- •Contents at a Glance
- •Introduction
- •Who should read this book
- •Assumptions
- •Who should not read this book
- •Organization of this book
- •Finding your best starting point in this book
- •Conventions and features in this book
- •System requirements
- •Code samples
- •Notes on the version
- •Installing the code samples
- •Using the code samples
- •Acknowledgments
- •Errata & book support
- •We want to hear from you
- •Stay in touch
- •HTTP operations
- •Polling: The answer?
- •Push: The server takes the initiative
- •WebSockets
- •Server-Sent Events (API Event Source)
- •Push today
- •The world needs more than just push
- •What does SignalR offer?
- •Two levels of abstraction
- •Supported platforms
- •OWIN and Katana: The new kids on the block
- •Installing SignalR
- •Implementation on the server side
- •Mapping and configuring persistent connections
- •Events of a persistent connection
- •Sending messages to clients
- •Asynchronous event processing
- •Connection groups
- •The OWIN startup class
- •Implementation on the client side
- •Initiating the connection by using the JavaScript client
- •Support for older browsers
- •Support for cross-domain connections
- •Sending messages
- •Receiving messages
- •Sending additional information to the server
- •Other events available at the client
- •Transport negotiation
- •Adjusting SignalR configuration parameters
- •Complete example: Tracking visitors
- •Project creation and setup
- •Implementation on the client side
- •Implementation on the server side
- •Server implementation
- •Hub registration and configuration
- •Creating hubs
- •Receiving messages
- •Sending messages to clients
- •Sending messages to specific users
- •State maintenance
- •Accessing information about the request context
- •Notification of connections and disconnections
- •Managing groups
- •Maintaining state at the server
- •Client implementation
- •JavaScript clients
- •Generating the proxy
- •Manual generation of JavaScript proxies
- •Establishing the connection
- •Sending messages to the server
- •Sending additional information
- •Receiving messages sent from the server
- •Logging
- •State maintenance
- •Implementing the client without a proxy
- •Complete example: Shared drawing board
- •Project creation and setup
- •Implementation on the client side
- •Implementation on the server side
- •Access from other threads
- •External access using persistent connections
- •Complete example: Monitoring connections at the server
- •Project creation and setup
- •Implementing the website
- •System for tracing requests (server side)
- •System for tracing requests (client side)
- •External access using hubs
- •Complete example: Progress bar
- •Project creation and setup
- •Implementation on the client side
- •Implementation on the server side
- •Multiplatform SignalR servers
- •SignalR hosting in non-web applications
- •SignalR hosting in platforms other than Windows
- •Multiplatform SignalR clients
- •Accessing services from .NET non-web clients
- •Consumption of services from other platforms
- •Growing pains
- •Scalability in SignalR
- •Scaling on backplanes
- •Windows Azure Service Bus
- •Redis
- •SQL Server
- •Custom backplanes
- •Improving performance in SignalR services
- •Server configuration
- •Monitoring performance
- •Authorization in SignalR
- •Access control in persistent connections
- •Access control in hubs
- •Client authentication
- •An extensible framework
- •Dependency Injection
- •Manual dependency injection
- •Releasing dependencies
- •Inversion of Control containers
- •Unit testing with SignalR
- •Unit testing of hubs
- •Unit testing persistent connections
- •Intercepting messages in hubs
- •Integration with other frameworks
- •Knockout
- •AngularJS
- •Index
- •About the author
Finding your best starting point in this book
Although this book is organized in such a way that it can be read from beginning to end following a path of increasing depth in the contents addressed, it can also be used as a reference by directly looking up specific chapters, depending on the level of knowledge the reader starts with and their individual needs.
Thus, for developers who are approaching SignalR for the first time, the recommendation would be to read the book from beginning to end, in the order that the chapters have been written. However, for those who are acquainted with SignalR and have already developed with it in any of its versions, it will suffice to take a quick look at the first three chapters and then to pay closer attention to the ones dedicated to development with persistent connections or hubs to find out aspects they did not know about or changes from previous versions. From there, it would be possible to go directly to resolving doubts in specific areas, such as the scalability features of the framework, implementing authorization mechanisms, or the procedure for performing unit tests on hubs.
In any case, regardless of the chapter or section, it is a good idea to download and install the related example projects, which will allow practicing and consolidating the concepts addressed.
Conventions and features in this book
This book presents information using the following conventions designed to make the information readable and easy to follow:
■■Boxed elements with labels such as “Note” provide additional information or alternative methods for successfully completing a task.
■■Text that you type (apart from code blocks) appears in bold.
■■A plus sign (+) between two key names means that you must press those keys at the same time. For example, “Press Alt+Tab” means that you have to hold down the Alt key while you press the Tab key.
■■A vertical bar between two or more menu items (for example, “File | Close”) means that you should select the first menu or menu item, then the next one, and so on.
Introduction xv
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