Streaming data with Node.js

I want to know if it is possible to stream data from the server to the client with Node.js. I want to post a single AJAX request to Node.js, then leave the connection open and continuously stream data to the client. The client will receive this stream and update the page continuously.

Update:

As an update to this answer - I cannot get this to work. The response.write is not sent before you call close. I have set up an example program that I use to achieve this:

Node.js:

var sys = require('sys'), 
http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
    var currentTime = new Date();
    setInterval(function(){
        res.write(
            currentTime.getHours()
            + ':' + 
            currentTime.getMinutes()
            + ':' +
            currentTime.getSeconds()
        );
    },1000);
}).listen(8000);

HTML:

<html>
    <head>
        <title>Testnode</title>
    </head>

    <body>
        <!-- This fields needs to be updated -->
        Server time: <span id="time">&nbsp;</span>

        <!-- import jQuery from google -->
        <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

        <!-- import jQuery -->
        <script type="text/javascript">
            $(document).ready(function(){
            // I call here node.localhost nginx ports this to port 8000
                $('#time').load('http://node.localhost');
            });
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

Using this method I don't get anything back until I call close(). Is this possible or should I go with a long poll approach instead where I call the load function again as one comes in?

Solution

It is possible. Just use response.write() multiple times.

var body = ["hello world", "early morning", "richard stallman", "chunky bacon"];
// send headers
response.writeHead(200, {
  "Content-Type": "text/plain"
});

// send data in chunks
for (piece in body) {
    response.write(body[piece], "ascii");
}

// close connection
response.end();

You may have to close and reopen connection every 30 seconds or so.

EDIT: this is the code I actually tested:

var sys = require('sys'),
http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
    var currentTime = new Date();
    sys.puts('Starting sending time');
    setInterval(function(){
        res.write(
            currentTime.getHours()
            + ':' +
            currentTime.getMinutes()
            + ':' +
            currentTime.getSeconds() + "\n"
        );

        setTimeout(function() {
            res.end();
        }, 10000);

    },1000);
}).listen(8090, '192.168.175.128');

I connected to it by Telnet and its indeed gives out chunked response. But to use it in AJAX browser has to support XHR.readyState = 3 (partial response). Not all browsers support this, as far as I know. So you better use long polling (or Websockets for Chrome/Firefox).

EDIT2: Also, if you use nginx as reverse proxy to Node, it sometimes wants to gather all chunks and send it to user at once. You need to tweak it.