Server Side AJAX question

[ZeroFear]

since ajax is event driven from the client side, can a server broadcast to several clients when updates happen, not when the user causes an event?

[gargkapil]

That is exactly what I want to implement in case of database updates...however I would imagine that the xmlhttprequest would be generated ina timely fashion using a timer or something...i doubt without calling the send method of the xmlhttprequest, if at all the client can automatically receive updates from the server...unless there is a server side technology which does that..

[gavacho]

No. Ajax is not capable of "pushing" data to the client without first receiving a request from the client. Pushing can be simulated by having the client periodically poll the server for updates, but this is bandwidth and server resource intensive.

[gargkapil]

very true! I was just able to simulate autorefesh using setTimer along with xmlhttpRequest. Gavacho (or anyone else who knows about this)-could you point out any references where I can get more information about bandwidth restriction. I cant find any article or references which provides enough information on the bandwidth restriction? We are going to implementing this sample code which I wrote as a component for autorefreshing the webpages on our product. But we would definately want to get all the pros and cons for the same for strong specification and proof of concept.

[inchl]

Hi,

I apply a technique called serverside-blocked-calls (server-side AJAX) in my MVC-framework. See demos on my website: http://www.inchl.nl

Kind regards,

Stephan Smetsers