How to access hangfire dashboard when jobs are setup via console application

Question

I have created a .NET Framework 4.5 application using the Hangfire.Core and Hangfire.SqlServer nuget packages. The code is pretty straight forward.

class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            GlobalConfiguration.Configuration
                .UseSqlServerStorage("Server=localhost;Database=HangfireDb;User Id=username;Password=password");
            BackgroundJob.Enqueue(() => ProcessData("process this"));
            using (var server = new BackgroundJobServer())
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Hangfire Server started. Press any key to exit...");
                Console.ReadKey();
            }
        }

        public static void ProcessData(string data)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(data);
        }
    }

After running this program, I see the table schema is created in the database, and the [Job] table gets populated with an entry for this method. However, I don't know how to access the hangfire dashboard to view the job itself. I tried http://localhost/hangfire but that reports a 404 error. After some googling, I added following Startup.cs class in the project.

using Hangfire;
using Microsoft.Owin;
using Owin;
using System.Collections.Generic;

[assembly: OwinStartup(typeof(HangfireSample.Startup))]

namespace HangfireSample
{
    public class Startup
    {
        public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            app.UseHangfireServer();
            app.UseHangfireDashboard("/hangfire");
        }
    }
}

I set up a break-point in the Configuration method but it didn't get hit and I still cannot access the hangfire dashboard. Any suggestions what I am doing wrong here?

Answer 1

You created two different classes, one for HangfireSample (needed for the dashboard) and one for the Main (Console). The issue I see is that you dont have HangfireSample called anywhere in your Main class.

I created a sample HangfireProject (.Net Framework with Hangfire 1.7.11/MS SQL) and successfully got the dashboard up and running with the use of the WebApp.Start<Dashboard>(options). This line actually starts up your Hangfire Dashboard.

Dashboard.cs

using Hangfire;
using HangfireProject;
using Microsoft.Owin;
using Owin;

[assembly: OwinStartup(typeof(Dashboard))]
namespace HangfireProject
{
    public class Dashboard
    {
        public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            //app.UseHangfireServer();
            app.UseHangfireDashboard();
        }
    }
}

Main Class

using Hangfire;
using Hangfire.SqlServer;
using Microsoft.Owin.Hosting;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace HangfireProject
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            GlobalConfiguration.Configuration
                .UseSqlServerStorage("Server=localhost;Database=HangfireDB;User Id=localAccount;Password=password;", new SqlServerStorageOptions
                {
                    CommandBatchMaxTimeout = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5),
                    SlidingInvisibilityTimeout = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5),
                    QueuePollInterval = TimeSpan.Zero,
                    UseRecommendedIsolationLevel = true,
                    DisableGlobalLocks = true
                });

            StartOptions options = new StartOptions();
            options.Urls.Add($"http://localhost:9095");
            options.Urls.Add($"http://127.0.0.1:9095");
            WebApp.Start<Dashboard>(options);

            using (var server = new BackgroundJobServer())
            {
                System.Console.WriteLine("Hangfire Server started. Press any key to exit...");
                System.Console.ReadKey();
            }
        }
    }
}

For you to be able to run the WebApp.Start<>, you will also need to install the Microsoft.Owin.Host.HttpListener Nuget package. Make sure you are running this project with Admin privileges as it requires access to create the URLs