Is it possible to perform HTTP Push with Apache2+PHP? I’ve done some Googleing around and the only thing close to what i was looking for was a PECL Socket tutorial which didn’t quite tackle what i was looking for.
My application at the moment has a basic read GET API, the client requests a read to the API once every 15 seconds. I think this is kind of silly as an open port that just sends data when there is data to send seems like a much better method. My client is written in .net.
Is this possible at all on these technologies? Or will i have to try and use java/comet, which at the moment i just don’t have the resources / infrastructure readily available
More information on HTTP Server Push:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_technology#HTTP_server_push
When deciding between different technologies to report events from a HTTP server to a client there are allways tradeoffs to make: 150 Clients polling every 15 seconds with a poll taking 1s will statistically tie up 10 connections, the same 150 clients with a server push technology will tie up 150 connections but with much less CPU.
IMHO Long polling has the best balance if used in combination with Apache/PHP, as it allows for the server to influence the clients, if these are in your control: If the connection count on the server goes too high, it can just return the longest running poll and send information to the client to not repoll immediately, but with some delay.