在共享主机上部署 nodejs 文件

Question

1. In PHP I used to place files in public_html folder. I did the same for nodejs and started my application using "forever start app.js". Routers worked as expected, but I can able to see my nodejs source codes in the browser eg http://example.com/app.js showed the source code of app.js.

2. In some tutorials, They placed the files in /var/www/html/ and started the application. What's the difference between public_html and /var/www/html?

3. I'm using shared hosting, so I don't have permissions to place the files in /var/www/html/. I deployed nodejs files in /home/%username% folder and visited http://example.com/app.js . This time source codes are not visible and router thrown 404 error page as expected. (Deleted files in public_html before deploying in /home/%username%)

4. The index page router didn't work as expected. Instead of '/' or '/index', router received '/index.html.var' for the index page ( http://example.com/ ).

Please guide me on deploying nodejs app securely on shared hosting.

Answer 1

Er, no, Node.js is different, it's not PHP. A programme in Node.js is just like C/C++, Python, or any other general purpose programming language, it can control (likely) the whole server, so it's not to be deployed onto shared hosting.

You will need a cheap VPS (virtual private server, cloud server) at least, very cheap nowadays, on a par with shared hosting.

For starting, I suggest Heroku, free server: https://www.heroku.com

Programming notes: Node.js is server-side language, it doesn't run in browser like traditional JS, you won't visit it by URL, unless you create a webserver using Express.js or that kind of library.

Example using Express.js to server static files in public_html :

• Put your server.js (or app.js, or whatever you put) outside public_html, don't put your Node.js code there.

• For example when you put your app.js right outside public_html , serve static files this way:

  app.use('/static', express.static('public_html'))

• Access your files at URL paths starting with /static , or use the following middleware use to server static files at root URL path.:

  app.use('/', express.static('public_html'))

Reference: http://expressjs.com/en/starter/static-files.html