Filip Hanik

Covalent

Zero Latency HTTP — Using Comet with Apache Tomcat

As browsers and web servers have become de facto standards, the need for instantaneous data exchange has grown. AJAX was one of the responses for a web client to efficiently communicate asynchronously in the background with a remote web server. Tomcat 6.0 has gone beyond AJAX and implemented a new feature called Comet, allowing for both asynchronous uni- and bi-directional communication between client and server while still leveraging the HTTP protocol and Java Servlets. The Comet technique has also been nicknamed "Zero Latency HTTP" as it circumvents the overhead by the traditional request/response methodology that the protocol implies.

We will cover:

• HTTP then and now, a brief history of the evolution of the HTTP protocol
• AJAX, what it is, how it works and what it has allowed us to accomplish
• Beyond AJAX, Comet — introduction to the Comet technique
• Uni- vs bi-directional Comet, what is the difference
• Technical overview of the Comet technique, challenges and their solutions
• Scalability discussions around Comet
• Using Comet with Tomcat

What the Bayeux? Understanding, Using and Developing with the Bayeux Protocol

While AJAX and now the Comet technique are becoming more popular and mainstream, there is still a lot of uncertainty about what the Bayeux protocol offers, why you need it and causing confusion on how to use it, less implement it.

In less than an hour we will demystify the protocol, lay out its structure and the reasoning behind it. You will learn the different frameworks, both client and server side, how to use them and how they differ.

And finally we will also show you how to implement the protocol itself or simply build a dynamic web application using one or more of the existing Bayeux frameworks.

Filip Hanik is a Senior Software Engineer for Covalent, a division of SpringSource Inc, and a key participant in Covalent’s Apache Tomcat initiatives. Filip brings 14 years of extensive experience in architecture, design and development of distributed application frameworks and containers and is recognized for his top-quality system development skills and continuous participation of Open Source development projects. Filip is an Apache Software Foundation member and a committer to the Apache Tomcat project where he is a leading authority on Tomcat clustering and a key contributor to the core of the platform. He also authored the online book Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Tomcat. Filip has made contributions to software initiatives for Walmart.com, Sony Music, France Telecom and has held a variety of senior software engineering positions with technology companies in both the United States and Sweden. He received his education at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden where he majored in Computer Science and Computer Engineering.