CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.jswebsocketserver-side
Joshua Bambrick
Joshua Bambrick

Reputation: 2699

Creating a single page web app as part of a website

I am working on a project which allows users to monitor energy consumption. The main dashboard page is a web app which is pretty neat and makes extensive use of javascript and ajax. The server currently runs apache and uses php; however, I am planning on installing node.js and updating the server side scripts in order to support websockets (and I also like the idea of using javascript on the server and client side).

I have followed several online introductions but I am struggling to find answers to specific questions, one of which is outlined below.

All guides to node seem to only support single page web apps. This is an issue as there are a number of different pages which require files to be served. How can I support file serving but enable one of the pages to use websockets. Does this functionality, which is only required for one page, need to be coded into the main server script on the site or is there a way of separating this so that the server goes to server the dashboard html file and then discovers that the file requires specific websocket dependencies?

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my questions. If you can answer any of them, or even provide any general advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 270

Answers (1)

generalhenry
generalhenry

Reputation: 17319

1: The only reason the guides do single page web apps is because that's node's forte. Node.js serves static files and rendered templates just fine. Just include the JS for the websockets only in the pages that need it.

2: It's not quite as simple as with php, but take a look at express.js

3: Yes, and really you shouldn't even need different ports, you can write a proxy in node in one line.

4: CentOS is fine, node is platform agnostic. All the linuxes have top support followed by osx, solaris and windows.

Upvotes: 3

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