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I'm using React + axios to talk to the API from the client side. I'm a newbie in JavaScript.
How would I implement long polling so I get near real-time updates on a web page?
Is there a better way to do real-time updates on the page, when backend is a JSON REST API? Should I look into using WebSockets or server side events or long polling is fine?
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Long polling is a strategy in which the server chooses to keep a client's connection open for as long as feasible, only responding when data becomes available or a timeout threshold is reached, rather than having to repeat the procedure for each client until new data becomes available.
Polling is a standard technique used by the vast majority of AJAX applications. The basic idea is that the client repeatedly polls (or requests) a server for data. The client makes a request and waits for the server to respond with data. If no data is available, an empty response is returned.
Rather than having to repeat this process multiple times for every client until new data for a given client becomes available, long polling is a technique where the server elects to hold a client's connection open for as long as possible, delivering a response only after data becomes available or a timeout threshold ...
There is another, potentially better way for your use-case: Server-Sent Events.
SSE, in a nutshell, is a simple GET request to the server from the client - except that the server doesn't close the connection after it's done processing the request. Instead, the HTTP connection is left open and the server is able to write data multiple times to the client, which appear in real-time.
For more info on how SSE compares to Websockets, read Alex Recarey's answer to "WebSockets vs. Server-Sent events/EventSource" in SO.
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