Passing data from C# to Node.js via Edge.js

Edge.js is a phenomenal tool, but its documentation is a hit and miss.  Sending data to C# from Node.js is straightforward, and the JSON object is translated to a dynamic object automatically:

public async Task<dynamic> Invoke(dynamic input) {
   // echo input message
   await doSomething(input.message);
}

Returning data is not trivial, however, because any kind of complex object I tried to return caused unreported exceptions.

Until now!

It turns out that Edge .js returns associative arrays if and only if they're correctly JSON formatted. I don't recall seeing this documented anywhere, but it makes perfect sense (20/20 hindsight). So in order to return an associative array to Node.js, make sure to use a Dictionary object where the first element type is a string; if you want to send a list of usernames with their IDs, for example, you would either use

Dictionary<string, string>

with the ID cast to string for transmission or

Dictionary<string, int>

with the ID / username columns switched from their normal positions.

Of course, one could go about creating more intricate objects using the dynamic type, but that's beyond the scope of this post.

Web Worker callback design pattern

I couldn't find a way to post messages to a callback and define a handler for each individual message, and the following is what I've come up with. If you have suggestions or a better solution, let me know!

UPDATE: my goodness, looking back at my original post I wonder if I wasn't having a stroke. I've rewritten it and used gist to make it readable: