Persistent connection with client

Question

Is there a general way to implement part of an application with JavaScript and supplying a persistent connection to a server? I need the server to be able to push data to the client, regardless of the client being behind a firewall. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

See Comet - it's like ajax, but it holds a connection open so the server can push information to the client.

Note that compliant browsers will only hold 2 connections (note: most modern browsers no longer comply) to a particular domain (by default), so you might want to split your domains (e.g. www.yourdomain.com and comet.yourdomain.com) so that you don't drastically slow down the loading of your pages. Or you could just make sure you don't open the comet connection until everything else is loaded. It's just something to be careful of.

Answer 2

You should look into Comet:

http://ajaxian.com/archives/comet-a-new-approach-to-ajax-applications