GeekUp - Liverpool March 25, 2008

This months talk is from Martin Owen on Comet.

Comet is a term coined by Alex Russell of the Dojo Foundation to describe the various methods (or hacks!) by which web servers can "push" data to browsers using just JavaScript and HTML on the client side. These techniques allow input from users of a page to be shared between all users without the need to continually request updates from the server. This opens the way for live chat, collaborative document editing, and more.

The talk will describe:

- The Bayeaux protocol that Dojo have defined as a standard way of adding Comet support to web servers. Don't worry, I won't go into much detail!
- Examples of sites which already use Comet, and other potential uses.
- The advantages and disadvantages of Comet over browser plugins like Flash, and standard techniques like periodic refresh.
- How this kind of thing will hopefully become standard in HTML 5, doing away with all these hacks!

There should be at least one interactive demo, a browser based chat application (the "Hello World" of Comet), which people should be able to use if they bring their laptops (and the wifi is working).

Official Website: http://geekup.org