Patent ID: 7062530

Claim:
A method of passing messages from a message server to an HTTP client comprising: sending a request, from the HTTP client to an HTTP server, for an HTML document, wherein the request includes a reference identifying the HTML document and the HTML document includes a persistent connection element; receiving, at the HTTP server, the request; responding to the request with HTML code representing the HTML document, wherein the HTML code includes code representing the persistent connection element, wherein the request is sent over a first server sending connection; closing the first server sending connection; at the HTTP client, processing the HTML code including the code representing the persistent connection element; receiving, at the message server, a request to open a second server sending connection to the message server; holding the second server sending connection open until a message is available at the message server for the HTTP client identified as the sender of the request to open a second server sending connection; sending the message, once available, over the second server sending connection; accepting at least one message from the message server over the second server sending connection; and processing the at least one message at the HTTP client.