COMET is getting some attention as an alternative to frequent polling by the client. See http://ajaxian.com/archives/comet-a-new-approach-to-ajax-applications.

Some think it is a bad idea, so we should proceed with caution if at all.

Comments

moshe weitzman’s picture

moshe weitzman commented

another good page: http://ajaxpatterns.org/HTTP_Streaming

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

yeah, i've read about this stuff, and its certainly sexy.

but its just not really an option for the chatroom any time soon, IMO, though. i think it would limit the installability of the chatroom if it required a server setup that was ready for this sort of connection model.

darren oh’s picture

darren oh
Primary language English
Location Lakeland, Florida
commented
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)
ManyNancy’s picture

ManyNancy commented

There should probably be a larger comet api module that all modules can plug into for all sorts of real time delivery.

ManyNancy’s picture

ManyNancy commented
Status: Closed (won't fix) » Active

It's been 3 years since this was closed and the world has changed a lot since then. Now everyone and their grandpa is using comet long polling to create real time chat systems, gmail, gwave, facebook, etc.

This is definitely the way forward and needs to be looked at again. There are numerous backend frameworks available, though choosing one is its own challenge.

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented
Status: Active » Closed (works as designed)

nope. what has changed about apache + mod_php being a very bad fit for comet?

i *will not* implement a system that keeps a TCP connection open for an extended period of time while most drupal sites run apache + mod_php.

ManyNancy’s picture

ManyNancy commented

But clearly you don't use mod_php, or even php, for comet. Technology is moving forward, and other languages will be required for future systems. Plenty of shared hosts, such as dreamhost, supports python.

I don't think real time should be ignored by drupal, otherwise it's going to look very dated in a year or two.

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

you're missing the point. chatroom module will not require that users setup and run anything other than the webserver that they run drupal on, period. its that simple.

recently i built an simple app with this:

http://www.tornadoweb.org/

was fun, python is my favourite language. but no, i'm not going to require it, or anything like it, for this module.

ManyNancy’s picture

ManyNancy commented

But why? Solr integration requires java. Nobody has complained about that, as far as I know.

ah0’s picture

ah0 commented

any updates on usage of COMET in the chatroom or any other drupal modules?
any comments would open up the conversation,
thanks,

darklrd’s picture

darklrd commented

Integration with Node.js is there.