SignalR recording when a Web Page has closed - signalr

I am using MassTransit request and response with SignalR. The web site makes a request to a windows service that creates a file. When the file has been created the windows service will send a response message back to the web site. The web site will open the file and make it available for the users to see. I want to handle the scenario where the user closes the web page before the file is created. In that case I want the created file to be emailed to them.
Regardless of whether the user has closed the web page or not, the message handler for the response message will be run. What I want to be able to do is have some way of knowing within the response message handler that the web page has been closed. This is what I have done already. It doesnt work but it does illustrate my thinking. On the web page I have
$(window).unload(function () {
if (event.clientY < 0) {
// $.connection.hub.stop();
$.connection.exportcreate.setIsDisconnected();
}
});
exportcreate is my Hub name. In setIsDisconnected would I set a property on Caller? Lets say I successfully set a property to indicate that the web page has been closed. How do I find out that value in the response message handler. This is what it does now
protected void BasicResponseHandler(BasicResponse message)
{
string groupName = CorrelationIdGroupName(message.CorrelationId);
GetClients()[groupName].display(message.ExportGuid);
}
private static dynamic GetClients()
{
return AspNetHost.DependencyResolver.Resolve<IConnectionManager>().GetClients<ExportCreateHub>();
}
I am using the message correlation id as a group. Now for me the ExportGuid on the message is very important. That is used to identify the file. So if I am going to email the created file I have to do it within the response handler because I need the ExportGuid value. If I did store a value on Caller in my hub for the web page close, how would I access it in the response handler.
Just in case you need to know. display is defined on the web page as
exportCreate.display = function (guid) {
setTimeout(function () {
top.location.href = 'GetExport.ashx?guid=' + guid;
}, 500);
};
GetExport.ashx opens the file and returns it as a response.
Thank you,
Regards Ben

I think a better bet would be to implement proper connection handling. Specifically, have your hub implementing IDisconnect and IConnected. You would then have a mapping of connectionId to document Guid.
public Task Connect()
{
connectionManager.MapConnectionToUser(Context.ConnectionId, Context.User.Name);
}
public Task Disconnect()
{
var connectionId = Context.ConnectionId;
var docId = connectionManager.LookupDocumentId(connectionId);
if (docId != Guid.Empty)
{
var userName = connectionManager.GetUserFromConnectionId(connectionId);
var user = userRepository.GetUserByUserName(userName);
bus.Publish( new EmailDocumentToUserCommand(docId, user.Email));
}
}
// Call from client
public void GenerateDocument(ClientParameters docParameters)
{
var docId = Guid.NewGuid();
connectionManager.MapDocumentIdToConnection(Context.ConnectionId, docId);
var command = new CreateDocumentCommand(docParameters);
command.Correlationid = docId;
bus.Publish(command);
Caller.creatingDocument(docId);
}
// Acknowledge you got the doc.
// Call this from the display method on the client.
// If this is not called, the disconnect method will handle sending
// by email.
public void Ack(Guid docId)
{
connectionManager.UnmapDocumentFromConnectionId(connectionId, docId);
Caller.sendMessage("ok");
}
Of course this is from the top of my head.

Related

How to persist SignalR connection ID

I’m trying to build a chat apps whereby users id are represented by their auto generated signalR connection id. On page refresh, the connection id changes when a new connection is instantiated. Is there a way to persist the state of the connection id of a user until the browser session is ended (i.e until he ends his session on client).
Any guide or documentation? It really would help.
i am new in signalr. so trying to know many things searching Google. from this url i got a similar snippet http://kevgriffin.com/maintaining-signalr-connectionids-across-page-instances/
they are saying it is possible. the problem is signalr often create a new connection id if we referesh the page. i want to prevent this but how.......
this code snippet.
public class MyConnectionFactory : IConnectionIdFactory
{
public string CreateConnectionId(IRequest request)
{
if (request.Cookies["srconnectionid"] != null)
{
return request.Cookies["srconnectionid"];
}
return Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
}
}
$.connection.hub.start().done(function () {
alert("Connected!");
var myClientId = $.connection.hub.id;
setCookie("srconnectionid", myClientId);
});
function setCookie(cName, value, exdays) {
var exdate = new Date();
exdate.setDate(exdate.getDate() + exdays);
var c_value = escape(value) + ((exdays == null) ? "" : "; expires=" + exdate.toUTCString());
document.cookie = cName + "=" + c_value;
}
my doubt is does it work in all signalr version? if not then how to handle it in new version specially for not generate a new connection id if page gets refreshed. looking for suggestion.
if we work with Persistent connection class instead of hub then what happen.....in this case connection id will persist if we refresh the page at client side? please guide.
thanks
SignalR allows you to send messages to a user via their IPrincipal.Identity.Name. Just use Clients.User(userName) instead of Clients.Client(connectionId).
If you for some reason cannot address a user using their IPrincipal.Identity.Name you could create your own IUserIdProvider. This is the replacement for IConnectionIdFactory which no longer exists in SignalR >= 1.0.0.
The equivalent IUserIdProvider would look like this:
public class MyConnectionFactory : IUserIdProvider
{
public string GetUserId(IRequest request)
{
if (request.Cookies["srconnectionid"] != null)
{
return request.Cookies["srconnectionid"];
}
return Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
}
}
public class Startup
{
public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
{
var idProvider = new MyConnectionFactory();
GlobalHost.DependencyResolver.Register(typeof(IUserIdProvider), () => idProvider);
app.MapSignalR();
}
}
public class MyHub : Hub
{
public Task Send(string userName, string message)
{
return Clients.User(userName).receive(message);
}
}
It would be really trivial to spoof a user given this MyConnectionFactory. You could make it more secure by using an HMAC.
Ideally you would just use the default IUserIdProvider which retrieves the user ID from IRequest.User.Identity.Name.
The user id provider doesn't work, because the connection id doesn't come from it. I implemented a solution (https://weblogs.asp.net/ricardoperes/persisting-signalr-connections-across-page-reloads) that uses a pseudo-session id stored in session storage. Every SignalR connection id is then mapped to this pseudo-session id.

SignalR Long Running Process

I have setup a SignalR hub which has the following method:
public void SomeFunction(int SomeID)
{
try
{
Thread.Sleep(600000);
Clients.Caller.sendComplete("Complete");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// Exception Handling
}
finally
{
// Some Actions
}
m_Logger.Trace("*****Trying To Exit*****");
}
The issue I am having is that SignalR initiates and defaults to Server Sent Events and then hangs. Even though the function/method exits minutes later (10 minutes) the method is initiated again ( > 3 minutes) even when the sendComplete and hub.stop() methods are initiated/called on the client prior. Should the user stay on the page the initial "/send?" request stays open indefinitely. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
To avoid blocking the method for so long, you could use a Taskand call the client method asynchronously.
public void SomeFunction(Int32 id)
{
var connectionId = this.Context.ConnectionId;
Task.Delay(600000).ContinueWith(t =>
{
var message = String.Format("The operation has completed. The ID was: {0}.", id);
var context = GlobalHost.ConnectionManager.GetHubContext<SomeHub>();
context.Clients.Client(connectionId).SendComplete(message);
});
}
Hubs are created when request arrives and destroyed after response is sent down the wire, so in the continuation task, you need to create a new context for yourself to be able to work with a client by their connection identifier, since the original hub instance will no longer be around to provide you with the Clients method.
Also note that you can leverage the nicer syntax that uses async and await keywords for describing asynchronous program flow. See examples at The ASP.NET Site's SignalR Hubs API Guide.

SignalR polling database for updates

I'm hoping to use SignalR to provide updates to the client, the updates are going to come from a message table which is updated when things happen across the application..
My problem is that the application will have around 500-600 concurrent users and I cant have all them having a connection to the database and constantly polling against the table..
What id like to do is have a single thing{?} polling the table and then updating the hubs rather than each connection polling.. I was thinking of using a singleton for this? so maybe when the application starts something is created that will then do all the work really..
My question is - say I had a singleton that had an event which was fired every time there was an update.. what would the performance be like for say 500 controllers subscribing to this event?
Also.. if there is a better way to do this then pleases say.. this is my first and only idea sadly!
any help would be fantastic!
EDIT: the data is bring provided by a legacy application and I have no control over how the data is entered so database polling will be needed.
ste.
I'd rather not to poll the database as it would be wasteful. I would approach this problem by opening only one single point of entry for my data (an HTTP API, etc) and then broadcast the update to all connected clients through the SignalR Hub. Brad Wilson has a super cool presentation which demonstrate this approach:
Brad Wilson - Microsoft’s Modern Web Stack, Starring ASP.NET Web API
Here is a code sample for this approach which uses ASP.NET Web API technology for data entry. It uses in-memory dictionary for data store but the data storage technique is not the concern here:
// This hub has no inbound APIs, since all inbound communication is done
// via the HTTP API. It's here for clients which want to get continuous
// notification of changes to the ToDo database.
[HubName("todo")]
public class ToDoHub : Hub { }
public abstract class ApiControllerWithHub<THub> : ApiController
where THub : IHub {
Lazy<IHubContext> hub = new Lazy<IHubContext>(
() => GlobalHost.ConnectionManager.GetHubContext<THub>()
);
protected IHubContext Hub {
get { return hub.Value; }
}
}
public class ToDoController : ApiControllerWithHub<ToDoHub> {
private static List<ToDoItem> db = new List<ToDoItem> {
new ToDoItem { ID = 0, Title = "Do a silly demo on-stage at NDC" },
new ToDoItem { ID = 1, Title = "Wash the car" },
new ToDoItem { ID = 2, Title = "Get a haircut", Finished = true }
};
private static int lastId = db.Max(tdi => tdi.ID);
// Lines removed for brevity
public HttpResponseMessage PostNewToDoItem(ToDoItem item) {
lock (db) {
// Add item to the "database"
item.ID = Interlocked.Increment(ref lastId);
db.Add(item);
// Notify the connected clients
Hub.Clients.addItem(item);
// Return the new item, inside a 201 response
var response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Created, item);
string link = Url.Link("apiRoute", new { controller = "todo", id = item.ID });
response.Headers.Location = new Uri(link);
return response;
}
}
// Lines removed for brevity
}
The full source code for the application which Brad demoed is also available: https://github.com/bradwilson/ndc2012.
The other option, which you don't prefer, is make your database to fire notifications as soon as data is changed. Then, you can pick that up and broadcast it through SignalR. Here is an example:
Database Change Notifications in ASP.NET using SignalR and SqlDependency
Sorry that this solution is not signalR, but maybe you can get ideas from it.
Here is the full example for download on GitHub

WCF Adding Custom Headers and Session

I have a web page that uses a WCF service. Multiple users maybe using the web page at any one time and therefore making requests to the WCF service which is on a remote machine.
Each user on the web page gets a unique ID, I want to add this unique ID to the request header of each request made by that user.
So far I have created the following code which correctly adds a header to the WCF message.
public class HeaderIdPusher : IClientMessageInspector
{
private static readonly string _balancerKey = "balancerId";
public object BeforeSendRequest(ref Message request, IClientChannel channel)
{
Guid userId = Guid.NewGuid();
HttpRequestMessageProperty httpRequestMessage;
object httpRequestMessageObject;
if (request.Properties.TryGetValue(HttpRequestMessageProperty.Name, out httpRequestMessageObject))
{
httpRequestMessage = httpRequestMessageObject as HttpRequestMessageProperty;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(httpRequestMessage.Headers[_balancerKey]))
{
httpRequestMessage.Headers[_balancerKey] = userId.ToString();
}
}
else
{
httpRequestMessage = new HttpRequestMessageProperty();
httpRequestMessage.Headers.Add(_balancerKey, userId.ToString());
request.Properties.Add(HttpRequestMessageProperty.Name, httpRequestMessage);
}
return null;
}
public void AfterReceiveReply(ref Message reply, object correlationState)
{
}
}
However I am no stuck because I can't get the ID to persist between requests. You can see here that at the moment I am generating an ID for each request, however I can't store this in the Session of the page the user is on because the HttpContext.Current is null. Is there another way of storing this? Is there another way of passing in the HttpContext of the user on my web page?
The problem is discussed here:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/wcf/thread/27896125-b61e-42bd-a1b0-e6da5c23e6fc
Essentially WCF doesn't have sessions, as you could pass anything you wanted as a parameter (in this case, your Unique ID) and handle it any way you wanted in your implementation.
After much hacking I found a solution, it isn't great but it works.
In the ASP.NET page before I create the WCF service instance I create an address header and endpoint:
AddressHeader header = AddressHeader.CreateAddressHeader("MyKey", "http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing", "MyValue");
EndpointAddress endpoint = new EndpointAddress(new Uri("http://www.myservice.com/service"), header);
Then I create an instance of the service passing in the endpoint:
using (WcfService service = new WcfService(_configName,endpoint ))
{
}
This gets the data into the WCF service, then in the HeaderIdPusher : IClientMessageInspector detailed above I pull the header value out:
public class HeaderIdPusher : IClientMessageInspector
{
public object BeforeSendRequest(ref Message request, IClientChannel channel)
{
string id = "Not found";
if(channel.RemoteAddress.Headers.Any(x=>x.Name == "MyKey"))
{
id = channel.RemoteAddress.Headers.First(x => x.Name == "MyKey").GetValue<string>();
}
This solution isn't ideal and it puts extra data into the SOAP message but it is the only way I have found of sharing data from the ASP.NET page with the WCF process.

Problem with null object reference in Url.Action in MVC3 project

I am trying to set up a mocking scenario for my payment processor on a web site. Normally, my site redirects to the processor site, where the user pays. The processor then redirects back to my site, and I wait for an immediate payment notification (IPN) from the processor. The processor then posts to my NotifyUrl, which routes to the Notify action on my payments controller (PayFastController). To mock, I redirect to a local action, which after a conformation click, spawns a thread to post the IPN, as if posted by the processor, and redirects back to my registration process.
My mock processor controller uses the following two methods to simulate the processor's response:
[HttpGet]
public RedirectResult Pay(string returnUrl, string notifyUrl, int paymentId)
{
var waitThread = new Thread(Notify);
waitThread.Start(new { paymentId, ipnDelay = 1000 });
return new RedirectResult(returnUrl);
}
public void Notify(dynamic data)
{
// Simulate a delay before PayFast
Thread.Sleep(1000);
// Delegate URL determination to the model, vs. directly to the config.
var notifyUrl = new PayFastPaymentModel().NotifyUrl;
if (_payFastConfig.UseMock)
{
// Need an absoluate URL here just for the WebClient.
notifyUrl = Url.Action("Notify", "PayFast", new {data.paymentId}, "http");
}
// Use a canned IPN message.
Dictionary<string, string> dict = _payFastIntegration.GetMockIpn(data.paymentId);
var values = dict.ToNameValueCollection();
using (var wc = new WebClient())
{
// Just a reminder we are posting to Trocrates here, from PayFast.
wc.UploadValues(notifyUrl, "POST", values);
}
}
However, I get an 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object.' exception on the following line:
notifyUrl = Url.Action("Notify", "PayFast", new {data.paymentId}, "http");
data.paymentId has a valid value, e.g. 112, so I'm not passing any null references to the Url.Action method. I suspect I have lost some sort of context somewhere by calling Notify on a new thread. However, if I use just notifyUrl = Url.Action("Notify", "PayFast");, I avoid the exception, but I get a relative action URL, where I need the overload that takes a protocol parameter, as only that overload gives me the absolute URL that WebClient.UploadValues says it needs.
When you are inside the thread you no longer have access to the HttpContext and the Request property which the Url helper relies upon. So you should never use anything that relies on HttpContext inside threads.
You should pass all the information that's needed to the thread when calling it, like this:
waitThread.Start(new {
paymentId,
ipnDelay = 1000,
notifyUrl = Url.Action("Notify", "PayFast", new { paymentId }, "http")
});
and then inside the thread callback:
var notifyUrl = new PayFastPaymentModel().NotifyUrl;
if (_payFastConfig.UseMock)
{
// Need an absoluate URL here just for the WebClient.
notifyUrl = data.notifyUrl;
}

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