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title author description monikerRange ms.author ms.custom ms.date no-loc uid
Use hubs in ASP.NET Core SignalR
bradygaster
Learn how to use hubs in ASP.NET Core SignalR.
>= aspnetcore-2.1
bradyg
mvc
11/12/2019
SignalR
signalr/hubs

Use hubs in SignalR for ASP.NET Core

By Rachel Appel and Kevin Griffin

View or download sample code (how to download)

What is a SignalR hub

The SignalR Hubs API enables you to call methods on connected clients from the server. In the server code, you define methods that are called by client. In the client code, you define methods that are called from the server. SignalR takes care of everything behind the scenes that makes real-time client-to-server and server-to-client communications possible.

Configure SignalR hubs

The SignalR middleware requires some services, which are configured by calling services.AddSignalR.

[!code-csharpConfigure service]

::: moniker range=">= aspnetcore-3.0"

When adding SignalR functionality to an ASP.NET Core app, setup SignalR routes by calling endpoint.MapHub in the Startup.Configure method's app.UseEndpoints callback.

app.UseRouting();
app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
{
    endpoints.MapHub<ChatHub>("/chathub");
});

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="<= aspnetcore-2.2"

When adding SignalR functionality to an ASP.NET Core app, setup SignalR routes by calling app.UseSignalR in the Startup.Configure method.

[!code-csharpConfigure routes to hubs]

::: moniker-end

Create and use hubs

Create a hub by declaring a class that inherits from Hub, and add public methods to it. Clients can call methods that are defined as public.

public class ChatHub : Hub
{
    public Task SendMessage(string user, string message)
    {
        return Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message);
    }
}

You can specify a return type and parameters, including complex types and arrays, as you would in any C# method. SignalR handles the serialization and deserialization of complex objects and arrays in your parameters and return values.

Note

Hubs are transient:

  • Don't store state in a property on the hub class. Every hub method call is executed on a new hub instance.
  • Use await when calling asynchronous methods that depend on the hub staying alive. For example, a method such as Clients.All.SendAsync(...) can fail if it's called without await and the hub method completes before SendAsync finishes.

The Context object

The Hub class has a Context property that contains the following properties with information about the connection:

Property Description
ConnectionId Gets the unique ID for the connection, assigned by SignalR. There is one connection ID for each connection.
UserIdentifier Gets the user identifier. By default, SignalR uses the ClaimTypes.NameIdentifier from the ClaimsPrincipal associated with the connection as the user identifier.
User Gets the ClaimsPrincipal associated with the current user.
Items Gets a key/value collection that can be used to share data within the scope of this connection. Data can be stored in this collection and it will persist for the connection across different hub method invocations.
Features Gets the collection of features available on the connection. For now, this collection isn't needed in most scenarios, so it isn't documented in detail yet.
ConnectionAborted Gets a CancellationToken that notifies when the connection is aborted.

Hub.Context also contains the following methods:

Method Description
GetHttpContext Returns the HttpContext for the connection, or null if the connection is not associated with an HTTP request. For HTTP connections, you can use this method to get information such as HTTP headers and query strings.
Abort Aborts the connection.

The Clients object

The Hub class has a Clients property that contains the following properties for communication between server and client:

Property Description
All Calls a method on all connected clients
Caller Calls a method on the client that invoked the hub method
Others Calls a method on all connected clients except the client that invoked the method

Hub.Clients also contains the following methods:

Method Description
AllExcept Calls a method on all connected clients except for the specified connections
Client Calls a method on a specific connected client
Clients Calls a method on specific connected clients
Group Calls a method on all connections in the specified group
GroupExcept Calls a method on all connections in the specified group, except the specified connections
Groups Calls a method on multiple groups of connections
OthersInGroup Calls a method on a group of connections, excluding the client that invoked the hub method
User Calls a method on all connections associated with a specific user
Users Calls a method on all connections associated with the specified users

Each property or method in the preceding tables returns an object with a SendAsync method. The SendAsync method allows you to supply the name and parameters of the client method to call.

Send messages to clients

To make calls to specific clients, use the properties of the Clients object. In the following example, there are three Hub methods:

  • SendMessage sends a message to all connected clients, using Clients.All.
  • SendMessageToCaller sends a message back to the caller, using Clients.Caller.
  • SendMessageToGroups sends a message to all clients in the SignalR Users group.

[!code-csharpSend messages]

Strongly typed hubs

A drawback of using SendAsync is that it relies on a magic string to specify the client method to be called. This leaves code open to runtime errors if the method name is misspelled or missing from the client.

An alternative to using SendAsync is to strongly type the Hub with xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR.Hub%601. In the following example, the ChatHub client methods have been extracted out into an interface called IChatClient.

[!code-csharpInterface for IChatClient]

This interface can be used to refactor the preceding ChatHub example.

[!code-csharpStrongly typed ChatHub]

Using Hub<IChatClient> enables compile-time checking of the client methods. This prevents issues caused by using magic strings, since Hub<T> can only provide access to the methods defined in the interface.

Using a strongly typed Hub<T> disables the ability to use SendAsync. Any methods defined on the interface can still be defined as asynchronous. In fact, each of these methods should return a Task. Since it's an interface, don't use the async keyword. For example:

public interface IClient
{
    Task ClientMethod();
}

Note

The Async suffix isn't stripped from the method name. Unless your client method is defined with .on('MyMethodAsync'), you shouldn't use MyMethodAsync as a name.

Change the name of a hub method

By default, a server hub method name is the name of the .NET method. However, you can use the HubMethodName attribute to change this default and manually specify a name for the method. The client should use this name, instead of the .NET method name, when invoking the method.

[!code-csharpHubMethodName attribute]

Handle events for a connection

The SignalR Hubs API provides the OnConnectedAsync and OnDisconnectedAsync virtual methods to manage and track connections. Override the OnConnectedAsync virtual method to perform actions when a client connects to the Hub, such as adding it to a group.

[!code-csharpHandle connection]

Override the OnDisconnectedAsync virtual method to perform actions when a client disconnects. If the client disconnects intentionally (by calling connection.stop(), for example), the exception parameter will be null. However, if the client is disconnected due to an error (such as a network failure), the exception parameter will contain an exception describing the failure.

[!code-csharpHandle disconnection]

Handle errors

Exceptions thrown in your hub methods are sent to the client that invoked the method. On the JavaScript client, the invoke method returns a JavaScript Promise. When the client receives an error with a handler attached to the promise using catch, it's invoked and passed as a JavaScript Error object.

[!code-javascriptError]

If your Hub throws an exception, connections aren't closed. By default, SignalR returns a generic error message to the client. For example:

Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR.HubException: An unexpected error occurred invoking 'MethodName' on the server.

Unexpected exceptions often contain sensitive information, such as the name of a database server in an exception triggered when the database connection fails. SignalR doesn't expose these detailed error messages by default as a security measure. See the Security considerations article for more information on why exception details are suppressed.

If you have an exceptional condition you do want to propagate to the client, you can use the HubException class. If you throw a HubException from your hub method, SignalR will send the entire message to the client, unmodified.

[!code-csharpThrowHubException]

Note

SignalR only sends the Message property of the exception to the client. The stack trace and other properties on the exception aren't available to the client.

Related resources

  • Intro to ASP.NET Core SignalR
  • JavaScript client
  • Publish to Azure