SEARCH = "http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=bcndevcon"
class APIHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):

    @tornado.web.asynchronous
    def get(self):
      http = tornado.httpclient.AsyncHTTPClient()
      http.fetch(SEARCH,
        callback=self.async_callback(
            self.on_response # <== call here when done
        )
      )

    def on_response(self, response): # <== HERE!
        json = tornado.escape.json_decode(response.body)
        self.write({
          "twits": [x['text'] for x in json["results"]]
        })
        self.finish()

// websocket.html
window.onload = function() {

    var WS = typeof WebSocket === 'function' ? WebSocket : MozWebSocket;
    var ws = new WS("ws://localhost:8888/api");

    ws.onopen = function() {
       ws.send("Hello");
    };

    ws.onmessage = function (evt) {
       var h = "<h1>" + new Date().toString() + "</h1>";
       h += "<ul>";
       JSON.parse(evt.data).twits.forEach(function(r) {
          h += "<li>" + r;
       });
       h += "</ul>";
       document.body.innerHTML = h;
    };
}

# websocket handler
# clients
clients = [] #<= 1 thread!

class APIWebSocket(websocket.WebSocketHandler):
    def open(self):
        clients.append(self) # <= add the client to the list

    def on_message(self, message):
        print message

    def on_close(self):
        print "client diconnected"
        #TODO: remove the client from clients list

# route
application = tornado.web.Application([
    (r"/api", APIWebSocket),
])

# get tweets task
def check_twitter(s='bcndevcon'):
    http = tornado.httpclient.AsyncHTTPClient()
    http.fetch("http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=" + s,
               callback=new_twitts) #<= callback

# setup a periodic task
p = PeriodicCallback(check_twitter, 3000)
p.start()

# callback for twitter search 
def new_twitts(response):
    json = tornado.escape.json_decode(response.body)
    data = {"twits": [x['text'] for x in json["results"]]}
    broadcast(data) # <= broadcast to all clients


def broadcast(data):
    for c in clients:
        c.write_message(data) #<= write to websockets

supervisor

[program:tornado]
command=/home/www/app/env/bin/python /home/www/app/src/app.py
directory=/home/www/app/
user=no_root;