Pondering Django Server-Sent Events

gistfile1.py

# Uses django-signals behind the scenes to throw the events around
# Also uses gevent.pywsgi.WSGIServer to stream the event source.

# Basic usage
from django.dispatch import Events
from django.contrib.auth.models import User, Group

# Basic support for individual users
user = User.objects.get(id=1)
user.subcribe('event:name another:event') # subscriptions are session persistent (configurable to db)?
user.unsubscribe('event:name')
user.is_online() # Is the user currently connected to an event source?

# Also supports django groups (you should use them)
admins = Group(name='admin')
admins.subscribe('event:name group:event')
admins.unsubscribe('event:name')
admins.online_users() # returns an array of User objects corresponding to currently online users

# publish will push the update to all currently connected users
# It is pretty intelligent since it is using signals, it will not try to send events
# to users not currently connected, without having to check them.
Events.publish('event:name', {})

# Also support sending messages to _all_ currently connected users
Events.broadcast('to:everyone', {'data': 'set'})

Phase two will probably include adding support for message persistence for tracking and replays.

Also, message persistence will allow users who have lost connections to retrieve messages they missed.

Keep in mind that some sort of broker server will need to be used when scaling past a single server, otherwise events in one server will not propagate.

This and the previous point, will result in the development of mongodb, redis, riak, etc. drivers for SSE_BROKER.