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title	author	description	monikerRange	ms.author	ms.custom	ms.date	uid
Use MessagePack Hub Protocol in SignalR for ASP.NET Core	tdykstra	Add MessagePack Hub Protocol to ASP.NET Core SignalR.	>= aspnetcore-2.1	tdykstra	mvc	06/04/2018	signalr/messagepackhubprotocol

Use MessagePack Hub Protocol in SignalR for ASP.NET Core

By Brennan Conroy

This article assumes the reader is familiar with the topics covered in Get Started.

What is MessagePack?

MessagePack is a binary serialization format that is fast and compact. It's useful when performance and bandwidth are a concern because it creates smaller messages compared to JSON. Because it's a binary format, messages are unreadable when looking at network traces and logs unless the bytes are passed through a MessagePack parser. SignalR has built-in support for the MessagePack format, and provides APIs for the client and server to use.

Configure MessagePack on the server

To enable the MessagePack Hub Protocol on the server, install the Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR.Protocols.MessagePack package in your app. In the Startup.cs file add AddMessagePackProtocol to the AddSignalR call to enable MessagePack support on the server.

[!NOTE] JSON is enabled by default. Adding MessagePack enables support for both JSON and MessagePack clients.

services.AddSignalR()
    .AddMessagePackProtocol();

To customize how MessagePack will format your data, AddMessagePackProtocol takes a delegate for configuring options. In that delegate, the FormatterResolvers property can be used to configure MessagePack serialization options. For more information on how the resolvers work, visit the MessagePack library at MessagePack-CSharp. Attributes can be used on the objects you want to serialize to define how they should be handled.

services.AddSignalR()
    .AddMessagePackProtocol(options =>
    {
        options.FormatterResolvers = new List<MessagePack.IFormatterResolver>()
        {
            MessagePack.Resolvers.StandardResolver.Instance
        };
    });

Configure MessagePack on the client

[!NOTE] JSON is enabled by default for the supported clients. Clients can only support a single protocol. Adding MessagePack support will replace any previously configured protocols.

.NET client

To enable MessagePack in the .NET Client, install the Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR.Protocols.MessagePack package and call AddMessagePackProtocol on HubConnectionBuilder.

var hubConnection = new HubConnectionBuilder()
                        .WithUrl("/chatHub")
                        .AddMessagePackProtocol()
                        .Build();

[!NOTE] This AddMessagePackProtocol call takes a delegate for configuring options just like the server.

JavaScript client

MessagePack support for the Javascript client is provided by the @aspnet/signalr-protocol-msgpack NPM package.

npm install @aspnet/signalr-protocol-msgpack

After installing the npm package, the module can be used directly via a JavaScript module loader or imported into the browser by referencing the node_modules\@aspnet\signalr-protocol-msgpack\dist\browser\signalr-protocol-msgpack.js file. In a browser, the msgpack5 library must also be referenced. Use a <script> tag to create a reference. The library can be found at node_modules\msgpack5\dist\msgpack5.js.

[!NOTE] When using the <script> element, the order is important. If signalr-protocol-msgpack.js is referenced before msgpack5.js, an error occurs when trying to connect with MessagePack. signalr.js is also required before signalr-protocol-msgpack.js.

<script src="~/lib/signalr/signalr.js"></script>
<script src="~/lib/msgpack5/msgpack5.js"></script>
<script src="~/lib/signalr/signalr-protocol-msgpack.js"></script>

Adding .withHubProtocol(new signalR.protocols.msgpack.MessagePackHubProtocol()) to the HubConnectionBuilder will configure the client to use the MessagePack protocol when connecting to a server.

const connection = new signalR.HubConnectionBuilder()
    .withUrl("/chatHub")
    .withHubProtocol(new signalR.protocols.msgpack.MessagePackHubProtocol())
    .build();

[!NOTE] At this time, there are no configuration options for the MessagePack protocol on the JavaScript client.

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