Data Push

[Qais2151]

Hi,

When it comes to data push in coldfusion everyone start talking about Live cycle and BlazDS, but looks like those 2 products can't work unless you use Flex , Flash or AIR, looks like it can't update just a simple div content on a web page, I saw one example which use a third part server http://pusherapp.com/ to make the data push!!.

Can't ColdFusion just do a simple push without using Flex ... etc or a third party server, any example??

[Adam Cameron.]

The app you mention only works on HTML5 (which hasn't been released yet), and indeed it falls back to Flash on browsers that don't support HTML5.

The fact of the matter is that most people can't use HTML5 features yet because it's not widely supported (by that I mean: it's not supported on IE, which is the browser the bulk of people use, whether we like it or not).

Also, looking at this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_%28HTML_5%29 - general HTML5 support aside, it seems that web sockets are hardly supported on any browser at all, as yet.

So it would be a poor use of resource for CF to include support for this sort of "edge case" just yet.

And even after HTML5 is released, it will be quite a long time before it has the ubiquity necessary for this sort of solution to be a sensible approach.  IMO.

The current best option for push-capable applications is... Flash. It does have the ubiquity (some niche Apple products aside 😉

--

Adam

[ilssac]

Just to be more explicit then Adam's answer.  The ability to push isn't in ColdFusion's relm, it is in the relm of the HTML|HTTP standards.

The currently, wildly supported standards in use in today's browser's do not allow a connection to be maintained between a server and a client in between requests from the client.  Without that connection, there is nowhere for a server to push data. So, currently, the only solutions involve third party tools that go beyond the HTML|HTTP standards, such as Flash.  (Flex and Air being different forms of Flash).

[Adam Cameron.]

Just to be more explicit then Adam's answer.  The ability to push isn't in ColdFusion's relm, it is in the relm of the HTML|HTTP standards.

Well quite.  But nor is AJAX or Flash the realm of CF either, but it still provides tags / functions to generate both.

I would expect CF11 (because it'll take that long to get HTML5 properly ratified and "out there") to have some sort of construct along the lines of <cfpushelement> or something, which autogenerates whatever mark-up is necessary to effect this web socket carry on.

--

Adam

[ilssac]

Adam Cameron. wrote:

Well quite.  But nor is AJAX or Flash the realm of CF either, but it still provides tags / functions to generate both.

Very true, but I like to be clear where Coldfusion is the server and where ColdFusion is autogenerating other functionality.  Yes down at the bottom, Coldfusion is always generating something, be it HTML, JavaScript, Flash or PDF.  But some of this is more important to know what is really going on under the hood.

[Adam Cameron.]

Oh, btw: Ian is that you?

--

Adam

[ilssac]

Yes, it is me.  Ian L Skinner of Scramento.  ilssac

[Adam Cameron.]

I had wondered where you'd got to.

Why the change from name to "handle", if you don't mind me asking?  It's neither here nor there, just wondering.

Cheers.

--

Adam