I'm really new to html, css, javascript and all kind of web development. After I coded my first own website, I'd like to play a little with communcation between the browser and a server.
I'd like to be able to access a website hosted on my PC (using my PC as "Web" server) over my home network (my router) so that I can load and use it for example on my smartphone. There's no need for it being accessible over the internet, I only want to use it at home when being connected to my WiFi.
Is that possible?
You can very simply build your own server using Node.js and Express.js.
Here is a simple snippet to create a server on port 8001 on your PC.
const express = require("express");
const app = express();
app.listen(8001, () => {
console.log("Listening on port 8001");
});
After that, you start building routes, middleware, and static files for your server. More info can be found here and here.
So I created an simple API using ExpressJS that connects to MongoDB to perform CRUD operations. Currently I am able to get the local host running by performing command "npm nodemon" in the source folder. And it worked by testing with postman I wonder how to implement it on the server. As server runs a linux system, also I have a line of code in my root file "server.js ":
const port = process.env.PORT || 5000;
I think the process.env.port needs need to be changed in order to make it work on the server?
In addition, I did look into aws CE2 server it is so complicated that I was immediately overwhelmed. I am hoping someone can recommend dummy like me a simple and very specific solution to have a server run my scripts in ExpressJS environment. Thank you
I'm assuming your question is "How to deploy express app to a server?"
You can read some advanced topics on http://expressjs.com/, which covers some best practices, and other useful stuff. But the things you want to look at now is Things to do in your environment / setup
The important part is:
Keep your express runing on port 5000
Run your app in cluster
Run your app behind a proxy server like Nginx.
You can check this nice guide (Step 3 and 4) on how to deploy your express app to a Linux server with PM2, Nginx.
So at the end, your express app will run on port 5000 (or whatever port you desire), and your Nginx will run on port 80, and nginx will forward any request to your express app.
I don't really have experience with backend and how things work together. I have created a simple live message sending app with node.js and socket.io. When I host a static web server on my machine (http-server which runs on local port using node.js) my app works perfectly fine but when I upload it on my host or github pages just for test, the backend doesn't seem to work. I uploaded all my files with an FTP program and the frontend loads fine but the backend doesn't. Do I have to know something like Django or ASP.NET to make these work on my host?
EDIT: One more thing, first line in my server.js is const io = require('socket.io')(3000)and in my script.js - const socket = io('http://localhost:3000')where 3000 and localhost:3000 stands for local host in my machine. What do i need to put instead of these?
You probably need to install and setup Node.js on your server, contact yout hosting provider for node installation if the option isn't available in yout cPanel.
I have a node app that I am trying to deploy on my server. I have an index.html file in a public folder and an app.js file. If I navigate to the project in the command line and run node app.js it runs the app on localhost:8888 and shows the index.html file.
Now that I have uploaded this to my server I am wondering what I need to do, and change (if anything) in my app.js file so that i can visit the site without visiting localhost:8888, but instead the actual url.
I have tried http://162.xx.xxx.xxx/folderName/app/public:8888, but this doesn't work.
var express = require('express')
var app = express();
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'))
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.send('Hello World!')
})
app.listen(8888, function () {
console.log('Example app listening on port 8888!')
});
"Server" is a word with two primary meanings in software development.
It can mean either "A piece of software that listens on a network" or "A computer running that kind of software".
So having uploaded the JavaScript program to the remote computer that is your server you need to do exactly the same as you did on your own computer.
i.e. you need to get a terminal on the server and run node app.js
It will then be available at http://your.example.com:8888/
(More advanced uses would involve using software like forever or system.d to run it automatically as a background process).
If you were using the term server with the other meaning (i.e. you mean "Apache HTTP" or "IIS" or similar), then you are out of luck.
Using Node for server side code means running a server written in JavaScript.
To use this in combination with something like Apache, you would either:
Run the Node server instead of Apache
Run the Node server on a different port and point some services at that port explicitly
Run the Node server on a different port and use something like ProxyPass to have Apache relay requests to it
Change the port number from 8888 to 80 and then use the address of your server in the browser. For example, "mysite.com" for a domain name or "123.45.678" for an IP address.
If there are other sites on that server, you can't run it on port 80. (Port 80 is the default port websites use.) You'd need to use a different port. So, say you kept 8888 -- the address would be yoursite.com:8888
I have a pretty straight-forward question. I made a web game with NodeJS, and I can successfully play it by myself with multiple browser windows open side-by-side; however, I'd like to know if it's possible for other local machines to be able to access and play the game with me too.
I naively tried using this url: my-ip-address:8000 and it won't work.
Your node.js server is running on a port determined at the end of the script usually. Sometimes 3000. but can be anything. The correct way for others to access is as you say...
http://your.network.ip.address:port/
e.g.
http://192.168.0.3:3000
Check you have the correct port - and the IP address on the network - not the internet IP.
Otherwise, maybe the ports are being blocked by your router. Try using 8080 or 80 to get around this - otherwise re-configure your router.
If you are using a router then:
Replace server.listen(yourport, 'localhost'); with server.listen(yourport, 'your ipv4 address');
in my machine it is
server.listen(3000, '192.168.0.3');
Make sure yourport is forwarded to your ipv4 address.
On Windows Firewall, tick all on Node.js:Server-side JavaScript.
I had the same question and solved the problem. In my case, the Windows Firewall (not the router) was blocking the V8 machine I/O on the hosting machine.
Go to windows button
Search "Firewall"
Choose "Allow programs to communicate through Firewall"
Click Change Setup
Tick all of "Evented I/O for V8 Javascript" OR "Node.js: Server-side Javascript"
My guess is that "Evented I/O for V8 Javascript" is the I/O process that node.js communicates to outside world and we need to free it before it can send packets outside of the local computer. After enabling this program to communicate over Windows firewall, I could use any port numbers to listen.
One tip that nobody has mentioned yet is to remember to host the app on the LAN-accessible address 0.0.0.0 instead of the default localhost. Firewalls on Mac and Linux are less strict about this address compared to the default localhost address (127.0.0.1).
For example,
gatsby develop --host 0.0.0.0
yarn start --host 0.0.0.0
npm start --host 0.0.0.0
You can then access the address to connect to by entering ifconfig or ipconfig in the terminal. Then try one of the IP addresses on the left that does not end in .255 or .0
Faced similar issue with my Angular Node Server(v6.10.3) which set up in WIndows 10.
http://localhost:4201 worked fine in localhost. But http://{ipaddress}:4201 not working in other machines in local network.
For this I updated the ng serve like this
//Older ng serve in windows command Prompt
ng serve --host localhost --port 4201
//Updated ng serve
//ng serve --host {ipaddress} --port {portno}
ng serve --host 192.168.1.104 --port 4201
After doing this modification able to access my application in other machines in network bt calling this url
http://192.168.1.104:4201
//http://{ipaddress}:4201
The port is probably blocked by your local firewall or router. Hard to tell without details.
But there is a simple solution for which you don't have to mess with firewall rules, run node as a privileded process to serve on port 80, etc...
Check out Localtunnel. Its a great Ruby script/service, which allows you to make any local port available on the internet within seconds. It's certainly not useful for a production setup, but to try out a game with colleagues, it should work just fine!
const express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.listen(Port Number, "Your IP Address");
// e.g.
app.listen(3000, "192.183.190.3");
You can get your IP Address by typing ipconfig in cmd if your Windows user else you can use ifconfig.
After trying many solution and lot of research I did to the following to make sure my localhost is accessible from other machine in same network. I didn't start my server with IPAddress as parameter to listen method as suggested by others in this question. I did the following to make sure my local node js server is accessible from other machine on same local network. My node server is running in Windows 10 machine.
Open "Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security"
Select "Inbound Rules" in the left pane.
In the list of available rules, "Node.js Server-side Javascript" has "Block the connection" radio checked. Change this to "Allow the connection".
Please see the attached screenshot:
After these changes, I am able to access my localhost using http://IPAddress:Port/
Thanks.
And Don't Forget To Change in Index.html Following Code :
<script src="http://192.168.1.4:8000/socket.io/socket.io.js"></script>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.6.2.min.js"></script>
var socket = io.connect('http://192.168.1.4:8000');
Good luck!
This worked for me and I think this is the most basic solution which involves the least setup possible:
With your PC and other device connected to the same network , open cmd from your PC which you plan to set up as a server, and hit ipconfig to get your ip address.
Note this ip address. It should be something like "192.168.1.2" which is the value to the right of IPv4 Address field as shown in below format:
Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : ffff::ffff:ffff:ffff:ffad%14
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Start your node server like this : npm start <IP obtained in step 1:3000> e.g. npm start 192.168.1.2:3000
Open browser of your other device and hit the url: <your_ip:3000> i.e. 192.168.1.2:3000 and you will see your website.
put this codes in your server.js :
app.set('port', (80))
app.listen(app.get('port'), () => {
console.log('Node app is running on port', app.get('port'))
})
after that if you can't access app on network disable firewall like this :
ngrok allows you to expose a port on the internet with custom forwarding refs:
$ npx ngrok http 8000
First, check your ipv4 address. In my case my ipv4 address is 192.168.44.112. If you don't know your ipv4 address, run this command on cmd.
ipconfig
Follow this code...
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const port = process.env.port || 8000
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.send("Hello Network!")
});
app.listen(port, '192.168.77.112', ()=>{
console.log(`Listening port on ${port}`)
});
In Ubuntu you can fix this by allowing a specific port or port range:
sudo ufw allow PORT-NUMBER/tcp
example:
sudo ufw allow 3000/tcp
or a range:
sudo ufw allow 3000:3001/tcp
var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
}).listen(80, '127.0.0.1');
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:80/');
By default node will run on every IP address exposed by the host on which it runs. You don't need to do anything special. You already knew the server runs on a particular port. You can prove this, by using that IP address on a browser on that machine:
http://my-ip-address:port
If that didn't work, you might have your IP address wrong.
I had this problem. The solution was to allow node.js through the server's firewall.