Connecting Microsoft SignalR with Angular

Rey and Kylo Ren use SignalR to communicate with the force. Image was orginally copied from here

Microsoft’s SignalR is a very powerful technology that enables websocket connections between clients. The technology has been around for quite some time, but now with Azure its even easier to get started.

Microsoft’s @aspnet/signalr package makes it possible to leverage both Azure and Angular to create applications that utilize SignalR. In this post, I’m going to walkthrough setting it up in a chat application and discuss the technology along the way. If you want to follow along, please check out my sample application GitHub repo.

What is the SignalR Service?

SignalR is a technology from Microsoft that provides real time communication between client and server via WebSockets. You most often see it used for high frequency applications like chat applications, gaming, dashboards, anything that requires real time updates.

SignalR is offered as either a hosted technology, or you can leverage Azure to use their SignalR service. The Azure SignalR service is very easy to get started with and supports web clients, mobile apps, servers, and IoT devices.

SignalR works for both large and small applications. If you use the SignalR service that…