Show latest result from MySQL without page refresh

ade234uk

I have restarted my auction project. So far I have got my basic bidding system in place. It's basically highest bidder takes control, there is no proxy bidding, because I find this confusing, and also confusing to create.

What I am keen to find out is how I could update the latest bid on the same screen using Ajax so the user does not have to refresh the page. Getting the result to display using MySQL MAX(bids) is the easy part.

Can someone point me in the right direction

If you look at http://www.telebid.com/ this is exactly what I am looking for. You will see the price being constantly updated.

leatherback

I suppose you could run an ajax routine in a continuous loop, with the controlling js having a timeout of a sec or so to query the database every second?

ade234uk

Good idea

ade234uk

I wonder what sort of impact this would have on the database, if for example you had hundreds of auctions running and thousands of people viewing?

leatherback

I suppose it would cause a serious hit on your database. I am not sure how busy sites like Ebay would do this (On Ebay you however do not have an out-refresh of the current auction value)

If you just want this effect on the front page however, you could have the server cache in info, and every sec you just retrieve the xml or something from the server. Whenever a bid is made, you update the database, and recreate the XML. You however need to find a way to keep track of auctions that have ended.