server push to desktop client

[Phil Davis]

Thanks for sharing your insight Richard. Great food for thought.

Phil


On 11/5/19 12:29 AM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode wrote:
> Phil Davis wrote:
>
> > I need to make a desktop app (Mac only for now) that receives pushed
> > data from a LC server. I've never done this - all the desktop <->
> > server interactions I've programmed have used the traditional client-
> > server model. So I'm looking for approaches/tips/ideas from anyone
> > who has experience with other approaches.
>
> I'd stick with simple polling for this.  Anything else requires either 
> opening a socket (with all the firewall/router changes needed to allow 
> that), or creating a dependency on a separate process like push 
> notifications, which would likely require LCB.
>
> Polling can get the job done well enough, and is secure and requires 
> no router changes or external dependencies.  And if down the road you 
> find a convenient way to switch to something else you can change that 
> part, but at least it lets you get it out the door now using reliable 
> features and your existing skillset.
>
>
> > And maybe I'm making it too hard. Can FTP watch a server folder, and
> > detect and respond to the creation of a file in the folder? Maybe I
> > could use a method like that, if that's a capability of FTP.
>
> You could poll from the client using FTP, but compared to HTTP it's a 
> noisy protocol, with many more steps internally.  The inefficiency of 
> FTP is more than offset by its utility when ad hoc access to remote 
> file stores are needed.  But when the goal is more specific, HTTP will 
> often beat it for both efficiency and client implementation cost every 
> time.
>
> On the server, an LC Server script that reports any changes to a 
> folder from the last time it was called would be straightforward to 
> write, give you reliably consistent results*, and would run quickly.
>
>
> * Years ago when I was monitoring folders with FTP I learned more than 
> I cared to about FTP date representations.  They vary.  A lot.  By 
> different rules, according to a vastly flexible set of config options. 
> So you can never know which server will use month-and-day only up to a 
> certain cutoff, and then one of several month-day-year options for 
> anything older.  Sometimes the cuttoff is a month.  Sometimes it's the 
> year break.  Other times it's a specific number of days.  "Hey man, 
> it's all about flexibility!" In all cases it can mean a listing in 
> which date representations take on at least two different formats.
>
> Even if you just had LC Server return "the detailed files" at least 
> you'd have solid consistency in the format of every file, every time.
>

-- 
Phil Davis
503-307-4363