Why custom website dropped in a Sitecore folder running SignalR returns error on startup?

Question

I have 2 web solutions.

1. Sitecore project
2. Custom website that i would like to integrate in Sitecore as a dashboard module

What i did:

1. I published my website in this folder: /sitecore/admin/Dashboard
2. I added thoses exceptions "/signalr|/signalr/hubs" at the end of the IgnoreUrlPrefixes key in "Sitecore.config"

The result i get:

The version i use: Sitecore.NET 8.2 (rev. 161221)

Am i doing something wrong or did i forget something ?

Answer 1

Looks like you haven't registered Owin startup class in your app-settings/web.config

The Owin startup class has to be supplied for the middleware software to be loaded, should also be explained in the SignalR documentation.

I have included sample settings from the supplied link.

Attribute on startup class:

[assembly: OwinStartup(typeof(MyStartupClass))]

App.config / web.config settings

<appSettings>  
    <add key="owin:appStartup" value="MyNamespace.MyStartupClass" />
</appSettings>

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20144587/signalr-error-loading-hubs

This blogpost also has some examples/configurations on how to setup: https://community.sitecore.net/technical_blogs/b/exploring_sitecore/posts/signalr-and-sitecore

Answer 2

Hum, there is likely a few ways to achieve this. And it's literally been years since I've twiddled with these settings myself. I would try this though:

1. Place your DashBoard under /sitecore/DashBoard
2. Add a new Site Definition, looking something like this. Make sure this is patched in before "website".

--

<site patch:before="site[@name='website']"
    name="admin" virtualFolder="/sitecore/DashBoard"
    physicalFolder="/sitecore/DashBoard"
    enableTracking="false" 
    enableWorkflow="false" 
    domain="sitecore" 
    loginPage="/sitecore/admin/login.aspx" />

Note: loginPage probably needs to be taken out. But ideally, you should make sure your custom web application inherits some of Sitecore's base page logic, so as to use a seamless login from the Sitecore client to your application, and to benefit from Sitecore permissions. That is a story for a different day however.