In the previous tutorial, "Submit Your First Message," you have learned how to submit a message to a public topic. It means anyone can send a message to the topic you created because you didn't set a Submit Key.
When setting a Submit Key, your topic becomes a private topic because each message needs to be signed by the Submit Key. Therefore, you can control who can submit messages to your topic. Of course, the data is still public, as is all data on a public ledger, but we say the topic is private because the topic is restricted by who can submit messages to it.
Prerequisites
We recommend you complete the "Submit Your First Message" tutorial here to get a basic understanding of the Hedera Consensus Service. This example does not build upon the previous examples.
✅ You can find a full code check for this tutorial at the bottom of this page.
To create a private topic, you will use setSubmitKey() to set a Submit Key. This key needs to sign all messages someone sends to the topic. A message will be rejected if you don't sign the message or sign with an incorrect key. The cost of creating a private topic is the same as a public topic:$0.01.
// Create a new topicTransactionResponse txResponse =newTopicCreateTransaction().setSubmitKey(myPrivateKey.getPublicKey()).execute(client);// Get the receiptTransactionReceipt receipt =txResponse.getReceipt(client);// Get the topic IDTopicId topicId =receipt.topicId;// Log the topic IDSystem.out.println("Your topic ID is: "+topicId);// Wait 5 seconds between consensus topic creation and subscription creationThread.sleep(5000);
// Create a new topiclet txResponse =awaitnewTopicCreateTransaction().setSubmitKey(myPrivateKey.publicKey).execute(client);// Grab the newly generated topic IDlet receipt =awaittxResponse.getReceipt(client);console.log(`Your topic ID is: ${receipt.topicId}`);// Wait 5 seconds between consensus topic creation and subscription creationawaitnewPromise((resolve) =>setTimeout(resolve,5000));
// Create a new topictransactionResponse, err := hedera.NewTopicCreateTransaction().SetSubmitKey(myPrivateKey.PublicKey()).Execute(client)if err !=nil {println(err.Error(), ": error creating topic")return}// Get the topic create transaction receipttransactionReceipt, err := transactionResponse.GetReceipt(client)if err !=nil {println(err.Error(), ": error getting topic create receipt")return}// Get the topic ID from the transaction receipttopicID :=*transactionReceipt.TopicID//Log the topic ID to the consolefmt.Printf("topicID: %v\n", topicID)
2. Subscribe to a topic
The code used to subscribe to a public or private topic doesn't change. Anyone can listen to the messages you send to your private topic. You need to provide the TopicMessageQuery() with your topic ID to subscribe to it.
// Subscribe to the topicnewTopicMessageQuery().setTopicId(topicId).subscribe(client, resp -> {String messageAsString =newString(resp.contents,StandardCharsets.UTF_8);System.out.println(resp.consensusTimestamp+" received topic message: "+ messageAsString); });
// Subscribe to the topicnewTopicMessageQuery().setTopicId(topicId).subscribe(client,null, (message) => {let messageAsString =Buffer.from(message.contents,"utf8").toString();console.log(`${message.consensusTimestamp.toDate()} Received: ${messageAsString}` ); });
// Subscribe to the topic_, err = hedera.NewTopicMessageQuery().SetTopicID(topicID).Subscribe(client, func(message hedera.TopicMessage) { fmt.Println(message.ConsensusTimestamp.String(), "received topic message ", string(message.Contents), "\r") })
3. Submit a message
Now you are ready to submit a message to your private topic. To do this, you will use TopicMessageSubmitTransaction(). However, you need to sign this transaction with your Submit Key. The cost for sending a message to a private topic is the same as a public topic: $0.0001.
// Send message to private topicTransactionResponse submitMessage =newTopicMessageSubmitTransaction().setTopicId(topicId).setMessage("Submitkey set!").freezeWith(client).sign(myPrivateKey).execute(client)// Get the receipt of the transactionTransactionReceipt receipt2 =submitMessage.getReceipt(client);// Prevent the main thread from exiting so the topic message can be returned and printed to the consoleThread.sleep(30000);
// Send message to private topiclet submitMsgTx =awaitnewTopicMessageSubmitTransaction({ topicId: topicId, message:"Submitkey set!",}).freezeWith(client).sign(myPrivateKey);let submitMsgTxSubmit =awaitsubmitMsgTx.execute(client);// Get the receipt of the transactionlet getReceipt =awaitsubmitMsgTxSubmit.getReceipt(client);// Get the status of the transactionconsttransactionStatus=getReceipt.status;console.log("The message transaction status "+transactionStatus.toString());
// Prepare message to send to private topicsubmitMessageTx, err := hedera.NewTopicMessageSubmitTransaction().SetMessage([]byte("Submitkey set!")).SetTopicID(topicID).FreezeWith(client)if err !=nil {println(err.Error(), ": error freezing topic message submit transaction")return}// Sign message with submit keysubmitMessageTx.Sign(myPrivateKey)// Submit messagesubmitTxResponse, err := submitMessageTx.Execute(client)if err !=nil {println(err.Error(), ": error submitting to topic")return}// Get the receipt of the transactionreceipt, err := submitTxResponse.GetReceipt(client)// Get the transaction statustransactionStatus := receipt.Statusfmt.Println("The message transaction status "+ transactionStatus.String())// Prevent the program from exiting to display the message from the mirror node to the consoletime.Sleep(30000)
To conclude: The total cost to create a topic and send a message to it is $0.0101.
Code Check ✅
Java
importcom.hedera.hashgraph.sdk.*;importio.github.cdimascio.dotenv.Dotenv;importjava.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;importjava.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;publicclassCreateTopicTutorial { public static void main(String[] args) throws TimeoutException, PrecheckStatusException, ReceiptStatusException, InterruptedException {
// Grab your Hedera testnet account ID and private keyAccountId myAccountId =AccountId.fromString(Dotenv.load().get("MY_ACCOUNT_ID"));PrivateKey myPrivateKey =PrivateKey.fromString(Dotenv.load().get("MY_PRIVATE_KEY"));// Build your Hedera clientClient client =Client.forTestnet(); client.setOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey);// Create a new topicTransactionResponse txResponse =newTopicCreateTransaction().setSubmitKey(myPrivateKey.getPublicKey()).execute(client);// Get the receiptTransactionReceipt receipt =txResponse.getReceipt(client);// Get the topic IDTopicId topicId =receipt.topicId;// Log the topic ID System.out.println("Your topic ID is: " +topicId);// Wait 5 seconds between consensus topic creation and subscription creation Thread.sleep(5000);// Subscribe to the topicnewTopicMessageQuery().setTopicId(topicId).subscribe(client, resp -> {String messageAsString =newString(resp.contents,StandardCharsets.UTF_8);System.out.println(resp.consensusTimestamp+" received topic message: "+ messageAsString); });// Send message to private topicTransactionResponse submitMessage =newTopicMessageSubmitTransaction().setTopicId(topicId).setMessage("Submitkey set!").freezeWith(client).sign(myPrivateKey).execute(client)// Get the receipt of the transactionTransactionReceipt receipt2 =submitMessage.getReceipt(client);// Wait before the main thread exits to return the topic message to the console Thread.sleep(30000); }}
JavaScript
console.clear();require("dotenv").config();const {AccountId,PrivateKey,Client,TopicCreateTransaction,TopicMessageQuery,TopicMessageSubmitTransaction,} =require("@hashgraph/sdk");// Grab the OPERATOR_ID and OPERATOR_KEY from the .env fileconstmyAccountId=process.env.MY_ACCOUNT_ID;constmyPrivateKey=process.env.MY_PRIVATE_KEY;// Build Hedera testnet and mirror node clientconstclient=Client.forTestnet();// Set the operator account ID and operator private keyclient.setOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey);asyncfunctionsubmitPrivateMessage() {// Create a new topiclet txResponse =awaitnewTopicCreateTransaction().setSubmitKey(myPrivateKey.publicKey).execute(client);// Grab the newly generated topic IDlet receipt =awaittxResponse.getReceipt(client);let topicId =receipt.topicId;console.log(`Your topic ID is: ${topicId}`);// Wait 5 seconds between consensus topic creation and subscription creationawaitnewPromise((resolve) =>setTimeout(resolve,5000));// Create the topicnewTopicMessageQuery().setTopicId(topicId).subscribe(client,null, (message) => {let messageAsString =Buffer.from(message.contents,"utf8").toString();console.log(`${message.consensusTimestamp.toDate()} Received: ${messageAsString}` ); });// Send message to private topiclet submitMsgTx =awaitnewTopicMessageSubmitTransaction({ topicId: topicId, message:"Submitkey set!", }).freezeWith(client).sign(myPrivateKey);let submitMsgTxSubmit =awaitsubmitMsgTx.execute(client);let getReceipt =awaitsubmitMsgTxSubmit.getReceipt(client);// Get the status of the transactionconsttransactionStatus=getReceipt.status;console.log("The message transaction status: "+transactionStatus.toString());}submitPrivateMessage();
Go
packagemainimport ("fmt""os""time""github.com/hashgraph/hedera-sdk-go/v2""github.com/joho/godotenv")funcmain() {// Loads the .env file and throws an error if it cannot load the variables from that file corectly err := godotenv.Load(".env")if err !=nil {panic(fmt.Errorf("Unable to load enviroment variables from .env file. Error:\n%v\n", err)) }// Grab your testnet account ID and private key from the .env file myAccountId, err := hedera.AccountIDFromString(os.Getenv("MY_ACCOUNT_ID"))if err !=nil {panic(err) } myPrivateKey, err := hedera.PrivateKeyFromString(os.Getenv("MY_PRIVATE_KEY"))if err !=nil {panic(err) }// Create your testnet client client := hedera.ClientForTestnet() client.SetOperator(myAccountId, myPrivateKey)// Create a new topic transactionResponse, err := hedera.NewTopicCreateTransaction().SetSubmitKey(myPrivateKey.PublicKey()).Execute(client)if err !=nil {println(err.Error(), ": error creating topic")return }// Get the topic create transaction receipt transactionReceipt, err := transactionResponse.GetReceipt(client)if err !=nil {println(err.Error(), ": error getting topic create receipt")return }// Get the topic ID from the transaction receipt topicID :=*transactionReceipt.TopicID// Log the topic ID to the console fmt.Printf("topicID: %v\n", topicID)//Create the query to subscribe to a topic _, err = hedera.NewTopicMessageQuery().SetTopicID(topicID).Subscribe(client, func(message hedera.TopicMessage) { fmt.Println(message.ConsensusTimestamp.String(), "received topic message ", string(message.Contents), "\r") })// Prepare message to send to private topic submitMessageTx, err := hedera.NewTopicMessageSubmitTransaction().SetMessage([]byte("Submitkey set!")).SetTopicID(topicID).FreezeWith(client)if err !=nil {println(err.Error(), ": error freezing topic message submit transaction")return }// Sign message with submit key submitMessageTx.Sign(myPrivateKey)// Submit message submitTxResponse, err := submitMessageTx.Execute(client)if err !=nil {println(err.Error(), ": error submitting to topic")return }// Get the receipt of the transaction receipt, err := submitTxResponse.GetReceipt(client)// Get the transaction status transactionStatus := receipt.Status fmt.Println("The message transaction status "+ transactionStatus.String())// Prevent the program from exiting to display the message from the mirror node to the console time.Sleep(30000) }