Ajax Http Streaming pattern

Question

Hi.

I want to do a fairly simple implementation of a chat app using rails. from a theoretical standpoint I feel that ajax streaming pattern should be the way to go. However I am not sure, how it works and what are the potential disadvantages of this pattern?

Is there anything better that I can use. My requirement is to have four people on same web page and be able to see each others chat messages immediately in a group chat area. :)

It's a simple test app kind of thing. Any recommendations or pointers to implementations of streaming pattern would be helpful.

Cheers

Answer 1

Should keep you busy for a bit:

http://ajaxpatterns.org/HTTP_Streaming