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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-31T23:49:34+00:00

I’m building a website which offers 1 on 1 coaching on various topics. The

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I’m building a website which offers 1 on 1 coaching on various topics. The coaching is done over the web ( video call, document upload, stuff like this ), and one of the most important things is that the client pays by the minute. My problem is the following: how will I know when a coaching session ends ( so that I can correctly bill the customer )?

I’m planning to store the coaching session in the db roughly like this:

  coach_id:integer
  client_id:integer
  created_at:datetime
  updated_at:datetime
  in_progress:boolean

At the session’s end I will do a difference between updated_at and created_at, and get the length of the session.

Here are the potential problems I see:

  • coach loses internet access => in this case, the client will press a button on the website which will notify us that the session had a problem, and the session’s updated_at will be updated, and in_progress will be set to false

  • client loses internet access => same workflow as if coach loses internet access

  • both lose internet access => this is the trickiest case. I am not sure how to notify the server that the session should be considered as finished. I am thinking of doing it via push, and have both the client’s browser, and the coach’s browser update the server every minute. Worst case scenario, the error would cause a difference of 1 minute to the bill, which is acceptable. The downside is that I think this could load the server a lot, and I don’t know if this would still be a viable solution once we will have many users.

What do you think of this approach? In case it matters, the application will be built on Rails 3.2.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Why dont you look into HTML5 EventSource or WebSockets as possible means of detecting connectivity/loss of connection?

    At least in .NET (and I would guess in all server environments) it is possible to see if the client is still connected (tcp wise). EventSource/WebSockets helps you to establish an always open connection (as opposed to request/response connection with a short period of being connected) that you can monitor if its still operational/open.

    So essentialy the solution needs to be implemented at the websocket server.

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