Automatically refreshing the page content

[zzzman]

hi there

i want to automatically refresh the contents of the web page... without refreshing the whole web page..

I have used the web service behaviours.... i develop a web service and then i call a function of that web service from a web page. In this way i call the web service and update the information from web service in <DIV> tags of the HTML

We want to develop a application which can show Stock Exchange information in real time on the client. One option is to use the web service and get the information from web service and display it on the web page.

But the stock exchange rates changes on the server and they can not be automatically communicated back to the client automatically unless client automatically refresh browser contents by calling a web service. But still i need to transfer all data in a single go.

is there any way that if some data chnages on the server it informs the client browsers with the updated values.

What other approaches can be used to do this. Does a Java applet is a good solution with our .NET Web application. Can java applets can be used with speee

[dataguy]

I think you would want to check out AJAX as this is quickly becoming the most popular way of doing what you are trying to do. AJAX will query the web service from the client browser and update the data in the page, without updating the entire page.

[DrDoc]

Don't forget about iframes.
AJAX has a lot of cons tied to it. Accessibility/usability being a big one, along with no possibility for saving a specific state.

[whoisgregg]

is there any way that if some data chnages on the server it informs the client browsers with the updated values

HTTP is a stateless protocol. The client can request (PULL) from the server. The server cannot send (PUSH) to the client.

However, with iframes/AJAX you can "check in" with the server as often as you'd like for updates and change page content to reflect those changes.