Kris Zyp has written some interesting entries on the Comet Daily blog that have to do with channels. The first I saw had to do with HTTP Channels. It is a “publish and subscribe” model to communicate resource changes using HTTP.Kris has also written about JSON Channels. They are an extension to JSON-RPC. They provide a subscription capability as well. However they are easier to implement than HTTP Channels, as you do not have to parse the HTTP protocol. It can be thought of as an alternative format to HTTP Channels.
In another post, Kris introduces REST Channels. The plan here is to use the web sockets protocol from HTTP 5. However the data is in JSON format. You can mix HTTP and JSON in a browser session. So an efficient technique could use HTTP requests, with updates coming back in JSON format.
I do not want to get too deep into the details. The Comet Daily blog is the source for that. However it is interesting to see that HTTP is still a continual force in the web. However I found it interesting to see that people consider its format a chore for parsing. I have heard colleagues mention how JSON is a good and light format for the web.
I myself am trying to get into web development to prepare myself for where my current project is going. So I am going to need a good handle on all the technology involved. It seems this might be a bit more than just learning XML and its supporting technologies. At least I will have to do a lot of homework to be able to speak intelligently at the architecture level.
