# Socket.IO .NET

Socket.IO enables real-time bidirectional event-based communication.
It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed.

 * **Real-time analytics**  
   Push data to clients that gets represented as real-time counters, charts or logs.
 * **Instant messaging and chat**  
   Socket.IO's "Hello world" is a chat app in just a few lines of code.
 * **Binary streaming**  
   Starting in 1.0, it's possible to send any blob back and forth: image, audio, video.
 * **Document collaboration**  
   Allow users to concurrently edit a document and see each other's changes.
   
> **USED BY EVERYONE**  
> From Microsoft Office, Yammer, Zendesk, Trello... to hackathon winners and little startups.

> **IMMENSELY POWERFUL, YET EASY TO USE**  
> Our getting started guide will show you how to create lots of amazing applications in fewer 
> than 200 lines of code.

## Connect to Server

Connecting to a Socket.IO server is just two lines:

    // connect to a Socket.IO server
    socket = IO.Socket("http://chat.socket.io/");
    socket.Connect();
    
    // disconnect from the server
    socket.Close();

## Subscribe to Events

Listening for messages from the server is easy,all we need to do is 
attach a delegate to the event name using the `On` method.

The `data` received from the http://chat.socket.io/ server is a `JToken` value:

    // whenever the server emits "login", print the login message
    socket.On("login", data => {
        connected = true;
        
        // get the json data from the server message
        var jobject = data as JToken;
        
        // get the number of users
        var numUsers = jobject.Value<int>("numUsers");
        
        // display the welcome message...
    });
    
    // whenever the server emits "new message", update the chat body
    socket.On("new message", data => {
        // get the json data from the server message
        var jobject = data as JToken;
        
        // get the message data values
        var username = jobject.Value<string>("username");
        var message = jobject.Value<string>("message");
        
        // display message...
    });

## Send a Message

Sending a message to the server is just a single line of code that makes use of the 
`Emit` method:

    // we can send messages to the server
    socket.Emit("add user", "username");
    if (connected) {
       socket.Emit("new message", "This is a message from Xamarin.Android...");
    }
    
    // or we can just send events
    socket.Emit("typing");
    // cancel that typing event
    socket.Emit("stop typing");