Publishing a string in to PubSub topic introduces quotes to the message #2204

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1. stephenplusplus

   added

   api: pubsubIssues related to the Pub/Sub API.Issues related to the Pub/Sub API.

   on Apr 11, 2017
2. stephenplusplus commented on Apr 11, 2017

   

   stephenplusplus

   on Apr 11, 2017

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   This is intended. We consistently publish messages in JSON format so that a JSON parser on the receiving end has a predictable way to handle the messages it receives. When our library returns the messages, we do a JSON.parse to decode it back to its native JS form:

   topic.publish('test')
   
   subscription.on('message', function(message) {
     message.data === 'test'
   })
3. JanPretzel commented on Apr 11, 2017

   

   JanPretzel

   on Apr 11, 2017

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   Thanks for the explanation @stephenplusplus, that explains a lot. The receiving end in my example was written in Ruby. It seems the Ruby API does not expect this behaviour. An alternate service publishing messages to the same queue was written in Python, no problems here. Shouldn't this inconsistency between the different APIs be documented?
4. stephenplusplus

   added

   docs

   type: questionRequest for information or clarification. Not an issue.Request for information or clarification. Not an issue.

   help wanted

   on Apr 11, 2017
5. stephenplusplus commented on Apr 11, 2017

   

   stephenplusplus

   on Apr 11, 2017

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   I'm glad that cleared it up, and thank you for bringing it up. I don't know of a precedent or requirement that the client libraries are expected to behave the same way, but the fact that you experienced an annoying delay while you tried to figure it out and move on with your app is a good enough reason to me that we should add this in the docs somewhere. I'll keep the issue open and mark with a help wanted label-- feel free to send us a PR if you're up for it!
6. stephenplusplus commented on Apr 11, 2017

   

   stephenplusplus

   on Apr 11, 2017

   Last edited by stephenplusplus

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   Fixed in #2212-- thanks again!
7. stephenplusplus

   closed this as completedon Apr 11, 2017
8. JanPretzel commented on Apr 11, 2017

   

   JanPretzel

   on Apr 11, 2017

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   Cool! Thank you too!
9. JustinBeckwith

   assigned

   stephenplusplus

   on Feb 1, 2021
10. sofisl

    added 2 commits that reference this issue on Feb 25, 2026

    feat!: Make node 14 the minimum supported version (#2244)

    ...

    ff88655

    chore: support for common interface to get a session to support multi…

    ...

    56d5c53
11. thiyaguk09

    added a commit that references this issue on Mar 18, 2026

    feat!: Make node 14 the minimum supported version (googleapis#2244)

    ...

    ef70d4d