AIR: sync gui with data-base?

Question

I am going to be building an AIR application that shows a list (about 1-25 rows of data) from a data-base. The data-base is on the web. I want the list to be as accurate as possible, meaning as soon as the data-base data changes, the list displayed in the app should update asap. I do not know of anyway that the air application could be notified when there is a change, I am thinking I am going to have to poll the data-base at certain intervals to keep an up to date list. So my question is, first is there any way to NOT have to keep checking the data-base? or if I do keep have to keep checking the data-base what is a reasonable interval to do that at?

Thanks.

Answer 1

What you're talking about is "push" and there are ways to do it, but they're very complicated and probably not worth it for what you're talking about. If you're so inclined, you can check out Comet and it's associated technologies.

I would recommend just polling every 30 seconds. The poll interval really depends on the data though. If it's lifetime home runs, then 30 seconds is a bit much, if it's a chat client or something, that's probably not enough.