
    override fun onSuccess(realm: Realm) {
        Log.v("EXAMPLE", "Successfully opened a realm.")
    }
})

Note

Object Links

You must add both an object and its linked object to the subscription set to see a linked object.

If your subscription results contain an object with a property that links to an object not contained in the results, the link appears to be null. There is no way to distinguish whether that property's value is legitimately null, or whether the object it links to exists but is out of view of the query subscription.

Wait for Subscription Changes to Sync

Writing an update to the subscription set locally is only one component of changing a subscription. After the local subscription change, the client synchronizes with the server to resolve any updates to the data due to the subscription change. This could mean adding or removing data from the synced realm. Use the waitForInitialRemoteData() builder method to force your application to block until client subscription data synchronizes to the backend before opening the realm:

SyncConfiguration config = new SyncConfiguration.Builder(app.currentUser())
        .initialSubscriptions(new SyncConfiguration.InitialFlexibleSyncSubscriptions() {
            @Override
            public void configure(Realm realm, MutableSubscriptionSet subscriptions) {
                subscriptions.add(Subscription.create("my subscription",
                        realm.where(Frog.class)
                                .equalTo("species", "poison dart")));
            }
        })
        .waitForInitialRemoteData(2112, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
        .build();
Realm.getInstanceAsync(config, new Realm.Callback() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(Realm realm) {
        Log.v("EXAMPLE", "Successfully opened a realm.");
    }
});

val config = SyncConfiguration.Builder(app.currentUser())
    .initialSubscriptions { realm, subscriptions ->
        subscriptions.add(
            Subscription.create(
                "my subscription",
                realm.where(Frog::class.java)
                    .equalTo("species", "poison dart")
            )
        )
    }
    .waitForInitialRemoteData(
        2112,
        TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS
    )
    .build()
Realm.getInstanceAsync(config, object : Realm.Callback() {
    override fun onSuccess(realm: Realm) {
        Log.v("EXAMPLE", "Successfully opened a realm.")
    }
})

You can also use SubscriptionSet.waitForSynchronization() or SubscriptionSet.waitForSynchronizationAsync() to delay execution until subscription sync completes after instantiating a sync connection.

SubscriptionSet.State Enum

Additionally, you can watch the state of the subscription set with the SubscriptionSet.State enum. You can use subscription state to:

Show a progress indicator while data is downloading
Find out when a subscription set becomes superseded

You can access the state of your application's subscription set using SubscriptionSet.getState().

Note

Subscription State "Complete"

The subscription set state "complete" does not mean "sync is done" or "all documents have been synced". "Complete" means the following two things have happened:

The subscription has become the active subscription set that is currently being synchronized with the server.
The documents that matched the subscription at the time the subscription was sent to the server are now on the local device. Note that this does not necessarily include all documents that currently match the subscription.

The Realm SDK does not provide a way to check whether all documents that match a subscription have synced to the device.

Superseded

SUPERSEDED is a SubscriptionSet.State that can occur when another thread writes a subscription on a different instance of the subscription set. If the state becomes SUPERSEDED, you must obtain a new instance of the subscription set before you can write to it.

Update Subscriptions with a New Query

You can update subscriptions using SubscriptionSet.update(). In this example, we use MutableSubscriptionSet.addOrUpdate() to update the query for the subscription named "my frog subscription":

realm.getSubscriptions().update(new SubscriptionSet.UpdateCallback() {
    @Override
    public void update(MutableSubscriptionSet subscriptions) {
        // to update a named subscription, create a replacement with
        // the same name and add it to the subscription set
        subscriptions.addOrUpdate(
                Subscription.create("my frog subscription",
                        realm.where(Frog.class)
                            .equalTo("name",
                                    "Benedict Cumberburger")));
    }
});

realm.subscriptions.update { subscriptions ->
    // to update a named subscription, create a replacement with
    // the same name and add it to the subscription set
    subscriptions.addOrUpdate(
        Subscription.create(
            "my frog subscription",
            realm.where(Frog::class.java)
                .equalTo(
                    "name",
                    "Benedict Cumberburger"
                )
        )
    )
}

You cannot update subscriptions created without a name. However, you can look up unnamed subscriptions by their query, remove them from the subscription set, then add a new subscription with an updated query:

realm.getSubscriptions().update(new SubscriptionSet.UpdateCallback() {
    @Override
    public void update(MutableSubscriptionSet subscriptions) {
        // to update an unnamed subscription, remove it from the
        // subscription set, then add your new query to the set
        Subscription mySubscription = subscriptions.find(realm.where(Frog.class)
                .equalTo("species",
                        "cane toad"));
        subscriptions.remove(mySubscription);
        subscriptions.addOrUpdate(
                Subscription.create(
                        realm.where(Frog.class)
                                .equalTo("species",
                                        "albino cane toad")));
    }
});

realm.subscriptions.update { subscriptions ->
    // to update an unnamed subscription, remove it from the
    // subscription set, then add your new query to the set
    val mySubscription =
        subscriptions.find(
            realm.where(
                Frog::class.java
            ).equalTo(
                "species",
                "cane toad"
            )
        )
    subscriptions.remove(mySubscription)
    subscriptions.addOrUpdate(
        Subscription.create(
            realm.where(Frog::class.java)
                .equalTo(
                    "species",
                    "albino cane toad"
                )
        )
    )
}

Remove Subscriptions

To remove subscriptions, you can:

Remove a single subscription query
Remove all subscriptions to a specific object type
Remove all subscriptions

When you remove a subscription query, Realm asynchronously removes the synced data that matched the query from the client device.

Remove a Single Subscription

You can remove a specific subscription query using MutableSubscriptionSet.remove(). You can either look up the subscription by name, then pass the returned subscription to remove(), or pass the subscription name directly to remove():

realm.getSubscriptions().update(new SubscriptionSet.UpdateCallback() {
    @Override
    public void update(MutableSubscriptionSet subscriptions) {
        Subscription mySubscription = subscriptions.find("mySubscription");
        subscriptions.remove(mySubscription);
    }
});

realm.subscriptions.update { subscriptions ->
    val mySubscription =
        subscriptions.find("mySubscription")
    subscriptions.remove(mySubscription)
}

Remove All Subscriptions to an Object Type

If you want to remove all subscriptions to a specific object type, pass a class to the removeAll() method:

realm.getSubscriptions().update(new SubscriptionSet.UpdateCallback() {
    @Override
    public void update(MutableSubscriptionSet subscriptions) {
        subscriptions.removeAll(Frog.class);
    }
});

realm.subscriptions.update { subscriptions ->
    subscriptions.removeAll(
        Frog::class.java
    )
}

Remove All Subscriptions

To remove all subscriptions from the subscription set, use removeAll() with no arguments:

Warning

If you remove all subscriptions and do not add a new one, you'll get an error. A realm opened with a flexible sync configuration needs at least one subscription to sync with the server.

realm.getSubscriptions().update(new SubscriptionSet.UpdateCallback() {
    @Override
    public void update(MutableSubscriptionSet subscriptions) {
        subscriptions.removeAll();
    }
});

realm.subscriptions.update { subscriptions -> subscriptions.removeAll() }

Flexible Sync RQL Requirements and Limitations

Indexed Queryable Fields Subscription Requirements

Adding an indexed queryable field to your App can improve performance for simple queries on data that is strongly partitioned. For example, an app where queries strongly map data to a device, store, or user, such as user_id == $0, “641374b03725038381d2e1fb”, is a good candidate for an indexed queryable field. However, an indexed queryable field has specific requirements for use in a query subscription:

The indexed queryable field must be used in every subscription query. It cannot be missing from the query.
The indexed queryable field must use an == or IN comparison against a constant at least once in the subscription query. For example, user_id == $0, "641374b03725038381d2e1fb" or store_id IN $0, {1,2,3}.

You can optionally include an AND comparison as long as the indexed queryable field is directly compared against a constant using == or IN at least once. For example, store_id IN {1,2,3} AND region=="Northeast" or store_id == 1 AND (active_promotions < 5 OR num_employees < 10).

Invalid Flexible Sync queries on an indexed queryable field include queries where:

The indexed queryable field does not use AND with the rest of the query. For example store_id IN {1,2,3} OR region=="Northeast" is invalid because it uses OR instead of AND. Similarly, store_id == 1 AND active_promotions < 5 OR num_employees < 10 is invalid because the AND only applies to the term next to it, not the entire query.
The indexed queryable field is not used in an equality operator. For example store_id > 2 AND region=="Northeast" is invalid because it uses only the > operator with the indexed queryable field and does not have an equality comparison.
The query is missing the indexed queryable field entirely. For example, region=="Northeast or truepredicate are invalid because they do not contain the indexed queryable field.

Unsupported Query Operators in Flexible Sync

Flexible Sync has some limitations when using RQL operators. When you write the query subscription that determines which data to sync, the server does not support these query operators. However, you can still use the full range of RQL features to query the synced data set in the client application.

Operator Type	Unsupported Operators
Aggregate Operators	`@avg`, `@count`, `@max`, `@min`, `@sum`
Query Suffixes	`DISTINCT`, `SORT`, `LIMIT`

Case insensitive queries ([c]) cannot use indexes effectively. As a result, case insensitive queries are not recommended, since they could lead to performance problems.

Flexible Sync only supports @count for array fields.

List Queries

Flexible Sync supports querying lists using the IN operator.

You can query a list of constants to see if it contains the value of a queryable field:

// Query a constant list for a queryable field value
"priority IN { 1, 2, 3 }"

If a queryable field has an array value, you can query to see if it contains a constant value:

// Query an array-valued queryable field for a constant value
"'comedy' IN genres"

Warning

You cannot compare two lists with each other in a Flexible Sync query. Note that this is valid Realm Query Language syntax outside of Flexible Sync queries.

// Invalid Flexible Sync query. Do not do this!
"{'comedy', 'horror', 'suspense'} IN genres"
// Another invalid Flexible Sync query. Do not do this!
"ANY {'comedy', 'horror', 'suspense'} != ANY genres"

Embedded or Linked Objects

Flexible Sync does not support querying on properties in Embedded Objects or links. For example, obj1.field == "foo".

Back

Configure & Open a Synced Realm

Handle Sync Errors

Overview

Tip

See also:

Subscribe to Queryable Fields

Important

Tip

Always Specify a Subscription Name

Note

Duplicate subscriptions

Add a Subscription

Note

Object Links

Wait for Subscription Changes to Sync

SubscriptionSet.State Enum

Note

Subscription State "Complete"

Superseded

Update Subscriptions with a New Query

Remove Subscriptions

Remove a Single Subscription

Remove All Subscriptions to an Object Type

Remove All Subscriptions

Warning

Flexible Sync RQL Requirements and Limitations

Indexed Queryable Fields Subscription Requirements

Unsupported Query Operators in Flexible Sync

List Queries

Warning

Embedded or Linked Objects