SignalR in WCF service to update web site clients

Question

Using SignalR, is it possible to update website clients from my WCF service if the service is not used by these clients directly?

I have a desktop application in .NET which has WCF service used internally using net.TCP protocol. This application changes one of the status fields in database table depending on certain user actions. I want to notify this change to end users who are accessing a different website hosted on the same web server.

I have tried one SignalR sample where notification works fine if it is sent from same website's host to its own client (stock ticker sample). But in my case, the message should go from WCF service to a website client.

Answer 1

IMO you should do an intermediate hop, for example having your website exposing an endpoint (you pick the technology) where you can post whenever you have a change to notify. Your WCF service would post there whenever there's a change, and the web app would process the post by broadcasting info to the target clients (can be all, or can be just some you filter with some logic behind the post). I use this pattern quite frequently, implementing it with HTTP POST. You would have no issues to implement the SignalR infrastructure in the web app, which is where your clients already connect to.