# How to implement a non-block online RSS portal?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-implement-a-non-block-online-rss-portal/107395>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [June 21, 2007, 8:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-implement-a-non-block-online-rss-portal/107395 "2007-06-21T08:06:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Fredric](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fredric](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Fredric)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 8:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-implement-a-non-block-online-rss-portal/107395/1 "2007-06-21T08:06:55Z")

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To implement an online rss reader just like [www.bloglines.com](http://www.bloglines.com) is not  
difficult.Every registered user will add their feeds to their customed  
online rss reader.However,if any user have sent their request of reading  
rss to the server,the server will not return until the content of the  
feed is fetched and then return back.During this process,the ruby  
process is blocked until the feeds is fetched, if lots of users want to  
do that,will it cause a block? Since each fcgi or mongrel instance means  
one ruby process and ruby does not provide a local thread.

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**Author:** ![Fredric](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fredric](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Fredric)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 8:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-implement-a-non-block-online-rss-portal/107395/2 "2007-06-21T08:18:24Z")

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I would use BackgroundRB to load the feeds, parse them, and place  
them in a database. The client  
can then poll periodically for the update.

Michael