I have already done a proof where I can include Node.JS within an ASP.NET MVC application. Assume that I am going to use an external session provider like windows server appfabric Cache or memcache.
I have an application where there is a quite sophisticated assembly that we use to build middle tier objects that we then store in the session. The assembly and the objects it produces is our most valuable piece and I cannot justify rewriting this C# project into something this is more Node.JS friendly.
This data is stored in an external cache, and now the node.JS developers need access to that. What techniques have you guys used in situations like this? I am pretty sure that I am going to have to have some sort of service interface provide by the asp.net side as it is the one that owns this system of record.
I am also looking for a green field option for new projects that allow both ASP.NET MVC and Node.Js work together well in a hybrid fashion anyway, so perhaps this could be solved by data being stored in a convention that works for both.
Thanks.
I wouldn't use ASP.NET session at all. Maybe a database would be a more interoperable approach. SQL Server or even NoSQL solution such as RavenDB might be a good choice.
The problem with ASP.NET out-of-proc session state providers is that they use non-interoperable serializers (such as BinaryFormatter or NetDataContractSerializer) so you cannot read the data back from NodeJs. There might even be differences in the serialization mechanism between the different versions of the .NET framework so even with 2 ASP.NET applications running on different versions of the framework it might be a challenge to share session data.