Implement sending Server Sent Events in C# (no ASP.NET / MVC / ...)

Question

For a project, I need to implement SSE (Server Sent Events) in a C# Application. Although this may sound easy, I've got no clue how to solve this.

As I'm new to C# (though, not new to programming in general) I took an excursion to Google and tried to look for some sample code. From what I've seen so far, I could learn to build a HTTP Server with C# or consume server sent events. But I found nothing about sending SSEs.

What I'm trying to get my head around: how can I keep sending updated data over the incoming request? Normally, you get a request, do your thing and reply. Done, connection closed. But in this case I want to kind of "stick" to the response-stream and send new data through, each time an event in my application fires.

The problem, for me, lies in this event-based approach: it's not some intervall-based polling and updating. It's rather that the app goes like "Hey, something happend. I really should tell you about it!"

TL;DR: how can I hold on to that response-stream and send updates - not based on loops or timers, but each time certain events fire?

Also, before I forget: I know, there are libraries out there doing just that. But from what I've seen so far (and from what I've understood; correct me if I'm wrong) those solutions depend on ASP.NET / MVC / you name it. And as I'm just writing a "plain" C# application, I don't think I meet these requirements.

Answer 1

As for a light-weight server I would go with an OWIN selfhost WebAPI (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-api/overview/hosting-aspnet-web-api/use-owin-to-self-host-web-api).

A simple server-sent event server action would basically go like:

public class EventController : ApiController
  {
    public HttpResponseMessage GetEvents(CancellationToken clientDisconnectToken)
    {
      var response = Request.CreateResponse();
      response.Content = new PushStreamContent(async (stream, httpContent, transportContext) =>
      {
        using (var writer = new StreamWriter(stream))
        {
          using (var consumer = new BlockingCollection<string>())
          {
            var eventGeneratorTask = EventGeneratorAsync(consumer, clientDisconnectToken);
            foreach (var @event in consumer.GetConsumingEnumerable(clientDisconnectToken))
            {
              await writer.WriteLineAsync("data: " + @event);
              await writer.WriteLineAsync();
              await writer.FlushAsync();
            }
            await eventGeneratorTask;
          }
        }
      }, "text/event-stream");
      return response;
    }

    private async Task EventGeneratorAsync(BlockingCollection<string> producer, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
      try
      {
        while (!cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested)
        {
          producer.Add(DateTime.Now.ToString(), cancellationToken);
          await Task.Delay(1000, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
        }
      }
      finally
      {
        producer.CompleteAdding();
      }
    }
  }

The important part here is the PushStreamContent, which basically just sends the HTTP headers and then leaves the connection open to write the data when it is available.

In my example the events are generated in an extra-task which is given a producer-consumer collection and adds the events (here the current time every second) if they are available to the collection. Whenever a new event arrives GetConsumingEnumerable is automatically notified. The new event is then written in the proper server-sent event format to the stream and flushed. In practice you would need to send some pseudo-ping events every minute or so, as streams which are left open for a long time without data being sent over them would be closed by the OS/framework.

The sample client code to test this would go like:

Write the following code in async method.

using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
  using (var stream = await client.GetStreamAsync("http://localhost:9000/api/event"))
  {
    using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream))
    {
      while (true)
      {
        Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadLine());
      }
    }
  }
}

Answer 2

This sounds like a good fit for SignalR. Note SignalR is part of the ASP.NET family, however this does NOT require the ASP.NET framework (System.Web), or IIS, as mentioned in comments.

To clarify, SignalR is part of ASP.NET. According to their site:

ASP.NET is an open source web framework for building modern web apps and services with .NET. ASP.NET creates websites based on HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript that are simple, fast, and can scale to millions of users.

SignalR has no hard dependency on System.Web or on IIS.

You can self-host your ASP.Net application (see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/signalr/overview/deployment/tutorial-signalr-self-host). If you use .net core, it is actually self-hosted by default and runs as a normal console application.