Getting Started with Reverse Ajax and Comet

johannb — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:35:52 +0000

Good introductory tutorial on Reverse Ajax and Comet from the guys behind StreamHub:

Includes the all-pervading ‘Hello World’ example and a more advanced tutorial on creating a Stock Ticker.

What is Reverse Ajax?

johannb — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:54:58 +0000

Reverse Ajax is an umbrella term for technologies that attempt to eliminate both the limitations of the page-by-page web model and traditional polling. Reverse Ajax-like applications offer real-time interaction by relying on a persistent HTTP connection (or where not possible a long lasting HTTP connection) to provide the browser with updates. Since browsers and proxies are not designed with server events in mind, web application developers have tried to work around several unintended side-effects to implement Comet-like behavior, each with different benefits and drawbacks. In particular, the HTTP 1.1 specification states that a browser should not have more than 2 simultaneous connections with a web server. However, holding one connection open for real-time events has a negative impact on browser usability. The browser may be blocked from sending a new request while it still loads, for example, a series of images. This can be worked around by creating a distinct hostname for real-time information, which is an alias for the same physical server.

Reverse Ajax Blog

Getting Started with Reverse Ajax and Comet

What is Reverse Ajax?