server side socket connections

[Freak.2k]

Hello,

the server side of my gwt app creates a socket connection to a remote
server.
when the user closes its browser, the server holds the connection open
for e very long time....stopped test after 1,5 hours...
is there any property to configure a time out?
but how does the gwt server recognize that the client isn't there
anymore?
Or do I have to implement a "I'm still here" notification in the
client, and if a specific amount of time no "I'm still here"
notification arrives at the server side, the connection should be
closed?

greets from germany

[br...@google.com]

GWT doesn't try to associate particular clients with particular
servers. Each RPC call is assumed to be statelss from both the client's
and the server's perspective. This is a little harder to design, but it
is basically a preqrequisite to creating apps that are both scalable
and fault tolerant.

For your specific situation, it seems like the sever-side socket
connection ought to have a timeout, probably implemented using a
separate thread within your serlvet. The socket timeout then could
reset itself whenever an RPC comes in. Unless you have very unusual
circumstances, I'd recommend against sending empty keep-alives from the
client. Just use the natural RPC calls to act as a keep-alive. Trying
to a create very tight binding between a particular client and a
particular server is not a good match for HTTP.