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Introduction to SignalR

SharePoint CEG | K-Talk

Shehan Peruma

August 23, 2013

2

Agenda

• Real-Time Web Technologies

• SignalR

• Getting Started

• Hubs API

• SignalR & SharePoint

• Summary

3

Real-Time Web Technologies

4

What?

• Stock Ticker

• Live Scores

• News Feeds

• Dashboards

• VoIP

• Chat

• Auctions

• Activity Streams

Improved User Experience & Server Performance

De f i n i t i on : an application that functions within a time frame that the user senses as immediate or current.

Real Time Web Technologies

5

How?

Multiple approaches exist to provide near real time functionality, but each has it’s own set of pros & cons.

• Polling

• Long Polling

• Forever Frame (IE only)

• Server Sent Events (SSE)

• Web Sockets

Real Time Web Technologies

Server

Client

Server

Client

6

Res

po

nse

4

Res

po

nse

3

Res

po

nse

2

Res

po

nse

1

Web Sockets – Quick Intro.

• Part of the Html 5 specification

• Full-duplex (unlike HTTP)

• Built on top of HTTP – can share HTTP ports (i.e. 80 & 443)

• URL: ws:// & wss:// similar to http:// & https://

• Client & Server support required

Real Time Web Technologies

Server

Client

Req

ues

t 1

Req

ues

t 2

Req

ues

t 3

Req

ues

t 4

Time

Fram

e 3

Fram

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Fram

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Han

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esp

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Server

ClientH

and

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• Initially developed by members of the ASP.NET team

• Part of the ASP.NET Technologies

• Open source and hosted on GitHub

• Distributed via NuGet

• Requires .NET 4.0 and above

What is SignalR?

S i gna lR : An ASP.NET asynchronous, persistent signaling library that enables the real-time, multi-user web functionality for applications.

SignalR

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Demo – A Simple Example

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Transports

Long Polling

Forever Frame

Server Sent

Events

Web Sockets

SignalR

12

Demo – Transport Fallback

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Supported Clients & Hosts

Client

JavaScript

Silverlight 5

Windows Phone 8

.NETWinRT

iOS

Android

SignalR

Host

ASP.NET

Self-Hosting (OWIN)

15

Demo – Clients

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Connections & HubsSignalR

Persisted Connections (low-level)

• Can communicate with 1 to N clients

• Is an IHttpHandler

• Requires a route to be defined

• Limited to sending messages

• You define the “protocol”

Hubs (high-level)

• Can communicate with 1 to N clients

• Abstraction over PersistentConnection

• Route automatically mapped (/signalr/hubs)

• Can send messages and call methods

• SignalR defines the protocol

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Hubs

• Hub methods can be called by the clients (e.g. javascript)

• Client methods can be called by the Hub

• Can send messages to all or individual clients

• Ability to add clients to groups

• Messages can be sent to groups

• Handles connection lifetime events

SignalR

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jQuery Proxy

• Two approaches:

• with generated proxy• Use signalr.exe tool to create the proxy file.

• Without proxy but ‘late binding’• Can be accessed by navigating to http://yoursite/signalr/hubs

• The proxy simplifies the code needed to communicate with the server

SignalR

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Getting Started

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Installing NuGet PackagesGetting Started

Search for SignalRInstall Microsoft ASP.NET SignalR

The required scripts & assemblies

will be added to the project.

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Route MappingGetting Started

Defined in Global.asax

Defines the routes the client will use to connect to the hub

Part of System.Web.Routing

23

Hub ClassGetting Started

Inherits from Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.Hub

Sends the message to all the clients bycalling the clients broadcastMessage method

Connected clients can call the Hubs NewMessage method

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Client (JavaScript)

• Add reference to JavaScript files

• Get reference to Hub

• Wireup events

• Start hub connection

• Call hub methods

Getting Started

25

Demo – Code/App

26

Hubs API

27

GroupsHubs API

• Provides the ability to broadcast messages to a selected set of clients

• Groups are not persisted on the server

• No API to retrieve group count or members

The developer would need to

keep track of this (e.g.

database).

Adding a client to a group

Sending

messages

to a group

28

Demo – Groups

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• Override the event handlers

• OnConnected

• OnReconnected

• OnDisconnected

• JavaScript methods available to notify client about connectivity states

• $.connection.hub.connectionSlow

• $.connection.hub.reconnecting

• $.connection.hub.reconnected

• $.connection.hub.disconnected

Lifetime/Lifecycle EventsHubs API

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• Send data to connected clients by calling methods from outside the Hub

HubContextHubs API

SignalR Client SignalR ServerWindows

Service/Scheduler

The Hub classMethod belongs to a class that is not a Hub

Call the client method

31

Demo – HubContext

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• Authorize - specify which users or roles have access to a hub or method

• Scaleout

• Windows Azure Service Bus

• Redis

• SQL Server

Other FeaturesHubs API

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SignalR & SharePoint

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• Create a ASP.NET Web Application

• Install SignalR using nuget

• Create the Hub

• Update Global.asax

• Publish

• Set web application pool to use .Net Framework 4.0 (you might need to run the aspnet_regiis after changing the framework)

• Optional:

• Set the port to 80 and provide a host header (make sure to update the host file with the same header name)

• Navigate to the site and ensure you can access the JavaScript hub proxy (i.e. http://signalr.mydomain.com/signalr/hubs)

Hub SetupSignalR & SharePoint

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• Within the page/CEWP/Webpart,etc.. Add reference to the scripts in the hubs site

• Set jQuery to support cross domain communication

• Set the hub url

• Start the connection

Client Setup (SharePoint 2010)SignalR & SharePoint

36

Demo – SignalR & SharePoint

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Summary

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Summary

• Provides the ability to add real time web functionality to applications

• Push data to clients and/or groups

• Hubs enables remote procedure calls (RPCs) to be made from a server to connected clients and from clients to the server

• Not limited to web clients

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Resources

• SignalR documentation - http://www.asp.net/signalr

• Pluralsight training -http://pluralsight.com/training/Player?author=christian-weyer&name=signalr-introduction-m2-realtime&mode=live&clip=0&course=signalr-introduction

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Q&A

Q&A

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Thanks!

Thank you for attending!

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