What are the limitations of using PHP for real-time chat applications?

One limitation of using PHP for real-time chat applications is its lack of built-in support for handling persistent connections, which are essential for real-time communication. To overcome this limitation, developers can use technologies like WebSockets or AJAX long polling to establish and maintain a persistent connection between the client and the server. 

// Example code snippet using WebSockets to implement real-time chat in PHP

// Server-side PHP code for establishing WebSocket connection
$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);
socket_bind($socket, '127.0.0.1', 8080);
socket_listen($socket);

$client = socket_accept($socket);
$msg = "Hello, client!";
socket_write($client, $msg, strlen($msg));

// Client-side JavaScript code for WebSocket connection
var socket = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:8080');
socket.onopen = function(event) {
  console.log('WebSocket connection established');
};
socket.onmessage = function(event) {
  console.log('Message received: ' + event.data);
};

Keywords

scalability performance WebSocket long polling server-sent events

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