Looking for a script I can run on my server to provide a real time sort of "play by play" for some live events similar to golf.com during tournaments and CNET during CES, etc. Want to be able to type descriptions and have them immediately post to a section on my site that anyone can watch/view. No interaction. No comments. Just posting live updates but cannot find anything. Do not use wordpress so their plugin will not work and dont think its the same. Just simple realtime, text, maybe an image sometimes live text feed like a chat but not 2 way. Looking in vain for a long time and tried all kinds of junk. Only thing close so far is 24liveblog.com which is way more than I need & expensive. Any help / suggestions ?
You have several options you can choose when trying to implement something realtime with php. But you don't have to restrict yourself to php, you can keep using php and use for example nodejs to implement the realtime part of your app. I will provide you with a quick overview of you options and let you decide what fits your need best.
PHP
Http long polling
This is a Http "hack" in which you repeatedly try to poll updates from the server, this technique has been largely replaced by Websockets today, but is still in use due to the fact that it is relatively easy to implement https://github.com/panique/php-long-polling
Websockets
Websockets are the replacement for long polling, with the bonus of being more efficient, you basically establish a long lasting connection to your client and push updates to it. You can use the builtin websocket library or use racket a external library How to create websockets server in PHP
Non PHP
You can use another server or process to implement the realtime part of your service and php to implement the Http side of things