How to integrate nodeJS + Socket.IO and PHP?
So, to begin with, I put my project on github, if you want access to the full code: https://github.com/jdutheil/nodePHP
It is a very simple example project: a web chat. You just have an author and message, and when you press send it is saved in a mysql database. The idea is to send real time updates, and have a real conversation. ;) We'll use nodeJS for that.
I won't talk about PHP code, it is really simple and not interesting here; what I want to show you is how to integrate your nodeJS code.
I use express and Socket.IO, so be sure to install those modules with npm. Then, we create a simple nodeJS server:
var socket = require( 'socket.io' );
var express = require( 'express' );
var http = require( 'http' );
var app = express();
var server = http.createServer( app );
var io = socket.listen( server );
io.sockets.on( 'connection', function( client ) {
console.log( "New client !" );
client.on( 'message', function( data ) {
console.log( 'Message received ' + data.name + ":" + data.message );
io.sockets.emit( 'message', { name: data.name, message: data.message } );
});
});
server.listen( 8080 );
We registered our events callback when a new user is connected ; every time we receive a message (represents a chat message), we broadcast it to every users connected. Now, the tricky part: client-side! That the part that took me most of the time, because I didn't know which script include to be able to run Socket.IO code without the nodeServer (because client page will be served by Apache).
But everything is already done; when you install Socket.IO module with npm, a script is available in /node_modules/socket.io/node_modules/socket.io-client/dist/socket.io.js
; that the script we will include in our PHP page, in my case:
<script src="js/node_modules/socket.io/node_modules/socket.io-client/dist/socket.io.js"></script>
<script src="js/nodeClient.js"></script>
And to finish, my nodeClient.js, where we simply connect to the node server and wait for event to update our page. ;)
var socket = io.connect( 'http://localhost:8080' );
$( "#messageForm" ).submit( function() {
var nameVal = $( "#nameInput" ).val();
var msg = $( "#messageInput" ).val();
socket.emit( 'message', { name: nameVal, message: msg } );
// Ajax call for saving datas
$.ajax({
url: "./ajax/insertNewMessage.php",
type: "POST",
data: { name: nameVal, message: msg },
success: function(data) {
}
});
return false;
});
socket.on( 'message', function( data ) {
var actualContent = $( "#messages" ).html();
var newMsgContent = '<li> <strong>' + data.name + '</strong> : ' + data.message + '</li>';
var content = newMsgContent + actualContent;
$( "#messages" ).html( content );
});
I'll try to update and improve my code as soon as possible, but I think it already open to all of cool things! I am really open for advice and reviews on this stuff, is it the good way to do it, .. ?
Hope this can help some people!
I have another solution that works quite well for me, but I would like someone to comment about how effective it is, as I have not (yet) had the opportunity/time to test it on the real server.
Here goes the node-js code. I put this code in a file called nodeserver.js:
var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
var knall = new Object();
knall.totten = "4 tomtar";
knall.theArr = new Array();
knall.theArr.push("hoppla")
knall.theArr.push("hej")
var strKnall = JSON.stringify(knall);
res.end(strKnall);
}).listen(process.env.PORT);
And here is the simple piece of code in php, calling the node-js server with the help of file_get_contents():
$json = file_get_contents('http://localhost:3002/knall.json');
$obj = json_decode($json);
Works great, when I load the php-page, it in turn calls the nodeserver.js page, which jsonify the knall-object.
I have two localhost-installations running on iis on windows 10, one standard php-server, and the nodejs-server works with the neat iisnode package.
The 'real' server is run on ubuntu.
I think this is a neat and easy solution for communication between two servers, but maybe someone has any comments about it?