Raise an event from the web service to a client
Is this possible?
The client and web service were both created using VB.NET 2008 Framework 3.5
Our client application does all of its transactions with the server via a web service. We have a new messaging function which needs to be implemented and in order to receive new messages we need to either poll the server at regular intervals in order to check for new messages, or we need the web server to be able to tell the client application when there is a new message.
The second option is clearly ideal. So the question is how can it be done?
The client and web service were both created using VB.NET 2008 Framework 3.5
Our client application does all of its transactions with the server via a web service. We have a new messaging function which needs to be implemented and in order to receive new messages we need to either poll the server at regular intervals in order to check for new messages, or we need the web server to be able to tell the client application when there is a new message.
The second option is clearly ideal. So the question is how can it be done?
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IM applications tend to use their own protocol and not http (even if they use tcp 80). Their connections tend to stay open so that data can be pushed back and forth, unlike http which was designed as a stateless protocol: the connections were supposed to be closed after a page was requested. Only with http 1.1 were connections defaulted to remain open as opening connections tend to be expensive.
ASKER
Having the server know the address of each client is not a problem, because i could send that information to the server each time a user logs in. I guess the only problem would be firewalls like you say.