I've been using an HTTP POST to a php file to change entries in a given MySQL database. Essentially, the second the value changes, I would like the user that is viewing the database table to be notified. For now my temporary solution is to auto refresh a page displaying the table to keep it updated but I feel like there has to be a more efficient way of going about this.
Do you really have to update it in the same second? It looks like a server killer feature.
Read about Comet, maybe it will be useful.