How to make a Blazor page update the content of one html tag with incoming data from gRPC service - grpc

Question

So i'm testing with Blazor and gRPC and my dificulty at the moment is on how to pass the content of a variable that is on a class, specifically the gRPC GreeterService Class to the Blazor page when new information arrives. Notice that my aplication is a client and a server, and i make an initial comunication for the server and then the server starts to send to the client data(numbers) in unary mode, every time it has new data to send. I have all this working, but now i'm left it that final implementation.
This is my Blazor page
#page "/greeter"
#inject GrpcService1.GreeterService GreeterService1
#using BlazorApp1.Data
<h1>Grpc Connection</h1>
<input type="text" #bind="#myID" />
<button #onclick="#SayHello">SayHello</button>
<p>#Greetmsg</p>
<p></p>
#code {
string Name;
string Greetmsg;
async Task SayHello()
{
this.Greetmsg = await this.GreeterService1.SayHello(this.myID);
}
}
The method that later receives the communication from the server if the hello is accepted there is something like this:
public override async Task<RequestResponse> GiveNumbers(BalconyFullUpdate request, ServerCallContext context)
{
RequestResponse resp = new RequestResponse { RequestAccepted = false };
if (request.Token == publicAuthToken)
{
number = request.Number;
resp = true;
}
return await Task.FromResult(resp);
}
Every time that a new number arrives i want to show it in the UI.
Another way i could do this was, within a while condition, i could do a call to the server requesting a new number just like the SayHello request, that simply awaits for a server response, that only will come when he has a new number to send. When it comes the UI is updated. I'm just reluctant to do it this way because i'm afraid that for some reason the client request is forgotten and the client just sit's there waiting for a response that will never come. I know that i could implement a timeout on the client side to handle that, and on the server maybe i could pause the response, with a thread pause or something like that, and when the method that generates the new number has a new number, it could unpause the response to the client(no clue on how to do that). This last solution looks to me much more difficult to do than the first one.
What are your thoughts about it? And solutions..
##################### UPDATE ##########################
Now i'm trying to use a singleton, grab its instance in the Blazor page, and subcribe to a inner event of his.
This is the singleton:
public class ThreadSafeSingletonString
{
private static ThreadSafeSingletonString _instance;
private static readonly object _padlock = new object();
private ThreadSafeSingletonString()
{
}
public static ThreadSafeSingletonString Instance
{
get
{
if (_instance == null)
{
lock(_padlock)
{
if (_instance == null)
{
_instance = new ThreadSafeSingletonString();
_instance.number="";
}
}
}
return _instance;
}
set
{
_instance.number= value.number;
_instance.NotifyDataChanged();
}
}
public int number{ get; set; }
public event Action OnChange;
private void NotifyDataChanged() => OnChange?.Invoke();
And in Blazor page in code section i have:
protected override void OnInitialized()
{
threadSafeSingleton.OnChange += updateNumber();
}
public System.Action updateNumber()
{
this.fromrefresh = threadSafeSingleton.number + " que vem.";
Console.WriteLine("Passou pelo UpdateNumber");
this.StateHasChanged();
return StateHasChanged;
}
Unfortunatly the updatenumber function never gets executed...

Answer 1

To force a refresh of the ui you can call the StateHasChanged() method on your component:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.components.componentbase.statehaschanged?view=aspnetcore-3.1
Notifies the component that its state has changed. When applicable, this will cause the component to be re-rendered.
Hope this helps

Answer 2

Simple Request
After fully understanding that your problem is just to Update the Page not to get unsyncronous messages from the server with a bi directional connection. So jou just have to change your page like (please not there is no need to change the files generated by gRPC, I called it Number.proto so my service is named NumberService):
async Task SayHello()
{
//Request via gRPC
var channel = new Channel(Host + ":" + Port, ChannelCredentials.Insecure);
var client = new this.NumberService.NumberServiceClient(channel);
var request = new Number{
identification = "ABC"
};
var result = await client.SendNumber(request).RequestAccepted;
await channel.ShutdownAsync();
//Update page
this.Greetmsg = result;
InvokeAsync(StateHasChanged);//Required to refresh page
}
Bi Directional
For making a continious bi directional connection you need to change the proto file to use streams like:
service ChatService {
rpc chat(stream ChatMessage) returns (stream ChatMessageFromServer);
}
This Chant sample is from the https://github.com/meteatamel/grpc-samples-dotnet
The main challenge on this is do divide the task waiting for the gRPC server from the client. I found out that BackgroundService is good for this. So create a Service inherited from BackgroundService where place the while loop waiting for the server in the ExecuteAsyncmethod. Also define a Action callback to update the page (alternative you can use an event)
public class MyChatService : BackgroundService
{
Random _random = new Random();
public Action<int> Callback { get; set; }
protected override async Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
while (!stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
// Replace next lines with the code request and wait for server...
using (_call = _chatService.chat())
{
// Read messages from the response stream
while (await _call.ResponseStream.MoveNext(CancellationToken.None))
{
var serverMessage = _call.ResponseStream.Current;
var otherClientMessage = serverMessage.Message;
var displayMessage = string.Format("{0}:{1}{2}", otherClientMessage.From, otherClientMessage.Message, Environment.NewLine);
if (Callback != null) Callback(displayMessage);
}
// Format and display the message
}
}
}
}
On the page init and the BackgroundService and set the callback:
#page "/greeter"
#using System.Threading
<p>Current Number: #currentNumber</p>
#code {
int currentNumber = 0;
MyChatService myChatService;
protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()
{
myChatService = new MyChatService();
myChatService.Callback = i =>
{
currentNumber = i;
InvokeAsync(StateHasChanged);
};
await myChatService.StartAsync(new CancellationToken());
}
}
More information on BackgroundService in .net core can be found here: https://gunnarpeipman.com/dotnet-core-worker-service/