Session timeout when using signalr

Question

I have a web application that is mainly used to monitor the system. It uses signalr to update "server-push" from the server to update the display. The page also has several buttons that also use the same signalr connection to send data to the server.

The problem is that signalr uses a separate connection, so the session expires after the session timeout, even when it regularly sends and receives data from the server.

Is this the "right" way to use signalr? Or should I just use signalr to inform the client about updates and force the client to make an ajax message to retrieve the data?

What about a session timeout problem? Should I create a client timer to regularly create ajax "keep-alive" messages?

Answer 1

You should be able to get around the problem with the session timeout by sending a request every 5 minutes (which is less than your cookie timeout) to your web server (only to any random page). We will really be implementing something to improve this in SignalR 2.0.