Realtime applications for SharePoint with SignalR and knockout.js

Realtime applications for
SharePoint with
SignalR and knockout.js
Communardo Software GmbH
Christian Heindel
SignalR
@c_heindel

Seite© Communardo Software GmbH · Kleiststraße 10 a · D-01129 Dresden/Germany · Fon +49 (351) 833 82-0 · Mail info@communardo.de · www.communardo.de
Agenda
2
Realtime
applications
• Goals, use cases,
examples
Push technologies
• WebSockets, Comet
SignalR
• Connections and hubs
• Client libraries,
supported platforms,
scalability
MVVM in JavaScript
• knockout.js, jQuery,
JSON, oDATA
Events in
SharePoint
• Overview
Bringing it all
together
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013
• SharePoint Online

Agenda
3
Realtime
applications
examples
Push technologies
SignalR
scalability
MVVM in JavaScript
JSON, oDATA
Events in
SharePoint
• Overview
Bringing it all
together
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013

Goals
Improve user experience
Reduce server load

Use cases
In general
• Adjust prices in real-time,
e.g. for flight tickets
• Show new comments as
they come in
• Activity streams
In SharePoint
• Show changes to list items
• "Who is online?"
• Chat / Shoutbox
• Download counter
• Task status dashboard
• …

TFS – Team Room
Quelle: http://tfs.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/2013-jun-3

Shopping cart
Quelle: http://tech.pro/tutorial/1146/building-a-shopping-cart-with-signalr-aspnet-web-api-and-knockoutjs

Example: Stock Ticker

Download counter
Quelle: http://melcher.it/2012/05/signalr-and-sharepoint-live-download-tracking/

Upload visualizer
Quelle: http://blog-aspc.azurewebsites.net/sharepoint-with-signalr/

Realtime ASP.NET Web API tracing with SignalR
Video:
http://www.strathweb.com/
2012/11/realtime-asp-net-web-
api-tracing-with-signalr/

JabbR
Collaborative chat done right
• Project:
http://about.jabbr.net/
• Code:
https://github.com/JabbR/JabbR
• Live demo:
https://jabbR.net

Example: ShootR
• Multiplayer space ship
game built on the
SignalR framework.
• Code:
https://github.com/
ntaylormullen/shootr
• Live demo:
http://shootr.signalr.net/

Example: Tic-Tac-Toe
• Code:
https://github.com/fekberg/Tic-Tac-Toe
• Live demo:
http://signalr-tictactoe.azurewebsites.net/

http://www.christian-heindel.de/SignalRServer/
15

Agenda
16
Realtime
applications
examples
Push technologies
SignalR
scalability
MVVM in JavaScript
JSON, oDATA
Events in
SharePoint
• Overview
Bringing it all
together
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013

Refresh a page after it has loaded
How you could try it…
• Client pull
• F5, Ctrl+F5, press the “Delete
cache” button hard and often,
then F5
• Polling: AJAX Request every 60
seconds? Every 5 seconds?
How you should do it…
• Server push
• WebSocket connection
• Comet techniques as fallback

Comet (a.k.a. Ajax Push, Reverse Ajax, HTTP Streaming, HTTP server push)
• No page-by-page request or polling, but a long-held HTTP
request
• Biggest problem: HTTP 1.1 (max. 2 simultaneous connections)
• Streaming:
• Hidden iFrame
• XMLHttpRequest
• Ajax with long polling
• XMLHttpRequest with long polling
• Script tag long polling

WebSockets
• Full-duplex communication channel over a single TCP connection
• Persistent connection
• Cross origin support built in (CORS)
• IETF RFC 6455
• Port 80
• WebSockets API (W3C Recommendation)
• Web browser + web server need to implement it
• IIS 8.0, Apache 2.x, nginx 1.3.13+, lighttpd, node.js, …
• Google Chrome 14+, Internet Explorer 10+, Firefox 6+, Safari 6+ and Opera
12.10+

caniuse.com

Agenda
21
Realtime
applications
examples
Push technologies
SignalR
scalability
MVVM in JavaScript
JSON, oDATA
Events in
SharePoint
• Overview
Bringing it all
together
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013

ASP.NET SignalR
• SignalR started in July 2011 as a project by
• David Fowler (Senior Software Design Engineer, ASP.NET Team)
• Damien Edwards (Senior Program Manager, Microsoft)
• Now official part of the ASP.NET Technologies: http://asp.net/signalr
• MSDN documentation (since 03/2013):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj891071(v=vs.111).aspx
• Source code on GitHub
• Available via NuGet Gallery (22.000+ downloads in last 6 weeks)

Introduction to SignalR

SignalR: Features
• Ready to use libraries for server and clients
• Automatic connection management
(send to all clients, to specific clients)
• Uses WebSockets when available, fallback otherwise
(abstraction layer)
• Scale out to thousands of clients

SignalR: Transports and fallbacks
HTML 5 transports
These transports depend on support for HTML 5. If the client browser does not support the HTML 5 standard, older
transports will be used.
• WebSocket
• Server Sent Events, also known as EventSource (if the browser supports Server Sent Events, which is basically all
browsers except Internet Explorer.)
Comet transports
The following transports are based on the Comet web application model, in which a browser or other client maintains a
long-held HTTP request, which the server can use to push data to the client without the client specifically requesting it.
• Forever Frame
• for Internet Explorer only, hidden Iframe, one-way realtime connection from server to client, connection from client to server uses a
separate connection, a new connection is created for each piece of data that needs to be sent
• Ajax long polling
• no persistent connection, but instead polling the server with a request that stays open until the server responds, at which point the
connection closes, and a new connection is requested immediately, latency while the connection resets

SignalR: Architecture diagram

SignalR: Connections
- Simple endpoint for sending single-recipient, grouped, or
broadcast messages
- Connection API (represented in .NET code by the
PersistentConnection class)
- direct access to the low-level communication network that
SignalR exposes
- familiar to developers who have used connection-based APIs
such as Windows Communication Foundation

SignalR: Hubs
- high-level pipeline built upon the Connection API
- allows client and server to call methods on each other directly
- SignalR handles dispatching across machine boundaries as if by magic
- For different types of messages, it is recommended that you use the Hub class, so
that you won't have to create your own dispatching
- using the Hub, you can call methods on the clients, rather than sending an explicit
message that needs to be received, interpreted, and acted upon
- familiar to developers who have used remote invocation APIs such as .NET
Remoting

SignalR: Supported platforms (server side)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/timlee/archive/2013/02/27/deploy-the-signalr-getting-started-sample-as-a-windows-azure-web-site.aspx

SignalR: Supported platforms (client side)
• Browsers (JavaScript)
• Windows Desktop (Forms)
• Silverlight
• Windows Store (.NET)
• Windows Store (JavaScript)
• Windows Phone (IE)
• Windows Phone (.NET)
• Console
• Web Services
• iOS (Objective-C)
• …

SignalR: System requirements (Windows)
• On Facebook you‟d say: “It‟s complicated.”
• Excerpt from the documentation:
• Server: 2012*, 2008 r2, Azure Website, Windows 8*, Windows 7
• .NET Framework: 4.0 / 4.5*
• IIS: 7,7.5,8*, 8 Express*
• Browser: IE10*
• Silverlight: N/A (restr. 5+)
• WP8: IE* (restr. WP8 App)
• Only * supports WebSockets… 

SignalR: Performance and scalability (I)
• Standard limit in IIS: 5.000 connections per CPU
• You can override this limit!
• For SignalR about 20.000 connections per CPU usually also
work, depends on your appliaction…
• Special load test tool available:
https://github.com/SignalR/SignalR/tree/dev/src/Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.Crank

SignalR: Performance and scalability (II)
• ScaleOut providers available since SignalR 1.1
• Azure Service Bus
• SQL Server
• Redis

SignalR: Performance and scalability (III)
• Helpful documentation on MSDN library
• How to notify the user about disconnections
• How to continuously reconnect
$.connection.hub.connectionSlow(function() {
notifyUserOfConnectionProblem();
// Your function to notify user.
});
$.connection.hub.disconnected(function() {
setTimeout(function() {
$.connection.hub.start();
}, 5000);
// Restart connection after 5 seconds.
});

Agenda
35
Realtime
applications
examples
Push technologies
SignalR
scalability
MVVM in JavaScript
JSON, oDATA
Events in
SharePoint
• Overview
Bringing it all
together
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013

Why MVVM in JavaScript?
• Separate design from code
• Two-way DataBinding for properties
• Command binding
• Templates

Which framework to choose?
knockout.js
(Microsoft)
spine.js SproutCore JavascriptMVC ember.js
Angluar.js
(Google)
…
37

knockout.js
• Simplify dynamic JavaScript UIs by applying the Model-View-
View Model (MVVM) pattern
• By Steve Sanderson (Microsoft employee), inspired by XAML,
supports legacy browsers…
Declarative Bindings
Easily associate DOM
elements with model data
using a concise,
syntaxreadable
Automatic UI Refresh
When your data model's
state changes, your UI
updates automatically
Dependency Tracking
Implicitly set up chains of
relationships between
model data, to transform
and combine it
Templating
Quickly generate
sophisticated, nested UIs
as a function of your model
data

knockout.js
Load JavaScript:
DataBinding in HTML:
Define ViewModel:
Start listening:
Refresh values:

knockout.js
Load JavaScript:
DataBinding in HTML:
Define ViewModel:
Start listening:
Refresh values:
JSON?

JSON – JavaScript Object Notation
• Derived from JavaScript
• Language independant
• Human readable
• Specified by Douglas Crockford
in RFC 4627
• json.org launched in 2002
{
"id": 1,
"name": "Foo",
"price": 123,
"tags": [ "Bar", "Eek" ],
"stock": {
"warehouse": 300,
"retail": 20
}
}

oDATA – Open Data Protocol
• standardized protocol for creating and consuming data APIs
• builds on REST web services
• uniform way to expose full-featured data APIs
• from Microsoft, submitted as OASIS standard
• AtomPub protocol as
envelope for JSON
• REST methods available
on sources
• http://www.odata.org/

Agenda
44
Realtime
applications
examples
Push technologies
SignalR
scalability
MVVM in JavaScript
oDATA, JSON)
Events in
SharePoint
• Overview
Bringing it all
together
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013

Events in SharePoint
Synchronous or
asynchronous
(before or after)
Local, app or
remote (new in SP2013)

Events in SharePoint
• Item events
adding, added,
deleting, deleted,
updating, updated,
fileconverted,
filemoving, filemoved,
checkingin,
checkedin,
checkingout, checked
out,
attachmentadding,
attachmentadded,
attachmentdeleting,
attachmentdeleted
• List field events
adding, added,
deleting, deleted,
updating, updated
• List events
adding, added,
deleting, deleted
• Web events
adding, provisioned,
deleting, deleted,
moving, moved
• Site events
deleting, deleted
• App events
installed, uninstalling,
upgraded
• And more…
EmailReceived,
WorkflowCompleted,
WorkflowPostponed,
WorkflowStarted,
WorkflowStarting,
FeatureEventReceiver
installation, activation,
deactivation, and
removal

Agenda
47
Realtime
applications
examples
Push technologies
SignalR
scalability
MVVM in JavaScript
JSON, oDATA
Events in
SharePoint
• Overview
Bringing it all
together
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013

Integration in SharePoint (on-premises)
SharePoint 2010
• uses .NET Framework 3.5
• SignalR requires .NET Framework 4.0 / 4.5
•  Coding of a proxy necessary (WCF, HttpHandler or similar)
SharePoint 2013
• uses .NET Framework 4.0
But:
• SignalR attaches itself to the „App_Start“ event and registers a route „~/signalr/hubs“
(so that clients always find the hub)
• In SharePoint, there is no „App_Start“! ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Global.asax cannot be modified in a way that deployablesolution: write a HttpModule

Integration in SharePoint (on-premises)
So in order to get it working you have to write:
• HttpModule
• SPWebConfigModificationHandler
• VirtualPathProvider
Thanks to Max Melcher, you don„t have to: Go to Codeplex
SPSignalR - real-time applications with SharePoint 2013
• enables you to host SignalR in a SharePoint WebApplication
• web application feature, AppPool recycle, yoursharepoint.com/signalr/hubs

Weak points
• CORS (cross site scripting)
• Different browsers handle this with different success… ;-)
• Proxying required

Integration in SharePoint Online (I)
• Remote Event Receiver - Declaration

Integration in SharePoint Online (II)
• Remote Event Receiver - Implementation

Integration in SharePoint Online (III)
• SignalRHub in same project as RemoteEventReceiver

CODE
54

Agenda
55
Realtime
applications
examples
Push technologies
SignalR
scalability
MVVM in JavaScript
JSON, oDATA
Events in
SharePoint
• Overview
Bringing it all
together
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013

Resources
• Active community
• Forums: http://forums.asp.net/1254.aspx
• Github: We've found 493 repository results
• Official website: http://asp.net/SignalR
• Videos: http://channel9.msdn.com/search?term=signalr
• Trainings:
http://www.pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/signalr-
introduction
• JavaScript libraries: Angular, http://smoothiecharts.org/
• Books: Pushing Data: Integrating with ASP.NET SignalR Hubs
http://henriquat.re/server-
integration/signalr/integrateWithSignalRHubs.html
• More links: https://delicious.com/c.heindel/signalr

Open Source projects using SignalR
JabbR
• JabbR is an open source, real-time web chat system built using ASP.NET and SignalR.
Source code is at https://github.com/davidfowl/jabbr.
ShootR
• ShootR is an open source, real-time, multi-player HTML5 space shooter game, using SignalR
for real-time server-client communications. Source code is at
https://github.com/NTaylorMullen/ShootR.
ElmahR = ELMAH & SignalR
• A real-time monitoring solution for ASP.NET applications built with ELMAH and SignalR.
SignalR-ObjC
• A community maintained Objective-C client for SignalR, for use with iOS and Mac.

Communardo Software
GmbH
Kleiststraße 10 a
01129 Dresden
http://www.communardo.de
info@communardo.de
Phone: +49 (351) 833 820
Standort Stuttgart
Leinfelder Straße 64
70771 Leinfelden-Echterdingen
Phone: +49 (711) 722 497 09
Thank you for listening!
58
Christian Heindel
info@christian-heindel.de
www.communardo.de
Mobile: +49 (0) 171 - 3123924
Twitter: @c_heindel
Blog: http://blog.christian-heindel.de
Blog: http://www.communardo.de/techblog/

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