如何发布我的第一个Node.js应用程序？

Question

I've built a website which I'm serving through a basic Node.js server that I've built as well.

I've created a mysitename folder which itself contains a public folder (containing all the .html, .css etc. files) as well as a server.js file (my server). I call node server.js from inside mysitename folder and everything is working fine on localhost:8080

Now I want to publish it (in a dev environment, ie the URL would look something like this : http://mysitename.someservice.com ) so that I can test it live.

I tried heroku .com but they couldn't have made the process of setting up my app to serve through them more confusing. It's so confusing it's ridiculous.

I thought that it was just a matter of uploading this mysitename folder online and then using some service to execute server.js

Is there a simpler , more " out-of-the-box " free service I could use and definitely less of the maze heroku appears to be, or is there a better step-by-step guide , at least, on how to do that using Heroku ?

I followed the steps on the Heroku site, created a BitBucket Account and a repo with the folder I mentioned above and then I installed Source Tree but by the time I got to the last step nothing was working. I know I'm mentioning Heroku but I'd rather stay away from that riddle if there's a cleaner way of doing things.

This is the first time I try to publish a site (let alone a site being served through my own server) so I would really appreciate the help as I'm completely in the dark right now.

If this is not the forum for such a question please let me know and I'll remove it and then search elsewhere.

Thank you once again for your help!

Answer 1

I would suggest that you roll your own server , you'll have a lot more control and flexibility to experiment/make mistakes.

As you seem to be a beginner, you'll be able to learn at your own pace without being limited by the platform you're using. For example, Heroku's read-only filesystem, PostgreSQL database, etc...

What I'd suggest is to use Amazon EC2. The reason is simple, they give you a free instance for a year, it's like having a free PC in the cloud for you to play with. (No I'm not affiliated to amazon, just remembering the joy I experienced when I was just started and found that out).

You'll find a great tutorial here to deploy your first instance, it'll save you a few hours of research time.

Tutorial

Once your server is setup, grab a cheap domain name from godaddy or namecheap, and point it to your server's IP. Your site will be up and running in no time, for about 3$ total.

The whole process is very easy to do, and will give you far more knowledge than using one or the other online solutions. As a bonus, you will be able to run all sorts of things on your instance, while keeping your website alive.

And for all your problems, there is Stack Overflow.

Happy Coding!