# Support for Comet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 14, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-comet/57793 "2006-04-14T06:35:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/subimage)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-comet/57793/1 "2006-04-14T06:35:54Z")
So someone finally named server-push through HTTP-keepalive “Comet” It’s also been implemented in a very nice Java/Javascript library called DWR. > **[Purchase Intent Data for Enterprise Tech Sales and Marketing | TechTarget](https://www.techtarget.com/)** > > Identify, influence and engage active buyers in your tech market with TechTarget's purchase intent insight-powered solutions. Activity matters. Has there been any discussion by “the core” about adding this to Rails 1.2? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/subimage)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-comet/57793/2 "2006-04-14T23:14:48Z")
_Crickets_ ---
**Author:** ![subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/subimage)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-comet/57793/3 "2006-04-15T21:01:10Z")
I saw Alex Russell from Dojo give a presentation at Emerging Tech on Comet. It’s interesting, but there are solid technical reasons why Comet will not become part of the rails core. In order for Comet to work, you require some very specific configuration hacks at the webserver level. It’s certainly not going to happen on Windows any time soon. The goal of Rails is to give most people what they need most of the time. Most Rails developers do not need server push, and so it will not be in Rails. If you need server push in Rails, write a plugin! Now, that said, what was demonstrated by David at CoR was a great hack he called Armageddon. Using a 1kb, 1x1 pixel flash movie that opens a listener socket and registers with the server, it was possible to easily implement a push-type system. It’s pre-alpha and not yet under actual serious development, but David had a Rails helper set up for it, so perhaps expect a plugin in a few months. Really cool stuff there. ----- Original Message ----- From: subimage interactive To: rails Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 12:33 AM Subject: [Rails] Support for Comet? So someone finally named server-push through HTTP-keepalive “Comet” It’s also been implemented in a very nice Java/Javascript library called DWR. [Purchase Intent Data for Enterprise Tech Sales and Marketing | TechTarget](http://ajaxian.com/archives/dwr-20-reverse-ajax) Has there been any discussion by “the core” about adding this to Rails 1.2? 🙂 – seth at subimage interactive [http://www.subimage.com/sublog/](http://www.subimage.com/sublog/) * * * * * * Rails mailing list removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) ---
**Author:** ![subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/subimage)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-comet/57793/4 "2006-04-15T22:36:43Z")
On Apr 15, 2006, at 11:59 AM, Pete F. wrote: > The goal of Rails is to give most people what > they need most of the time. It’s been very specifically stated that the goal of Rails is give David what he wants. 🙂 That’s the whole point of opinionated software! The good thing for the rest of us is that: 1. The Rail core team accepts patches (if they like them) thereby giving us a way to get what we want (sometimes) 2. We want what he wants Speaking for myself only, of course. 🙂 – – Tom M. ---
**Author:** ![subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/subimage)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 5:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-comet/57793/5 "2006-04-16T05:30:11Z")
> Now, that said, what was demonstrated by David at CoR was a great hack > he called Armageddon. Using a 1kb, 1x1 pixel flash movie that opens a > listener socket and registers with the server, it was possible to easily > implement a push-type system. with the amount of NAT and proxying out there, this would not work in a lot of situations, plus it requires flash. theres no reason you can’t leave the clients normal xhr open for longer periods of time, restarting it as needed via a javascript watchdog… anyways if campfire didnt need an overhaul of the HTTP protocol and firewalls worldwide, why should you? if you need to stream push-style data to thousands of clients at once, and are finding the ‘shared nothing’ approach is gobbling your server’s RAM alive, check out lightstreamer, its been designed from the ground up for this purpose ---
**Author:** ![subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/subimage)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-comet/57793/6 "2006-04-16T05:05:05Z")
Now that sounds really interesting…Does the project have a home page or anything? ---
**Author:** ![subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/subimage)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-comet/57793/7 "2006-04-16T17:00:04Z")
> > Has there been any discussion by “the core” about adding this to Rails > > 1.2? > > 🙂 David showed off an Armageddon project at Canada on Rails. I believe it’s only going to be a plugin though, and not part of core. I don’t believe it counts as what “most people need most of the time.” – Rick O. [http://techno-weenie.net](http://techno-weenie.net) ---
**Author:** ![subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@subimage](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/subimage)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/support-for-comet/57793/8 "2006-04-16T06:12:04Z")
subimage interactive wrote: > So someone finally named server-push through HTTP-keepalive “Comet” > > It’s also been implemented in a very nice Java/Javascript library called > DWR. i promise i’ll stop promoting proprietary software after this, but check this out tho: an full featured streaming-data AJAX framework, with full-on windowed graphical IDE/GUI-builder, running in a webpage, written in itself: [http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/tibco.html](http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/tibco.html) > Has there been any discussion by “the core” about adding this to Rails > 1.2? > 🙂 do you have numbers for the kind of load generated by a ‘frequent small requests’ RJS application? what youre requesting is really a rewrite of a lot of things, including a the webserver, to implement a ‘shared everything’ approach, with a server maintaining a observer/observable model, doing a single data query and ferrying the results to all the subscribers… im sure zed Shaw would love to implement it if you haev a real project and are willing to paypal him lots of Chimay money