Websockets or Comet or Both? What’s supported in the Java EE land

In preparation for the Atmosphere Framework 1.0.0 release, I’ve started listing what Java EE (or WebServer) supports in terms of Native Comet and WebSockets. This blog describes who supports what. I’ve also added a section describing what transport (WebSocket, Http Streaming, Long Polling or JSONP) Browsers are supporting, again tested using Atmosphere. Of course, Atmosphere supports both matrix, but that’s not the goal of this blog. I’ve also not included SPDY or Server Side Events Support because they are yet to be implemented by the majority of Servers.

Server Supports

The following table describes what Atmosphere supports but it can also be seen as what available in Java EE in general. The third and fourth columns are describing if the server has native support for Comet and WebSocket, by either supporting the ugly Servlet 3.0 API or if they have native implementation. The same apply for WebSockets native support (there is no WebSocket standard yet). Last four columns list the “most” popular transport, e.g WebSockets, Http Streaming (also called Forever Frame), Long-Polling and JSSONP. Note that servers like Tomcat 5 doesn’t support native Comet or WebSocket, but Comet can always be emulated by blocking a thread (this is what Atmosphere is doing when deployed there).
(LP: long-Polling HS: Http Streaming)

Server	Version	Native Comet	Native WebSocket	WebSockets	LP	HS	JSONP
Netty	3.3.x	X	X	X	X	X	X
Jetty	5.x				X	X	X
Jetty	6.x	X			X	X	X
Jetty	7.x	X	X	X	X	X	X
Jetty	8.x	X	X	X	X	X	X
GlassFish	2.x	X			X	X	X
GlassFish	3.x to 3.1.1	X			X	X	X
GlassFish	3.1.2	X	X	X	X	X	X
Tomcat	5.x				X	X	X
Tomcat	6.x	X			X	X	X
Tomcat	7.0.26 and lower	X			X	X	X
Tomcat	7.0.27 and up	X	X	X	X	X	X
JBoss	5.x				X	X	X
JBoss	6.x	X			X	X	X
JBoss	7.x	X			X	X	X
WebLogic	10.x	X			X	X	X
WebLogic	11.x and up	X			X	X	X
Resin	2.x				X	X	X
Resin	3.x	X	X		X	X	X
WebSphere	7.x				X	X	X
WebSphere	8.x	X			X	X

Supported Browsers

The current list of Browsers have been tested with Atmosphere using the atmosphere.js Javascript library and the transport they supports.

Browser	Version	WebSockets	Long-Polling	Http Streaming	JSONP
Firefox	3.x to 8.x		X	X	X
Firefox	9.x to 11.x	X	X	X	X
Chrome	12.x and lower		X	X	X
Chrome	13.x and higher	X	X	X	X
Internet Explorer	6x to 9.x		X	X	X
Internet Explorer	10.x	X	X	X	X
Opera	10.x and lower		X		X
Opera	11.x	X	X		X
Safari	4.x		X	X	X
Safari	5.x	X	X	X	X
Android	2.x and up		X	X	X
Safari (iOS)	1.x to 4.x		X	X	X
Safari (iOS)	5.x	X	X	X	X

Note that I haven’t listed private/commercial/proprietary WebSockets implementations like Kaazing and JWebSocket or Pusher or framework like Cometd (who only works properly on Jetty).

Source: http://jfarcand.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/websockets-or-comet-or-both-whats-supported-in-the-java-ee-land/