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Comet 2008: The State of Play in Reverse AJAX

I have to say that Comet still seems to me like climbing up the down escalator
By Dietrich Kappe
Article Rating:
March 17, 2008 12:45 PM EDT
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 3,620
Dietrich Kappe's Agile Ajax Blog

Just as with advertising measurement for AJAX, I continue to follow the technology known as Comet (open up an HTTP request from browser to server, then keep it open, pushing content down periodically) to see if it is ready for prime time. I thought I'd share my reading list from the last few months:
  • 20,000 Reasons Why Comet Scales - Greg Wilkins achieved sub-second latency using Dojo Cometd/Bayeux and Jetty. Yes, it's a benchmark, and benchmarks can't be swallowed whole, but it's still quite impressive to see just two load balanced servers manage this kind of load.
  • Comet: Reverse Ajax for streaming data from the server - Daniel Rubio of TheServerSide take an introductory look at Comet, but from the Enterprise/SOA perspective. If you're looking to convince your CTO to adopt Comet for your enterprise, you can adapt some of Daniel's arguments.
  • A Comet Implementation for Google Web Toolkit - somehow I missed this one from last July. Does the usual hidden iframe implementation for Comet on the client. Simple design with lots of code.
  • Comet Daily - Yep. The Comet technology now has its own blog (though it isn't quite daily). Lots of juicy articles, reviews and tutorials.
  • Comet Support in GlassFish - Jean-Francois Arcand [also an AJAXWorld speaker next week] writes a compact little article on how to do Comet with GlassFish. Has links to lots of little demos.
  • Comet Ruby on Rails - not to be left out, the Rails folks are trying their hand at Comet with the Juggernaut plugin.

While there is some progress, I have to say that Comet still seems to me like climbing up the down escalator. If you really want this kind of functionality in the browser, develop a new protocol and lobby for built in browser support.

Published March 17, 2008 – Reads 3,620
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More Stories By Dietrich Kappe

Dietrich Kappe is a co-founder and the CTO of Pathfinder Development, a firm that combines User Experience Design and Agile to speed software product development. He published one of the first 100 public websites and launched one of the first Java Servlet-based web applications. He has been a software engineer for two decades, a frequent open source contributor, and has developed applications for the Media, Financial Services, Insurance and Healthcare industries.

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