How I Built a Real-Time Dashboard in .NET to Catch Bugs Before Users Did

As developers, we often hear the phrase "users are the best testers." I used to believe that too, until one day a client found a serious bug before we did. It was embarrassing. That incident taught me a valuable lesson: never rely on users to tell you when something is broken.

So I decided to build a real-time monitoring dashboard in .NET to catch bugs and issues as they happened. In this post, I'll walk you through how I designed it, what I learned, and why it became one of the most useful tools I've ever built.

1. The Problem

Before this dashboard, our workflow looked something like this:

• A bug appeared on the production server.
• The user reported it.
• The QA team recreated the issue.
• Then the developers investigated and fixed it.

By the time we found the cause, hours had already been wasted, and sometimes customer trust, too.

I wanted to change that. I wanted a system that would alert us before users even noticed something wrong.

2. The Idea: A Real-Time Monitoring Dashboard

The concept was simple. I wanted a dashboard that:

• Captured logs in real-time.
• Displayed error frequency visually.
• Highlighted anomalies and performance drops.
• Sent alerts for critical errors automatically.

I call it Developer Dashboard. It became my personal way to monitor logs, bugs, and performance in one place.

I chose ASP.NET Core for the backend and SignalR for real-time updates. For the frontend, I used a lightweight charting library to visualize data instantly.

3. How I Built It

Here's a simplified version of how the system works behind the scenes:

Application Logs:
Every error or warning in the system is logged into a centralized log database using Serilog with a SQL Server sink.

SignalR Hub:
A SignalR hub broadcasts the latest log entries to connected dashboard clients in real time.

Dashboard UI:
The front-end dashboard connects to the hub and updates charts or tables whenever a new log appears.

Alerts System:
When a critical log is detected (like an exception in a payment module), an email or Twilio SMS alert is triggered immediately.

4. The Real Magic: SignalR

SignalR was the key that made it all come alive.
Whenever a new log was inserted, the SignalR hub broadcast the event instantly to all connected clients. This made the dashboard feel alive and immediate.

public class LogHub : Hub
{
    public async Task SendLogUpdate(LogEntry log)
    {
        await Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveLog", log);
    }
}

connection.on("ReceiveLog", (log) => {
    addLogToTable(log);
    updateCharts();
});

It was smooth, fast, and surprisingly simple to implement.

5. What I Learned

Building this taught me several lessons that go beyond code:

• Monitoring saves time, and catching issues early means less damage later.
• Real-time feedback changes developer behavior. When you see errors live, you fix them faster.
• Visibility builds confidence; both developers and clients trust the system more.
• Small tools can make big cultural impacts; they improved how our team worked every day.

6. How You Can Build One Too

If you want to build something similar, start small:

1. Use Serilog with a file or database sink.
2. Add SignalR for real-time updates.
3. Build a simple web page that displays incoming logs.
4. Later, enhance it with charts, filters, and Twilio alerts.

Even a minimal setup can save you hours of debugging later.

Conclusion

This real-time dashboard started as an experiment, but it became an essential part of every project I built afterward. It didn't just help me find bugs faster, it changed the way I approached reliability.

If you're a .NET developer who wants to build resilient systems, don't wait for the next bug report to remind you. Start monitoring before your users do. You’ll thank yourself later.