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• Moving from polling to long-polling

  Nov 21, 2016 • posted by justin • filed under api, api-design, grip, pushpin

  If you’ve built a REST API that clients poll for updates, you’ve probably considered adding a realtime push mechanism. Maybe you’ve been putting it off due to the added complexity, or the impact it might have on your API contract. These are valid concerns, but push doesn’t have to be that complicated.

  In this article we’ll discuss how to update an API to use long-polling. It assumes:

  1. You have an existing REST API.
  2. You have clients repeatedly polling this API.

  Long-polling is not the same as “plain” polling. With long-polling, the server delays the response to the client if there is no new data yet. This enables the server to respond instantly whenever the data does change. Aside from providing actual realtime updates, what’s great about long-polling is that technically it’s still RESTful, requiring hardly any changes to your API contract or client code.

  Of course, long-polling may not be as efficient as streaming mechanisms like Server-Sent Events or WebSockets, but it’s inarguably more efficient than plain-polling. Let’s compare:

  Mechanism	Latency	Load
  Plain-polling	As high as the polling interval (e.g. 5 second interval means updates will be up to 5 seconds late)	High
  Long-polling	Zero	Order of magnitude reduction

  
  

  Long-polling is a great way to dip your feet in the realtime waters without having to dramatically change your API contract and client code.

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• Realtime API design guide

  Apr 2, 2015 • posted by justin • filed under api, api-design, webhooks, websockets

  New to the subject of realtime APIs? This article is the place to start! We’ll discuss the most common design approaches and their pros/cons, as well as link to the documentation of 16 public realtime APIs that you can use for inspiration.

  (more...)