How to Communicate Between Web App and C Sharp

Question

I'm attempting to make a Web app that needs to communicate to a program written in C Sharp. But I can't find a good form of communication. What I need is if a user clicks something on the Web app, it will notify the C Sharp program. Also, if an event happens on the C Sharp program, it needs to alert the Web app. Both of these are going to be running on the same machine.

Right now I'm mainly focusing on the C Sharp program just periodically "asking" what the status of the Web app is.

I've tried using POST requests to the Web app and I've had a bit of success with this but I don't know how to essentially store and update a "status" on the Web App. For example, C Sharp program sends a POST/GET request asking for the status, the Web app responds with "nothing has changed" or some sort of status code. I don't know how to keep track of that status.

I've attempted using Web Sockets but I don't think it is going to be possible on the C Sharp side. However, I'm definitely open to suggestions on how this might work.

I've looked into using the ReST architectural style but I'm having a hard time understanding how I would implement it. I'm using mainly AJAX on an apache server and most of the ReST examples I saw used IIS.

One way I've been successful with this is a horrible workaround. I use 3 files to store contents, status of Web app, and status of C Sharp program. But this requires me constantly fetching files, reading them, writing a new one, and uploading it.

Sorry if this question is poorly formed, I'm obviously new to a lot of this and this is my first SO post. Also, I'd include example code but I'm posting this from my tablet so it's not accessible right now.

Answer 1

If they are on the same machine, you can use 'pipes' (Unix), local sockets or file handlers.

These are all types of IO objects both applications can 'listen' to without exposing themselves to the network and without blocking while they are 'waiting' for data..

... But this will limit your scalability.

Another option is to use a Pub/Sub service such as Redis. This is a better option than websockets, because you can have multiple C# apps listening to multiple web apps on a centralized data source.

It uses the same IO concept (using sockets) behind an abstraction layer coupled with a database - it's very effective.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I implemented something similar to this. I needed a desktop application to listen for api calls from the browser. I ultimately decided to implement a "web connector" which can either be created as part of the application OR installed as a service.

Here is a good example: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.sockets.tcplistener(v=vs.110).aspx