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Is there a way in HTML5 (websocket perhaps?) to set up some kind of push mechanism for ajax requests? For instance, I would like my logged in user to be notified he has a new message without sending a periodic ajax request to the server checking if there actually is a new message.

Right now, I do a check every couple seconds and change the UI accordingly if I get a number back, but for 10000 users this tends to get quite demanding on the server with frequent updates.

If HTML5 does not have a native ability to handle this, is Comet (http://www.zeitoun.net/articles/comet_and_php/start) a better approach than periodic ajax calls?

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Comet is made for that exact purpose, but Websockets in HTML5 will offer much better performance. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4262543/what-are-good-resources-for-learning-html-5-websockets

However, Websockets aren't supported in most browsers yet, so you'll need a library to serve as a layer of abstraction between your application and the specific implementation supported by the current browser (using WebSockets if they are available, but falling back to long-polling, Flash sockets, etc. as necessary). Fortunately there are plenty of libraries like that.

To find an appropriate implementation for your app, you should take a look at CometDaily's Comet Maturity Guide. Not mentioned there, however, is the APE project (Ajax Push Engine), which is gaining a lot of traction with web application developers right now.

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That's ok, I only need it for the most recent version of Chrome. Can you link to some resources about this if you have any at hand?
I see. I would still like to do it with Websockets - I am 100% sure I will never need it on any browser other than Chrome or the most recent Firefox. Will I also need to install a different/upgraded Apache server in order to support websockets, or is this supported natively?
If you only need to support HTML5 browsers, the client side will be much easier. Check stackoverflow.com/questions/1253683/websocket-for-html5 for a list of server side implementations for different platforms
Wicked, thanks, that's what I needed, a PHP solution without having to install much new server-side stuff. I'll take a look.

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