Opens the HTTP streaming connection.
HTTP Streaming is a push-style data transfer technique that allows a web server to continuously send data to a client over a single HTTP connection that remains open indefinitely.
With HTTP Streaming, the server is configured to hold on to a specific request from a client and keep the response open so that it can push data through it. When updates pertaining to the request are available server side, the server sends a response through the request-response channel, and only closes the connection when explicitly told to do so.
In such a manner, a client can listen for updates from the server and receive them instantly with none of the overhead associated with HTTP headers and the opening/closing of connections. It also eliminates the need for polling.
To achieve an indefinite response, the server respond to client requests by specifying Transfer Encoding: chunked in the header.
This sets up a persistent connection from server to client and allows the server to send response data in chunks of newline-delimited strings.
These chunks of data can then be received and processed on-the-fly by the client.