Introduction
This article explains that SignalR supports various clients and servers. Clients and servers are a transport system and each transport option has some requirements. If the requirements are not fulfilled for any transport then SignalR will smoothly switch to the other transports.
In that context are the following two types of transport system requirements available:
- Client System
- Server System
Client Transport System
This is the Client Transport System and there are various client platforms used by SignalR. In this section, you will see the system requirements for using SignalR in Web Browsers, Windows Desktop Applications, Silverlight Applications and Mobile Devices.
So the following are the requirements for the various platforms.
Web Browsers
SignalR is used in various types of web browsers, but generally there are only two latest versions supported. The SignalR applications in browsers must use jQuery with version 1.6.4 or later versions like 1.7.2, 1.8.2 or 1.9.1.
The following are the browsers that can be used for SignalR:
- Internet Explorer with versions 8,9,10 and 11. (Supported on Desktop and Mobile)
- Mozilla Firefox: Current Version -1(Windows and Mac)
- Google Chrome: Current Version -1(Windows and Mac)
- Opera: Current Version -1(Only Windows)
- Safari: Current Version -1 (Mach and iOS)
- Android browser
In addition to requiring certain browsers, the various transports that SignalR uses have requirements of their own. The following configurations are supported by the various transports:
| Transport |
Internet Explorer |
Chrome (Windows or iOS) |
Firefox |
Safari (OSX or iOS) |
Android |
| Web Sockets |
10+ |
current - 1 |
current - 1 |
current - 1 |
n/a |
| Server-Sent Events |
n/a |
current - 1 |
current - 1 |
current - 1 |
n/a |
| Forever Frame |
8+ |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
4.1 |
| Long Pooling |
8+ |
current - 1 |
current - 1 |
current - 1 |
4.1 |
Note: 6+ required for full functionality
Unsupported Browsers
It may be possible to run on older versions of browsers (listed above) without any big issue, but it hasn't been tested on them and normally bus does not fix them if a he bug exists.
Windows Desktop and Silverlight Apps
SignalR can be hosted on the Windows client or the Silverlight apps to run on a web browser. The Windows Desktop and Silverlight Apps have the following requirements:
- .NET Framework 4 based apps supported on Windows XP SP3 or later.
- .NET Framework 4.5 based apps supported on Windows Vista or later.
The operating system and .NET framework requirements for the SignalR transport supported are under the following configurations:
| Transport |
.NET Application |
Silverlight |
| Web Sockets |
Windows 8+ and .NET 4.5+ |
n/a |
| Server-Sent Events |
n/a |
n/a |
| Forever Frame |
.NET 4+ |
5+ |
| Long Pooling |
.NET 4+ |
5+ |
Windows Store and Windows Phone Apps
SignalR can also be used in Windows Store Apps and Windows Phone 8 Apps. The following transports are given with their configuration details:
| Transport |
Windows Store/ .NET |
Windows Store/ JavaScript |
Windows Phone/ IE |
Windows Phone/.NET |
| Web Sockets |
n/a |
Win8+ |
8+ |
n/a |
| Server-Sent Events |
n/a |
Win8+ |
7.5+ |
n/a |
| Forever Frame |
Win8+ |
n/a |
n/a |
8+ |
| Long Pooling |
Win8+ |
Win8+ |
Win8+ |
8+ |
Server Transport System
There are various server systems available in which SignalR can be hosted. Here you will see that there are various operating systems, .NET framework, IIS and other components with their versions that are supportable.
Operating Systems
The server used for SignalR can be hosted on the following server or client operating systems. The Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 are required for using Web Sockets by SignalR.
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Windows 8
- Windows 7
- Windows Azure
.NET Framework Versions
The SignalR latest version 2.0 can only supported on .NET Framework 4.5.
IIS Version
IIS is to be noted that if SignalR is hosted on the Client system for development then the full version of IIS or Cassini should not be used because the limit of imposing a connection will be 10 that is easily reachable because the connections are frequently re-established and are not disposed of immediately when no longer used. The Client operating system should use IIS Express for hosting. The following IIS versions are supported for hosting SignalR:
- IIS 8 or IIS 8 Express
- IIS 7 and IIS 7.5
- Integrated mode is applied for IIS, classic mode is not supported
- Hosting app must be running on full trust mode
IIS 8 or IIS 8 Express should be used for SignalR to use Web Socket and the server must be using Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 or later and the Web Socket must be enabled for the IIS.
Summary
This article has explaind that there are various requirements mandatory for client and server systems. You can also see that the various transports are given with their configuration available for operating systems and .NET frameworks. Thanks for reading.