Microsoft ASP.NET in the recent times has focused on creating real time functionalities for ASP.NET developers where they introduced their new library called SignalR. And this library is said to have turning the head of all the web development experts. Since the demand of web application with real time functioning is increasing, the need to have effective real time library is being met by Microsoft organization. It is an open source library available on GitHub.
What is SignalR?
It is a library for ASP.NET Development Specialist which helps in simplifying the process of developing real time functionality in web applications. This functionality has the ability to have server code push content to the connected clients and become available rather than having the server to wait for a client to request new data.
SignalR library can be used for building real time web functionality for any web application developed with ASP.NET technology. At Helios, we have started working on a platform using SignalR library and our developers indeed find this library very convenient to have the desired functionality.
What does it have?
- The page implements long polling to retrieve new data if the user has refreshed a web page to see the new data.
- It comes with dashboards, monitoring applications, collaborative applications, job progress updates and real time forms
- SignalR also performs functions of enabling the new types of web application that require high frequency updates. It works well for real time gaming.
- It provides with simple API for ASP. NET Development Specialist. This creates server to client remote procedure which is known as RPC. The RPC calls for JavaScript functions in the client browsers from server side of .NET code.
- SignalR comes with API connection management features for connecting and disconnecting event and grouping connections for convenient development processes.
- The features offered in this library come with automated handling of connection management which allows broadcasting of messages for connected clients. The messages can be sent to specific client. The connection established between client and server is persistent.
- SignalR offer great support for server push functionality. This allows the server code to call out to the client code in the browser itself using the RPC – Remote Procedure Calls. This is now unlike the earlier model of request-response model that we see on the web today or in the other technology models.
- This library can scale to as many clients using Service Bus, SQL Server or Redis.
- SignalR is an open source library available through GitHub.
See Also : Microsoft Releases 1.0 Version Of .Net Core
SignalR and WebSocket
The library for ASP.NET development uses WebSocket transport. It falls back to the older transports wherever necessary. Now as a ASP.NET developer you can write your application using WebSocket directly through SignalR library. This will save a lot of effort as you won’t need to implement extra functionalities. You will not have to separate code path for older clients where it will continue to update the WebSocket to support changes in the underlying transport. This will provide consistency in development and interface across the version of WebSocket.
Transports with SignalR
This library is an abstraction of transport that need to perform real time functionality. The SignalR connection starts at HTTP and then taken forward to the WebSocket if it is available. WebSocket proves to be an ideal transport for SignalR library availing an efficient use of server memory for ASP.NET Development experts.
HTML5 Transports
This depends on the support offered by HTML5 and if the client browser does not offer support for HTML5 then it shall use the older transports automatically. There are two functions for HTML Transports:
- WebSocket
- Server Sent Events
Comet Transports
The below given two transports are based on the comet web application model that are offered in functionality of SignalR library. This maintains a long held HTTP request that the server can use to push data to the client server without specific requests. The two transports are:
- Forever Frame – For Internet Explorer only
- Ajax Long Polling
Connections and Hubs with SignalR
The SignalR API comes with two modes of communication. These models are for communication between the clients and server.
- Persistent Connection – for single recipient, grouped or broadcast messages
- Hub – High level model for Connection API
SignalR is Brilliant for ASP.NET Development
If you are developing a web application with ASP.NET technology, then choosing this new library can avail you with convenient in development and also fasten the development cycle. It provides with connections and hubs for communication models which makes this library one of the most effective libraries for building real time functionalities.
We hope this was a good brief of what Signal Library has for ASP.Net developers. If you are looking to Outsource web development with ASP.NET Technology, then get in touch with us. We will use the latest libraries and functionalities to avail you with the most high end solution.
