Execute a server side program asynchronously with an asp.net mvc4 app - asp.net

Question

is it possible to execute a server side program and get the output asynchronously.
i have this code that doing the job but synchronously:
suppose a c# program "program.exe" like this :
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace testconsole
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
for (int k = 0; k < 10; k++ )Console.WriteLine(k);
}
}
}
some view in the asp.net app like this :
<script >
function go()
{
var options = {
url: '/excute',
type: 'GET',
dataType: 'json'
}
//make call
$.ajax(options)
.then(function (data) {
console.log(data);
});
}
</script>
<input type="submit" onclick="go();" value="Go">
and the excute controller looks like this :
namespace myApp.Controllers
{
public class ExecuteController : Controller
{
//
// GET: /Execute
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult Index()
{
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.StartInfo.FileName = "program.exe";
p.Start();
string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
p.WaitForExit();
return Json(new { op = output }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
}
}
All this is working fine, But ... from the client have to wait till the end of the program to display its outputs, is there any way to get those outputs as soon as they r created?
im sur i need to make some changes in the controller to make it possible, but how ???

Answer 1

Asp.Net MVC has the concept of an Async Controller that is suited to perform long-running tasks. It will help you by not locking a thread while you wait for out program to execute.
But to do what you are after I think you need to create you own Http Handler (probaby by implementing the IHttpHandler interface) that wraps the process and returns the results incrementally. This will not be trivial to do, but it should be possible.
A third viable alternative might be to use SignalR. That would be a fun project, but would still require much work I think.

Answer 2

The problem is primarily with communication between the IIS host process and your external process. You would need to facilitate some sort channel of communication to send "progress" events from the console application into the ASP.NET application.
A WCF client sending information via named pipes to a service hosted in the ASP.NET application would enable you to send messages into the application. You would host the service when the request is made and dynamically generate the name of pipe as a way to correlate to the initial request.
Once you get the updates in the application, you could then use something like SignalR to allow you to push the information back up the client.

Answer 3

Im back finally with an answer (not perfect i suppose). I used SignalR to get this done.
i created a messenger program (with c#) that will be the bridge between an asp.net mvc4 application and any console program that displays outputs.
the messenger will execute the program , then redirect his outputs to be send trough SignalR to the client.
if you are interested i've created a repo at github for this ,check this code here. I hope it will help someone one day.
i will be happy to talk about this code with you.