Comet 2008: The State of Play in Reverse Ajax

Dietrich Kappe, Thursday, March 13, 2008 @ 5:13 pm

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 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.

Technorati Tags: ajax, comet, gwt, rails, dojo

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Comments: 5 so far

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1. 

   Thanks for quoting me as the last link ..

   Comment by Dinesh, Friday, March 14, 2008 @ 8:25 am

2. 

   In the hedge our bets department, we’ve taken the new protocol approach as well:

   http://cometdaily.com/2008/01/17/proposal-for-native-comet-support-for-browsers/

   and

   http://cometdaily.com/2008/02/07/colliding-comets-battle-of-the-bayeux-part-1/

   I think Comet Weekdaily doesn’t quite have the same ring as Comet Daily

   Comment by Dylan Schiemann, Saturday, March 15, 2008 @ 9:54 pm

3. 

   I wrote an article on benchmarking Comet servers, at Comet Daily - http://cometdaily.com/2008/02/20/benchmarking-comet-servers/ it has some benchmark results for Liberator (http://wwww.freeliberator.com).

   You say is Comet ready for the prime time.. it is being used in a lot of places and has been for a few years now. However, your question probably relates to some Comet implementations, which although improving fast, might not be ready for production yet.

   Comment by Martin Tyler, Monday, March 17, 2008 @ 9:27 am

4. 

   Sorry, the posting here doesnt seem to handle my url inside brackets.. should be http://www.freeliberator.com

   Comment by Martin Tyler, Monday, March 17, 2008 @ 9:29 am

5. 

   hey,
   I’m working on a gwt comet implementation on grizzly. check it out here http://www.javascriptr.com/2008/05/28/gwt-grizzly-comet/

   Comment by morock, Monday, June 2, 2008 @ 9:25 pm

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