AspNetCore.Docs/aspnetcore/blazor/advanced-scenarios.md

title	author	description	monikerRange	ms.author	ms.custom	ms.date	no-loc	uid
ASP.NET Core Blazor advanced scenarios	guardrex	Learn about advanced scenarios in Blazor, including how to incorporate manual RenderTreeBuilder logic into an app.	>= aspnetcore-3.1	riande	mvc	02/18/2020	appsettings.json ASP.NET Core Identity cookie Cookie Blazor Blazor Server Blazor WebAssembly Identity Let's Encrypt Razor SignalR	blazor/advanced-scenarios

ASP.NET Core Blazor advanced scenarios

By Luke Latham and Daniel Roth

Blazor Server circuit handler

Blazor Server allows code to define a circuit handler, which allows running code on changes to the state of a user's circuit. A circuit handler is implemented by deriving from CircuitHandler and registering the class in the app's service container. The following example of a circuit handler tracks open SignalR connections:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Server.Circuits;

public class TrackingCircuitHandler : CircuitHandler
{
    private HashSet<Circuit> circuits = new HashSet<Circuit>();

    public override Task OnConnectionUpAsync(Circuit circuit, 
        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        circuits.Add(circuit);

        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }

    public override Task OnConnectionDownAsync(Circuit circuit, 
        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        circuits.Remove(circuit);

        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }

    public int ConnectedCircuits => circuits.Count;
}

Circuit handlers are registered using DI. Scoped instances are created per instance of a circuit. Using the TrackingCircuitHandler in the preceding example, a singleton service is created because the state of all circuits must be tracked:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    ...
    services.AddSingleton<CircuitHandler, TrackingCircuitHandler>();
}

If a custom circuit handler's methods throw an unhandled exception, the exception is fatal to the Blazor Server circuit. To tolerate exceptions in a handler's code or called methods, wrap the code in one or more try-catch statements with error handling and logging.

When a circuit ends because a user has disconnected and the framework is cleaning up the circuit state, the framework disposes of the circuit's DI scope. Disposing the scope disposes any circuit-scoped DI services that implement xref:System.IDisposable?displayProperty=fullName. If any DI service throws an unhandled exception during disposal, the framework logs the exception.

Manual RenderTreeBuilder logic

xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Rendering.RenderTreeBuilder provides methods for manipulating components and elements, including building components manually in C# code.

[!NOTE] Use of xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Rendering.RenderTreeBuilder to create components is an advanced scenario. A malformed component (for example, an unclosed markup tag) can result in undefined behavior.

Consider the following PetDetails component, which can be manually built into another component:

<h2>Pet Details Component</h2>

<p>@PetDetailsQuote</p>

@code
{
    [Parameter]
    public string PetDetailsQuote { get; set; }
}

In the following example, the loop in the CreateComponent method generates three PetDetails components. In xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Rendering.RenderTreeBuilder methods with a sequence number, sequence numbers are source code line numbers. The Blazor difference algorithm relies on the sequence numbers corresponding to distinct lines of code, not distinct call invocations. When creating a component with xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Rendering.RenderTreeBuilder methods, hardcode the arguments for sequence numbers. Using a calculation or counter to generate the sequence number can lead to poor performance. For more information, see the Sequence numbers relate to code line numbers and not execution order section.

BuiltContent component:

@page "/BuiltContent"

<h1>Build a component</h1>

@CustomRender

<button type="button" @onclick="RenderComponent">
    Create three Pet Details components
</button>

@code {
    private RenderFragment CustomRender { get; set; }
    
    private RenderFragment CreateComponent() => builder =>
    {
        for (var i = 0; i < 3; i++) 
        {
            builder.OpenComponent(0, typeof(PetDetails));
            builder.AddAttribute(1, "PetDetailsQuote", "Someone's best friend!");
            builder.CloseComponent();
        }
    };    
    
    private void RenderComponent()
    {
        CustomRender = CreateComponent();
    }
}

[!WARNING] The types in xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.RenderTree allow processing of the results of rendering operations. These are internal details of the Blazor framework implementation. These types should be considered unstable and subject to change in future releases.

Sequence numbers relate to code line numbers and not execution order

Razor component files (.razor) are always compiled. Compilation is a potential advantage over interpreting code because the compile step can be used to inject information that improves app performance at runtime.

A key example of these improvements involves sequence numbers. Sequence numbers indicate to the runtime which outputs came from which distinct and ordered lines of code. The runtime uses this information to generate efficient tree diffs in linear time, which is far faster than is normally possible for a general tree diff algorithm.

Consider the following Razor component (.razor) file:

@if (someFlag)
{
    <text>First</text>
}

Second

The preceding code compiles to something like the following:

if (someFlag)
{
    builder.AddContent(0, "First");
}

builder.AddContent(1, "Second");

When the code executes for the first time, if someFlag is true, the builder receives:

Sequence	Type	Data
0	Text node	First
1	Text node	Second

Imagine that someFlag becomes false, and the markup is rendered again. This time, the builder receives:

Sequence	Type	Data
1	Text node	Second

When the runtime performs a diff, it sees that the item at sequence 0 was removed, so it generates the following trivial edit script:

• Remove the first text node.

The problem with generating sequence numbers programmatically

Imagine instead that you wrote the following render tree builder logic:

var seq = 0;

if (someFlag)
{
    builder.AddContent(seq++, "First");
}

builder.AddContent(seq++, "Second");

Now, the first output is:

Sequence	Type	Data
0	Text node	First
1	Text node	Second

This outcome is identical to the prior case, so no negative issues exist. someFlag is false on the second rendering, and the output is:

Sequence	Type	Data
0	Text node	Second

This time, the diff algorithm sees that two changes have occurred, and the algorithm generates the following edit script:

• Change the value of the first text node to Second.
• Remove the second text node.

Generating the sequence numbers has lost all the useful information about where the if/else branches and loops were present in the original code. This results in a diff twice as long as before.

This is a trivial example. In more realistic cases with complex and deeply nested structures, and especially with loops, the performance cost is usually higher. Instead of immediately identifying which loop blocks or branches have been inserted or removed, the diff algorithm has to recurse deeply into the render trees. This usually results in having to build longer edit scripts because the diff algorithm is misinformed about how the old and new structures relate to each other.

Guidance and conclusions

• App performance suffers if sequence numbers are generated dynamically.
• The framework can't create its own sequence numbers automatically at runtime because the necessary information doesn't exist unless it's captured at compile time.
• Don't write long blocks of manually-implemented xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Rendering.RenderTreeBuilder logic. Prefer .razor files and allow the compiler to deal with the sequence numbers. If you're unable to avoid manual xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Rendering.RenderTreeBuilder logic, split long blocks of code into smaller pieces wrapped in xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Rendering.RenderTreeBuilder.OpenRegion%2A/xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Rendering.RenderTreeBuilder.CloseRegion%2A calls. Each region has its own separate space of sequence numbers, so you can restart from zero (or any other arbitrary number) inside each region.
• If sequence numbers are hardcoded, the diff algorithm only requires that sequence numbers increase in value. The initial value and gaps are irrelevant. One legitimate option is to use the code line number as the sequence number, or start from zero and increase by ones or hundreds (or any preferred interval).
• Blazor uses sequence numbers, while other tree-diffing UI frameworks don't use them. Diffing is far faster when sequence numbers are used, and Blazor has the advantage of a compile step that deals with sequence numbers automatically for developers authoring .razor files.