Node.js and Web Sockets

Question

I've got a node.js server running and I can get it to show "hello world" or a twitter feed when I navigate to the url.

Issue is I cannot get any communication to happen between the node.js instance and the websocket defined on the client of another page.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks so much.

Answer 1

Do yo run node.js behind some proxy? Some proxies (eg ngnix) don't support http 1.1 and http 1.1 is necessary for websockets.

Answer 2

Look here for WebSocket libraries compatible with Node.JS. Node.JS does not provide WebSocket support out of the box, you need to install additional library. Socket.io would be sufficient.

Answer 3

Okay, so I got this working(I think)

Again, Client-side code:

<script src="./Socket.IO/socket.io.js"></script>
<script>
    io.setPath('./Socket.IO/');

    var socket = new io.Socket('jayz.danstanhope.webfactional.com', { 'port': 80 });

    socket.on('connect', function () {
        alert('connect');
    });
    socket.on('message', function (msg) {
        alert('message' + msg);
    });
    socket.on('close', function () {
        alert('close');
    });
    socket.on('disconnect', function () {
        alert('disconnect');
    });
    socket.connect();

</script>

Server-side code:

var sys = require("sys")
  , fs = require("fs")
  , path = require("path")
  , http = require("http");
var io = require('/home/danstanhope/webapps/htdocs/Socket.IO-node');

var server = http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    //your normal server code
    res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' });
    res.write('Hello world');
    res.end();
});

server.listen(26970);
server = io.listen(server);
server.on('connection', function(client){
    sys.log('client connected');
});

When I refresh the page in Chrome I can see logs being written in Shell.

Here's what I see:

danstanhope@web146 htdocs]$ node server.js
9 Aug 19:19:37 - socket.io ready - accepting connections
9 Aug 19:19:40 - Initializing client with transport "websocket"
9 Aug 19:19:40 - Client 21789167495444417 connected
9 Aug 19:19:40 - client connected
9 Aug 19:19:40 - Client 21789167495444417 disconnected

The only issue now is getting any of those javascript socket alerts to fire.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Dan