Notify clients after Azure Storge Blob has been updated

MaxiMuss 0 Reputation points
2023-12-21T14:09:37.5366667+00:00

We're seeking the most suitable Azure service for a specific scenario, which proves challenging due to the extensive range of options available within Azure.

Our goal is to have hundreds or even thousands of clients (C++ clients) respond to a certain action triggered by an admin application (.NET client). The .NET client updates an Azure Storage Blob. Azure Storage should then react to that event and notify all C++ clients via push.

Key requirements:

  • Clients should not engage in polling or long polling.
  • Clients shouldn't need to be registered online (hence, IoT Hub isn't an option as each "device" needs to be pre-configured in Azure).
  • Clients should not display UI notifications. The received message should only trigger an action.
  • If a client remains offline for, say, a day, the message from the admin application becomes irrelevant. The client updates its data upon application startup.
  • Ideally, there shouldn't be a need to set up a server at the customer's end, where both the admin and client applications are operated.

Any guidance on which Azure service aligns with these requirements would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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  1. Sander van de Velde 28,711 Reputation points MVP
    2023-12-21T17:16:22.1966667+00:00

    Hello @MaxiMuss ,

    welcome to this moderated Azure community forum.

    You want a messaging solution where C++ clients listen to a central service without any individual identification.

    This rules out IoT Hub and probably also the recent EventGrid MQTT Broker.

    You should take a look at either SignalR services or Azure Web PubSub.

    This is because these are designed for 'anonymous' web browsers using a generic protocol.

    Both are basically wrappers around HTML5 Websockets (although SignalR is a bit richer with the capability to switch back to long polling etc. when the client or connection needs this). The scaling of the backend is arranged by Azure.

    Check the FAQ for more details when you need to choose.

    Clients still need to know how to connect to the service in a secure way (with some credentials) but there is no individual client registration needed.

    The requirements you wrote can most likely all be implemented using on of these services.

    If the response helped, do "Accept Answer". If it doesn't work, please let us know the progress. All community members with similar issues will benefit by doing so. Your contribution is highly appreciated.