Chapter 6. Error Handling and Fallbacks
By now, you must be familiar with the WebSocket capabilities and must have got an idea of the power of full-duplex communication. However, the WebSocket goodies are built on top of HTML5 and depend strongly on the browsers for full support. What happens when the features you want to implement are not supported by the means your audience is using? Would you let your customers leave? That doesn't sound like a good idea. Fortunately, with a little bit of extra effort, you can implement, mimic, and mostly emulate, the WebSocket behavior.
WebSocket is the future-friendly way to go, but you'll need some fallback techniques in order to support the widest audience possible.