Real Time Data Representation

Originally posted by : Andrew Ball (andrew.ball@tristar-elec.com.au)Greetings from DOWNUNDER,Can anyone Help? Reward - Eternal gratitude.The Goal: RealTime Data Representation in ASP.NETThe ASP solution: We have used RDS with a mixture of client side scripting using RDF.DataFactory and ActiveX controls to achieve real time updates from relational data sources.That is when a change occurs in a database field the Control on the web page updates when a background timer object on the page fires; ie every 5 seconds (IETIMER.OCX).The method has worked but is bulky and unsatisfactory. The dotNET dll hell escape and revolutionary new network, making lightweight of databinding, would at first appear ideal.The problem we have persists in the ability to fire invisible timer events from the client to refresh data on the server. Because of the new architecture compilation, tick events cannot used on the server, as in web forms.At first glance, this is a worry to our projects.However, thinking about a particular feature of ASP.NET gives me hope as we have control of the browsers our clients use.There must be a way to fire invisible timed events from client to server. Smart Navigation (.js) detects updates in web form controls and only changes those that have changed in response to an event. Perfect: how do I adapt SmartNav.js to work to an invisible client timer event or, preferably, dynamically activate in response to a data change in a webform control.js is not my strong point, but I imagine such a script is possible. How do I get to control SmartNav and the events that occur (invisibly on the client). How does smart Navigation sense the change in web-controls. How can we use this. I've looked at the source of SmartNav.js and this should be possible.I am looking for a clean crisp example to simplify this major issue in our web site design needs.Heaven would be a SmartNav.js script that updates web form controls with no flicker, as when it is used/fired from a visible button or link etc, only when a control changes.As I say eternal gratitude, not to mention a bottle of fine Australian wine to the genius who can lead me to a solution to this frustrating problem.RegardsAndrew Ballandrew.ball@tristar-elec.com.auPS: If NASA can track the ISS in real time surely there's a way of doing this in dotNET