How can I show realtime data in a browser?

Question

I want to setup a website (intranet in this particular case) that shows realtime updating data. I have the server and the realtime data, it's the software I know less about. I am no stranger to programming, but I am less familiar with web technologies.

Which alternatives do I have? I would prefer open source, and preferably something nimble and transparent as well.

EDIT: With realtime data I mean a data that refreshes quicker than my monitor does. I would prefer the data to update 'straight through' and not keep any specific refresh rate on the browser side. The data is to be shown in a regular tabular format, I don't need any fancy graphics. Please note at this stage I am not using any particular scripting framework. That is the purpose of this question, to figure out which one I should use.

Answer 1

Moksha

Answer 2

I don't know what scripting language and data source your using but this will give you a direction.

Display data updates in real-time with AJAX

Answer 3

On the presumption that the data is retrieved using AJAX, you're after a "polling consumer pattern". In a nutshell, you make a request for your data and it will be blocked by the server until new data is available (or your request times out). When you receive your data, you poll for it again. In the event that you get an error (timeout, server failure etc.) then you might want to implement some back-off policy before trying again.

'hope that this helps.