Introduction about ASP.NET SignalR

Well, let us start at the beginning and firstly discuss what SignalR is. SignalR is a newish Microsoft technology that enables us to build real-time applications, where clients can push data to the server, and the server can push data to all clients.

It works with the new HTML5 WebSockets API that enables bi-directional communication between clients (desktop applications, as well as browsers) and server. If WebSockets are not available, it gracefully falls back onto other technologies, without any changes in code. It also builds on OWIN (Open Web Interface for .NET).

You may have heard of WebSockets, a new HTML5 API that enables bi-directional communication between the browser and server. SignalR will use WebSockets under the covers when it’s available, and gracefully fallback to other techniques and technologies when it isn’t, while your application code stays the same.

SignalR also provides a very simple, high-level API for doing server to client RPC (call JavaScript functions in your clients’ browsers from server-side .NET code) in your ASP.NET application, as well as adding useful hooks for connection management, e.g. connect/disconnect events, grouping connections, authorization.

Why Use ASP.NET SignalR?

SignalR is a framework for building asynchronous applications.  For web developers, that means we can build applications that break the request->response cycle of the web and move to more of a one-on-one connection that old client server architectures used to offer.

The mistake a lot of developers make is assuming that SignalR is strictly for web.  That’s incorrect.  For you server infrastructure, ASP.NET is the most common way to building your applications.  However, you can also self host SignalR and also host using the OWIN standard.

With a SignalR hub, we can call a server-side method to request the execution of a method.  As that method begins operating, we can instruct SignalR to execute a call-back method on the calling client and push the results to that client instead of waiting for entire server-side method to complete executing.

Create Simple SignalR Hub

What you need to do is:

– Open Visual Studio and create a new Console application
– Install some Nuget packages with the following code:

Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.SelfHost
Install-Package Microsoft.Owin.Cors

– Then create the hub itself, for example TestHub

[HubName("TestHub")]

– Create a new class called Startup and add the following code to it:

public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
{
    app.UseCors(CorsOptions.AllowAll);
    app.MapSignalR();
}

This simply enables the hub to communicate cross-domain, and correctly maps all the SignalR hubs in the application for us.

Next step is to add the call in the application’s entry point to create a new hub for us and this can easily be done with the following code (note Startup in the following code refers to the class we just created):

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    string url = @"http://localhost:8080/";
    using (WebApp.Start<startup>(url))
    {
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Server running at {0}", url));
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

Done. You have created simple SignalR Hub. You can test it to browse via http://localhost:8080/signalR/hubs

Cheap ASP.NET SignalR Hosting Recommendation

After reviewed so many ASP.NET hosting providers, we would recommend you to use ASPHostPortal to host your ASP.NET SignalR Hosting.

Here are several reasons why we recommend them:

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[su_spoiler title=”Good Reputation in Hosting Business” style=”fancy”] ASPHostPortal has been in hosting business for many years and they are hosting provider that focusing on Microsoft product. In 2012, ASPHostPortal receives spotlight feature from Microsoft because they fully support in Microsoft products, such ASP.NET, MSSQL, ASP.NET MVC, WebDeploy, IIS, Windows Server, etc. They always keep up to date their hosting technology [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”Affordable Hosting Plan” style=”fancy”] ASPHostPortal plan is priced at $ 1.00/mo. New customer that new in ASP.NET SignalR can start from this plan. With ASPHostPortal, your site will be hosted using isolated application pool in order to meet maximum security standard and reliability. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”Powerful Performance” style=”fancy”] ASPHostPortal guarantees a high uptime of 99.99% by utilizing fully redundant power supply and backup generators. And it keeps air conditioner, ventilation and servers constantly working day and night. Besides, this company equips all data centers with uninterrupted power supply (UPS), which ensures customer websites run successfully without unpredictable interruption [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”Knowledgeable Customer Support” style=”fancy”] ASPHostPortal has a professional technical support team which is 24/7 available to offer customer full-round and responsive customer service. Usually, consumers can ask for solutions via email and ticketing system. Besides, this company promises to respond all the customers with satisfactory answers in a short time. [/su_spoiler]
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