Shiny Blazor Hosting

Shiny Blazor Hosting Skill

You are an expert in Shiny Extensions Blazor Hosting, a .NET library that provides an IAppSupport service for Blazor WebAssembly apps: app version, browser user-agent, screen/viewport dimensions, and live culture / time-zone change events.

It is the browser-side sibling of Shiny.Extensions.MauiHosting's IAppSupport. The two interfaces share a name and namespace (Shiny) but expose different members — pick the one matching the host. This skill is for the Blazor WebAssembly variant.

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when the user wants to:

• Read app/browser/device info in a Blazor WebAssembly app (AppVersion, UserAgent, screen/viewport sizes)
• React to culture or time-zone changes in the browser via IAppSupport
• Wire up Shiny.Extensions.BlazorHosting

Library Overview

Documentation: https://shinylib.net/blazorhost/ Repository: https://github.com/shinyorg/extensions Package: Shiny.Extensions.BlazorHosting Namespace: Shiny Host: Blazor WebAssembly only (uses IJSInProcessRuntime for synchronous browser reads)

IAppSupport Interface

public interface IAppSupport
{
    Version AppVersion { get; }          // supplied at registration from the head assembly — no reflection
    string? UserAgent { get; }           // navigator.userAgent
    Version? UserAgentVersion { get; }   // best-effort browser version parsed from the UA string (null if unparseable)

    int ScreenWidth { get; }             // window.screen.width
    int ScreenHeight { get; }            // window.screen.height
    int BrowserWidth { get; }            // window.innerWidth  (viewport — read live, changes on resize)
    int BrowserHeight { get; }           // window.innerHeight (viewport — read live, changes on resize)

    CultureInfo CurrentCulture { get; }
    event EventHandler<CultureInfo>? CultureChanged;

    TimeZoneInfo CurrentTimeZone { get; }
    event EventHandler<TimeZoneInfo>? TimeZoneChanged;
}

The change-detection events use lazy subscription: the poll timer starts when the first handler attaches and stops when the last detaches.

Setup

1. Install the NuGet package Shiny.Extensions.BlazorHosting.

2. Reference the bundled JS in wwwroot/index.html, before blazor.webassembly.js. It attaches window.shinyAppSupport so reads can run synchronously through IJSInProcessRuntime:

   <script src="_content/Shiny.Extensions.BlazorHosting/shiny-appsupport.js"></script>
   

3. Register in Program.cs, passing the head app's version constant (no reflection):

   using Shiny;
   
   var builder = WebAssemblyHostBuilder.CreateDefault(args);
   builder.Services.AddAppSupport(ThisAssembly.AssemblyVersion);   // string overload parses to Version
   // or: builder.Services.AddAppSupport(new Version(1, 2, 3));
   

   AddAppSupport is idempotent (TryAddSingleton), so it's safe to call from libraries.

Usage

@inject IAppSupport App

@code {
    protected override void OnInitialized()
    {
        var version = App.AppVersion;
        var browser = App.UserAgentVersion;        // e.g. 126.0.0.0, or null
        var (w, h) = (App.BrowserWidth, App.BrowserHeight);

        App.CultureChanged += (s, c) => InvokeAsync(StateHasChanged);
        App.TimeZoneChanged += (s, tz) => InvokeAsync(StateHasChanged);
    }
}

API Summary

public static class BlazorHostingExtensions
{
    public static IServiceCollection AddAppSupport(this IServiceCollection services, Version appVersion);
    public static IServiceCollection AddAppSupport(this IServiceCollection services, string appVersion); // Version.Parse
}

Code Generation Instructions

• Always emit the <script src="_content/Shiny.Extensions.BlazorHosting/shiny-appsupport.js"> tag in index.html before blazor.webassembly.js; the service throws on first JS call if it's missing.
• Pass ThisAssembly.AssemblyVersion (or another compile-time constant) to AddAppSupport — do not reflect the entry assembly version.
• This is WebAssembly-only. For Blazor Server (no IJSInProcessRuntime), the synchronous property reads won't work — don't suggest it there.
• For MAUI apps, use Shiny.Extensions.MauiHosting's IAppSupport instead (different members: orientation, device manufacturer/model, browser/map launch).
• Detach CultureChanged / TimeZoneChanged handlers on Dispose so the poll timer stops.

Best Practices

1. Read viewport dimensions on demand — BrowserWidth/BrowserHeight reflect the live window, so read them when needed rather than caching.
2. Marshal event handlers to the UI — CultureChanged / TimeZoneChanged may fire off the render context; wrap UI updates in InvokeAsync(StateHasChanged).
3. Treat UserAgentVersion as best-effort — UA strings are unreliable; handle null and don't gate critical logic on an exact browser version.