Does RSS make sense for this situation?

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Does RSS make sense for this situation?

k9rescue

12:27 am on Mar 14, 2008 (gmt 0)

I've got an application streaming data to a mySQL server. There's new data record (say up to 40 chars) every few seconds. I'd like to make the info available to people on the web. I was thinking of using RSS, but that's a lot of file I/O.

On the other hand, RSS is everywhere and that would give more people the chance for access.

Are there other protocols which make more sense - like some kind of chatroom? Or, do you think RSS might work for this situation?

bill

5:30 am on Mar 20, 2008 (gmt 0)

Welcome to WebmasterWorld k9rescue.

I see nobody has answered your query, so I'll try to at least give your message a bit of a bump.

Is the new data cumulative, or are you overwriting the same set of data repeatedly with updates? RSS could certainly handle this information, but how you display it might be a different matter.

k9rescue

11:04 am on Mar 20, 2008 (gmt 0)

Hi. Thanks for taking a shot at this. The data is more like a conversation. There's a lot of it and the order is significant.

May main concern was with the volume. Doesn't RSS require the writing of a new (or updated) file every time there's something new to display? So, in 10 mins I might have to create 200 new files (or update one file 200 times)

I was wondering if that's an accurate way to look at using RSS -- or whether there's some alternative technology that's not file-based...

bill

1:48 am on Mar 21, 2008 (gmt 0)

From your description that does sound a bit unwieldy for conventional RSS usage. Generally you'd have one feed/file and simply be updating that multiple times. However, a standard feed aggregator wouldn't be able to keep up in a usable manner. You might be able to get something working on your local site though with a high data refresh rate.

How were you thinking of displaying this data?