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Learn/HTML/Graphics, Media, and Browser Features
HTML•Graphics, Media, and Browser Features

HTML Server-Sent Events API

Formula

The Server - Sent Events (SSE) API enables pushing messages/updates from a server to the web page via HTTP connection.
Server - Sent Events - One Way Messaging
A server - sent event is when a web page automatically gets messages/updates from a server.

Normally, a web page has to request data from the server, but with server-sent events, the updates are pushed automatically.

Formula

Examples: Facebook/Twitter updates, stock market updates, news feeds, sport results, etc.

Browser Support

Formula

The numbers in the table specify the first browser version that fully support the Server - Sent Events API.

Api

Sse

6.0 79.0 6.0 5.0 11.5

Receive Server-Sent Event Notifications

The

Formula

EventSource object is used to receive server - sent event notifications:

Example

<script>

const x = document.getElementById("result");

// Check browser support for SSE

if(typeof(EventSource)
!== "undefined") {
var source = new EventSource("demo_sse.php");
source.onmessage = function(event) {
x.innerHTML +=
event.data + "<br>";
};
} else {
x.innerHTML = "Sorry, no support for server-sent events.";
}

</script>

Example explained:

Create a new

EventSource object, and specify the URL of the page sending the updates (in this example "demo_sse.php") Each time an update is received, the onmessage event occurs When an onmessage event occurs, put the received data into the element with id="result"

Check Browser Support

Formula

In the tryit example above there were some extra lines of code to check browser support for server - sent events:
if(typeof(EventSource) !== "undefined") {

Formula

// Yes! Server - sent events support!

// Some code.....

}
else {

Formula

// Sorry! No server - sent events support..
}

Server-Side Code Example

For the example above to work, you need a server capable of sending data updates (like PHP or ASP).

Formula

The server - side event stream syntax is simple. Set the "Content - Type" header to
"text/event - stream". Now you can start sending event streams.

Code in PHP (demo_sse.php):

<?php header('Content-Type: text/event-stream');
header('Cache-Control: no-cache');
$time = date('r');
echo "data: The server time is: {$time}\n\n";
flush();

?> Code in ASP (VB) (demo_sse.asp): <%

Formula

Response.ContentType = "text/event - stream"

Response.Expires = -1 Response.Write("data: The server time is: " & now()) Response.Flush() %>

Code explained:

Formula

Set the "Content - Type" header to
"text/event - stream"

Specify that the page should not cache

Output the data to send ( Always start with "data: ") Flush the output data back to the web page

The EventSource Object

In the examples above we used the onmessage event to get messages. But other events are also available:

Events

Description onopen

When a connection to the server is opened onmessage

When a message is received onerror

When an error occurs

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