You cannot talk to Apache on the IBMi via websockets. You can talk to other Apache instances by including a websocket module, but there isn't one available for the IBM version of Apache - at least not one that I can find. I went through all of that before trying jWebsockets. I had some chat on iProDeveloper about it too and there was a guy who was looking to port a module to the i but I don't know how far he got.
If you are talking about sending a request and getting a response, then perhaps there isn't much different between websockets and XHR - but, of course, that is not the point. The huge benefit of websockets is that you can have a permanent connection between the client and the server, and the server can "push" events to the browser, rather than the browser having to poll the server periodically. A push mechanism is far more efficient that a long polling mechanism.
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nathan Andelin
Sent: 11 July 2012 17:33
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Websockets on the IBMi
Why would you need a separate server for Web Sockets? Why can't a Web Socket client connect to the IBM i HTTP Server? The Apache Server communicates via sockets. It supports persistent connections. Has anyone tried it?
I don't see much difference between Web Socket and XMLHTTPRequest objects, except the latter carries some overhead in the form of request and response headers. But the overhead is not noticeable to humans; maybe a millisecond or two.
-Nathan.
From: Kevin Turner <kevin.turner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries' <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 6:13 AM
Subject: [WEB400] Websockets on the IBMi
Has anyone else got anything working on the IBMi with regard to websockets?
I have just completed the first phase of integrating Renaissance with a jWebsocket server on the i and so far so good. It seems to work pretty well - apart from the fact that I cannot get any life out of Safari. Also, IE doesn't support websockets until IE10, so that uses a flash-bridge instead at the moment - but that works pretty well too.
I picked jWebsocket (www.jwebsocket.org<
http://www.jwebsocket.org>) because it is written in java and therefore runs almost straight out of the box on the i - and the client-side stuff provided links nicely with jQuery. All I had to do was create my own plug-in for the server that makes use of jt400native.jar to enable data queues and direct calls.
My only concern with the jWebsocket server is that it appears to have gone quiet. No new beta versions since May this year. I am wondering if I have backed the wrong horse for my first delve into this. This is the main reason for me canvassing feedback on what other people are up to with websockets.
For anyone interested, there is a noddy demo function available at
http://rns.coraltree.co.uk on the Developers Examples and Demos menu (user id and password both "demo") that I have been using to test things. The demo is not very exciting (until you appreciate the avenues that websockets opens up for you). Most of the time the jWebsocket server is active but I occasionally shut it down while testing.
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