Best structure for developing a messaging server

Question

I'm developing an app that will have a way to message other users. I've done this before but I think I can improve on the method of sending/receiving the data. Before what I did is I had a table with all the messages and the ones that were associated with the conversation ID would be displayed in an individual conversation. On the client side, I'd have a timer that would constantly ask the server for an update.

I guess my question is this: Is there a better way than to keep asking my server if there is an update? I mean.. a lighter way. I was considering using push notifications but if the user disables APNS, their messages won't update.

Answer 1

http://reactphp.org/

Is useful for event driven socket based communication. It would involve storing connected clients in some kind of data structure ( see here ) and on an event, such as a change to data, notifying connected clients that should know about the event, in the manner of a push.

http://socketo.me/ is built on top of react

http://socketo.me/docs/flow

has a good diagram of how socket based connections work. This might be better than polling repeatedly from all the connected clients, based on your use case.