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How to Make a Real-Time Chat App With SignalR in ASP.NET 6

Last modified: March 05, 2022
Step 1

Create an ASP.NET Razor Page application. Select Individual Account for authentication.

createproject createproject createproject createproject createproject

Configure the AppSetting.json to your Database connection string and perform below migration scripts.

add-migration InitialCreate update-database

createproject

Create few users createproject

Step 2

Add the SignalR client library

Right click on Solution => wwwwroot => js and install SignalR client library installlibrary

Step 3

Create a SignalR hub. SendMessage method is used to send message to all online users whereas SendMessageToGroup only send message to selected receiver.

public class ChatHub : Hub { public override Task OnConnectedAsync() { Groups.AddToGroupAsync(Context.ConnectionId, Context.User.Identity.Name); return base.OnConnectedAsync(); } public async Task SendMessage(string user, string message) { //message send to all users await Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message); } public Task SendMessageToGroup(string sender, string receiver, string message) { //message send to receiver only return Clients.Group(receiver).SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", sender, message); } }
Step 4

Configure SignalR

In the Program.cs, we need to configure SignalR.

builder.Services.AddSignalR();
app.MapHub<ChatHub>("/chatHub");
Step 5

Add SignalR client code

@page @model IndexModel @{ ViewData["Title"] = "Home page"; } <div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-2">Receiver</div> <div class="col-4">@Html.DropDownList("receiver",Model.Users, "All")</div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-2">Message</div> <div class="col-4"><input type="text" id="message" /></div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-6"> <input type="button" id="sendMessage" value="Send Message" /> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-6"> <ul id="messagesList"></ul> </div> </div> </div> @Html.Hidden("sender", Model.MyUser) <!--Current logged in username--> @section Scripts { <script src="~/js/microsoft/signalr/dist/browser/signalr.js"></script> <script src="~/js/chat.js" asp-append-version="true"></script> }
//only authenticated can access this page [Authorize] public class IndexModel : PageModel { private readonly ILogger<IndexModel> _logger; private readonly UserManager<IdentityUser> _userManager; [BindProperty] public List<SelectListItem> Users { get; set; } [BindProperty] public string MyUser { get; set; } public IndexModel(ILogger<IndexModel> logger, UserManager<IdentityUser> userManager) { _logger = logger; _userManager = userManager; } public void OnGet() { //get all the users from the database Users = _userManager.Users.ToList() .Select(a => new SelectListItem { Text = a.UserName, Value = a.UserName }) .OrderBy(s => s.Text).ToList(); //get logged in user name MyUser = User.Identity.Name; } }

In the wwwroot/js folder, create a chat.js file with the following code:

var connection = new signalR.HubConnectionBuilder().withUrl("/chatHub").build(); //Disable send button until connection is established $("#sendMessage").prop('disabled', true); connection.on("ReceiveMessage", function (user, message) { var msg = message.replace(/&/g, "&amp;").replace(/</g, "&lt;").replace(/>/g, "&gt;"); var encodedMsg = user + " says " + msg; var li = document.createElement("li"); li.textContent = encodedMsg; $("#messagesList").append(li); }); connection.start().then(function () { $("#sendMessage").prop('disabled', false); }).catch(function (err) { return console.error(err.toString()); }); $("#sendMessage").click(function () { var sender = $("#sender").val(); var receiver = $("#receiver").val(); var message = $("#message").val(); if (receiver != "") { //send to a user connection.invoke("SendMessageToGroup", sender, receiver, message).catch(function (err) { return console.error(err.toString()); }); } else { //send to all connection.invoke("SendMessage", sender, message).catch(function (err) { return console.error(err.toString()); }); } event.preventDefault(); });
Step 6

Test the application

Login in different tabs and test sending message to each other or group messsage

test