Server-sent events

Traditionally, a web page has to send a request to the server to receive new data; that is, the page requests data from the server. With server-sent events, it's possible for a server to send new data to a web page at any time, by pushing messages to the web page. These incoming messages can be treated as Events + data inside the web page.

Documentation

Using server-sent events: A tutorial guide to writing both server and client side part of a server-sent events app.
EventSource reference: A reference to the client-side EventSource API.

Tools

Remy Sharp’s EventSource polyfill
Yaffle’s EventSource polyfill
Rick Waldron’s jquery plugin

Specification

Server-sent events

Browser compatibility

We're converting our compatibility data into a machine-readable JSON format. This compatibility table still uses the old format, because we haven't yet converted the data it contains. Find out how you can help!

Desktop
Mobile

Feature	Chrome	Firefox (Gecko)	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
EventSource support	9	6.0 (6.0)	?	11	5

Feature	Android	Firefox Mobile (Gecko)	IE Mobile	Opera Mobile	Safari Mobile
EventSource support	?	?	?	?	?