Can Node.js be run within Tomcat server? - javascript

From what I have read so far in this blog http://nowjs.com/ I need to install nodejs in the server machine for it to work. But, I am using a shared server and don't really have any authority to put something into the server machine.
Putting it into the container(tomcat) is however another thing which I mostly do.
Generally speaking, when we say server we mean tomcat or websphere or jboss.
But with nodejs if I am not wrong server means the real machine on which tomcat etc. runs.
So is there any way I can run the nodejs server inside tomcat server or am I thinking about it the wrong way ?

Yes, you are thinking of it it the wrong way. The key feature of Nodejs is that it contains, amongst other things, a rather natty embedded HTTP server. Think Jetty. However it might be possible now or in the future to run JavaScript in tomcat.
I recommend going to http://nodejs.org/ and watching the video, it will surely clear the matter up for you.
Meanwhile I would recommend getting hosting which includes SSH access, and preferably root access. Root access will make installing node a whole load easier and allow you to run it on a commonly used port (avoid running node as root, use port mapping) . But you don't need a seperate web server to get started, you can install Node.js on windows, mac and linux.

Related

What does io.connect('http://localhost:4000) mean?

I am building an application using react.js and socket.io, I have my backend code for the socket.io server in one folder and the client/ frontend react.js code in a separate folder. I have it set up to where the server is listening on local host:4000 and the client is listening on 3000, I have connected the front end and back end in my app.js using this line of code..
const socket = io.connect('http://localhost:4000');
I am curious as to what this means. does it mean that when I deploy my website that it will be hosting my server from my computer? Does it mean that it will be hosting the sockets from the client's computers? is the localhost:4000 used for testing purposes and will need to be changed later upon deployment of the website? If none of these are correct, any explanation would be greatly appreciated. If my code is fine the way it is and will not need to be changed upon deployment of my website, please let me know.
Thank you to anyone who can help!!!
does it mean that when I deploy my website that it will be hosting my server from my computer?
It means it will try to connect to a Socket.io server running on the same computer as the browser is running on.
This will usually fail. (Your development environment is an exception because you are running both browser and server on the same computer).
is the localhost:4000 used for testing purposes and will need to be changed later upon deployment of the website?
Yes.
Yes, you will need to change it when you deploy it to your site.
'http://localhost:4000' is an absolute reference meaning it will auto resolve to the localhost environment. It is also advisable to switch to https for a more secure connection.

How to give the server port to client

I have a node server with several node projects. I use nginx to get them all responding on port 80. Now, this works for the initial http request. For the websockets, I need to use the direct server port. To keep everything alive while developing I would like to try this, projects will have a dev and live version. Once de dev is stable, I will copy it to the live folder. The live folder is runned by a systemctl script where I define a difrent port to the live version so I can dev without taking the live down. The problem I encounter now is, how can I get the running server port in my client side Javascript so that the dev page connect to the dev port and visa versa?
currently I'm only using express, socket.io and mysql. I have no further npm packages installed. I searched allot but there is not to mush I can find. I found how to connect the socket to the page url but I cannot use that because that URL will always be on port 80. Further I found allot of huge packages that has no use for me since the original page is just static, the dynamics all run over websockets.
Is there any way to parse the port number in the clients .js file like I could do fairly easy in php? And if so, what would be the most efficient way. I could let javascript check if the page uses the live or dev URL but I would prefer not to hardcode my dev URL into JS where it is for everyone to see.
run a third node.js socket.io server program, all your clients connect to this server first.
In this simple node.js program, determine the type of clients by any means. e.g. different user id for dev/production users
send the server url and port to your client according to its type (dev or production)
you may also use this technique to separate your users to different production servers.

Angular 4 SEO Friendly solution in prod

I'm trying to create a website in Angular 4. It is a base of my personal study.
My website is up and running but I'm trying to improve it. I checked and apparently my website is not SEO Friendly. I make some changes and I discovered this sample https://oliverveits.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/server-side-rendering-in-angular-4-with-universal/ That show an Angular 4 app with Page Source code.
I make the changes, I started to use Webpack and other features sugared by in the link. When I run the command "npm run start" and I access http://localhost:8000 I can see the Page Source. But when I copy the dist to my server on Godaddy domain I can't.
I'm not sure about what I have to do. If I need put my website in a node.js server or if I'm not compiling it correctly to have what I'm expecting.
I'm open to different approachs.
Well, I found the what causes this issue.
I think many of new Angular devs possible have the same problem.
When you run "npm start" or "ng s" what are you doing is put the node to listen a specific port. In other words, you are running a node server.
In another approach, copy the files to an IIS server or Apache Server. This doesn't make the Node Server run. In this scenario, the pages are download to the client browser and run as HTML/javascript page. And because of this when I try to see the Page source I saw the Angular files.
Took me a while to understand it. My background is .Net development.
Now a day my website is running in one of the many node.js servers. evennode.com, on this server instead of to have an IIS or Apache, they set up a Node Server to listing a specific port and then you are able to run all your development on the server side.
I found easier use a node js server like evennode them set tup node js run on my Goddady account.

Deploying Node JS application over a server

I have done quite a research of deploying an application over the local server that I have on my machine. Each source code for the Node JS application or the example that is available over the internet specifies to run the application from the console.
Is there any way that i can configure my MAMP server so that when i hit a URL the Node code specified is executed.
Are there any parameters to set for the same ?
I looking forward to the steps to achieve this as i was not able to found a relevant answer for the same as such.

Installing/setting up Socket.IO on my server

Ok so I have read through the Socket.IO docs and I am still a little unsure of a couple of points:
The documentation says...
To run the demo, execute the following:
git clone git://github.com/LearnBoost/Socket.IO-node.git socket.io
cd socket.io/example/
sudo node server.js
Now I don't know what this means at all! I think it may be command line interface. I of course have access to this on my localhost, but my online hosting package is a shared LAMP setup. Meaning I don't have access to the root command line (i think).
How do I actually setup socket.IO, is it impossible on my shared server package?
Appreciate any help...
W.
If you aren't familiar with node.js or with basic command line usage then I would suggest that you use a hosted WebSockets solution like pusherapp. Trying to learn WebSockets, and Node.js, and the Linux command line all at once is going to lead to a lot of frustration. Take a look a pusherapp's quick start guide, it's very easy to get started. You can have 5 simultaneous connections with a single application for free (I'm not affiliated with pusherapp).
Updated (with inline answers to questions):
If you are going to go the direction of running a Socket.IO application:
You don't technically need git since you can download node.js and Socket.IO from their respective download links on github.
You don't actually need a LAMP server to use Socket.IO. By default Socket.IO functions as a simple webserver in addition to a WebSockets server. If you want server side scripting then you might want Apache with mod_php, mod_python, etc.
You don't technically need a dedicated server or even root access. You do need a system where you can have long running process. And if you want the service to start automatically when the system is rebooted, you probably want to add a startup file to /etc/init.d, /etc/rc.d which will require root access. Both node.js and Socket.IO can be installed and run from a normal home directory. If you want to run Socket.IO on a standard port like 80 or 443 then you will need to run it with root privilege.
Node.JS scales quite well so Socket.IO will probably scale pretty well too.
It's not a simple matter to get everything setup and working, but if your goal is a free solution for web serving+WebSockets then Socket.IO is probably is good route to at least explore if you are brave.
First you'll have to determine if your host supports SSH. Sometimes they don't by default on shared hosting, but if you ask they can turn it on. If it does you'll use some sort of SSH client to connect to it. Putty for windows is the most common. Then you'll use git, which is a source control program. Which you'll probably have to install on your host, which may or may not be allowed. If you can, this can be accomplished a number of ways, you'll want to read the git documentation, it will depend largely on what linux distribution you're running. CD is change directory, basic command line stuff. sudo on the last line is telling the system to run the command as root, which it will ask you the password for, which you may not have access to on your host. Sounds like you're gonna have an uphill battle on shared hosting. You may want to opt for a VPS instead.
If your shared host is a LAMP system with no command line access you're not going to get very far with Socket.IO. The instructions you posted assume you have command line access and that you've installed the node.js runtime on your system.
If you really want to try this I recommend you get a VPS of your own (I use prgmr.com) to test it out. For what it's worth I found the Socket.IO platform pretty nice to use once I got it up and running.

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