Multiplayergame via http

[Anon]

Hello!
I've got do develop a multiplayer javascript game which runs in webbrowsers and a php-enabled server. (I plan to use something like tic-tac-toe or chess)
The server should provide open games fo find an opponent and perhaps help with the data-transfer.
My first idea was, that the browsers connect each other, but I think there's no way to connect browsers directly through http.
So I will need the server to do the transfer of the data of every turn. It is no problem to send the data from the first client to the server, but how do I get it to my opponents browser, without letting it reload the page every second? Does someone know a soluton to give a notification from the server to the browser?

thank you
Al

[[deleted]]

"without letting it reload the page every second"

in short: you can't.

If you want to build a 'live' game, forget all about webservers and PHP, and build it in Java (if you are into self-torture) or C, or even Visual Basic (if you're a bit of a perv).

HTTP is stateless and cannot do anything unless the browser asks for it.

[Anon]

Actually, you can send and recv. stuff from the server without refreshing the page with plane old Javascript/VBscript. The trick is to use the XML HTTP_REQUEST object. Theres plenty of code available for this, so you should find it. Or you can always search in MSDN.