This is my first post here, let me know if I do it wrong. I would like to start by mentioning that I'm kind of a beginner developer. I've had a bunch of classes, but it's also my first time working on something of my own, from beginning to end (emphasis on "end").
I'm working on a relatively simple app, for user management (CRUD, with different levels of authorizations) and shop management. I was given the choice of the tools, framework, language, etc, to use, with the only constraints that 1/ the main device to use it will be a tablet most of the times 2/ nothing should be hosted online. I wanted to get more familiar with Javascript so I went with creating a React app (front) with Express Nodejs (back) and a MySQL database I access via Sequelize.
Development is going fine (for the most part thanks to many great posts here on SO), but I just got hit by the reality that I have never tried to build the app and see if it runs the way I intend. And I do not know how to do it. I should have researched that earlier.
So far, in development I always tested everything on PC and phone by running npm start (front end) and node server.js (back end), and the client runs in a browser (when using a phone I access the IP adress and port, like 192.168.x.x:3000). Backend listens to the 8080 port no prob, access to the MySQL database works as intended thanks to Sequelize. Frontend listens to port 3000 to display the user interface on the browser, and React makes it easy to develop features in front, and quickly troubleshoot them. Everything works fine, and as expected, anyone in the same network (and with a web browser) can access and use the app that way.
This is the behavior I want to replicate with a production build : having a computer host the build, and run the "server" so that the app is available to any device in the local network. So I guess I need to somehow make my build in a way to make it possible to turn on and off the "server" at will, maybe via a .exe ? Or turn it on at the same time as the computer ?
I know I should have researched that earlier and not doing so was a mistake. All I know is I'll have to use npm run build, to get the build folder, but I don't know what to do from there. Could you help me figure it out ? Among many things I'm not sure of, is whether or not the host computer (not mine) needs to have node.js installed ? Does it also have to have MySQL installed ? Do I make a single build that incorporates the backend and the frontend, or do I build both separately ? If so, how ?
Let me know if you need to see part of the code. Thanks in advance and have a great day.
EDIT : App was created using create react app
There are options to deploy on cloud like Cloud Servers. But I think you're looking for hosting the application on the local machine. You need to create a service, bundle the application and serve whenever you want.
Following link might be helpful
https://www.section.io/engineering-education/compile-your-nodejs-application-into-a-exe-file/
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I want to build a web app with React for frontend and Node.js for backend. The problem comes when choosing the type of hosting I need. I know that for static files(eg. html with css and js) it's enough to have a standard web hosting, but if I want to have a server running Node.js app, do I need a dedicated server or VPS? Why?
I believe you can have either. Are you trying to do this professionally for a client or for a side project?
Personally, I use services like Heroku or Netlify (others here: https://blog.bitsrc.io/8-react-application-deployment-and-hosting-options-for-2019-ab4d668309fd). They run builds of node for your app and are free initially.
You can host your app and publish it for no cost at the beginning. However, on something like Heroku, if you don't pay, it takes 5 seconds for your website to wake up. But, this is great for prototyping. It gives you a URL so others can see it. They are basically version control systems that publish what you currently have. So you can just live push your project at any time and it updates your site.
If your prototype is working and you want it to be a fully dedicated app, then you can either pay or find services that host it. I would recommend prototyping first regardless and wouldn't pay until you need to.
Folks, forgive me if this is a repeat question: I couldn't think of how to phrase it in the search engine. I'm developing an Intranet-based set of applications with the front end (individual apps) in React and the back-end using node.js and Express. I had been using Electron JS but like the Express solution since all web browsers on the Intranet can use the apps.
I'm running into a bit of a circular dependency when it comes to production, though. Since my REST back-end handles all local calls (like node fs) I use REST calls to load and save preferences files from the front end. However, I'd like to be able to set the REST URI from a config file or setting. Since the only way I can access this setting is a call to the REST back-end, I'm stuck. It's possible the client may want to change the host URL and the port for the server. This will affect all axios calls to the REST back end in every React application I have. Instead of calling http://localhost:5000/api-call/ I'd like the localhost and port number to be read from config.
I am transpiling the React apps and storing them in a static folder underneath the REST server. I would like to avoid something complex or additional like REDIS or another local database. My projects don't require any heavy database setups.
Am I simply implementing poor architecture here? I even thought of env variables but then will get into setting them on each client's system which takes away from the flexibility of using a web server in the first place. Any thoughts to move me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!!!
I knew if I posted this, I might find an answer.
I'm not sure how elegant a solution this is but I could test the env for development vs. production. If in production, I can then use window.href (host and port) to get the information I need. I think this will work but would still love to hear some other thoughts from those with far more experience than I have!
There's this tutorial which has a working chat app. You can find the chat app on GitHub.
I'm trying to deploy the git code to Heroku without success.
The GitHub is separated to client/server architecture so it requires to start node server and ng serve to client. Do I need 2 dynos for it? Do I need to edit the Procfile? The server is using process.env.PORT but the client one is hardcoded.
I'm very new to Heroku and Node.js so any help is meaningful to me.
The GitHub project that you ask about is pretty complex and it doesn't seem to have ane Heroku deployment instructions, without knowing the project it's hard to give you any concrete solution, but I'll try to answer in general how such applications are usually deployed and hopefully it will help you solve your problems.
For applications like this it is common to split the backend and the frontend part and have it deployed and hosted separately, either as two separate dynos if you want to host both on Heroku, or e.g. hosting the backend part on Heroku and the frontend part on Netlify or a similar service.
Another option could be to make the backend serve the frontend e.g. on the / path while having all of the backend endpoints available as /api/* or something similar (or on a different port but this is not possible on Heroku). Having it on the same host and port but with a prefix for the api has the advantage of simplifying the CORS related matters, as the origin is the same so no cross-origin issues arise.
If you're using WebSockets then it is slightly more complicated - make sure to read:
https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/websockets
but either way you can still move your frontend to Netlify or something similar and keep the backend on Heroku if you want.
It's hard to give you any more specific answer to this question. I see that you are new here, so next time try to write a more specific question and narrow down the problem so that you can show a small code example that people could actually read and help you.
I am new to node, so please excuse me if I am asking stupid questions.
Ghost has been released as NPM module recently. I am trying to integrate it with my application, so I could have custom home page and serve blog on a separate page. Once I do following in my app.js, it takes over all the traffic to my site. How do I configure ghost to serve only the blog?
var ghost = require('ghost');
ghost();
We're missing a few details here so I'll make some assumptions.
If you are hosting node using the default server than (as of this posting) you are out of luck since ghost is setup to run in it's own standalone server. One possible solution is to run both the standard node.js server for your page then another for ghost. That's obviously not ideal but until they fix their integration issues you don't have much choice.
I'm trying to solve the same problem, and currently imagine finding a hosting that allows me to run two node instances (I think that is quite possible with e.g. digital ocean). One - port 80 - will point to Ghost, while the other (on some other port) will host the REST API for the app.
I will then create a blank page linked to a custom template that loads the rest of my angular application - the files will be stored in the assets folder of my custom template, while ajax calls will simply be to the non-standard port.
I am coming from Microsoft world so please bear with me on this. I was told I could install node.js and use that as a web server instead of IIS. This is a very small business application. In IIS I can create virtual directory and point to the location of the web page and everything works just fine. Based on very little I read, I have few questions;
Is it possible to run node js as a windows service or any other form so that it runs for ever? I did find the forever package that I think I can use.
In IIS, I can create virtual directory set the port and thats it, I have myself a website.
I do not see any examples where I can use a directory where I have a web page, written in java script and point it to run as a web site. All the examples have some thing like server.js and that runs and routes the call. what is the other way to host web sites and use node.js to simple run as a fast web server.
I was told I could install node.js and use that as a web server instead of IIS.
This is true, but as you already found out then you are in charge of providing for things that IIS was already doing for you (e.g. automatically restart on reboot, or on crashes, hosting multiple sites by creating virtual folders, et cetera.)
You can indeed get all of these things worked out in Node.js and there are several libraries that help on each of these areas. It's not too hard but you'll need to do a bit of researching.
You can also run Node.js behind IIS. Take a look at iisnode http://tomasz.janczuk.org/2011/08/hosting-nodejs-applications-in-iis-on.html
Is it possible to run node js as a windows service or any other form so
that it runs for ever?
The library Forever takes care of restarting the site when it crashes...but I don't know if you can run it as a Windows Service. I haven't tried that.
In IIS, I can create virtual directory set the port and thats it,
I have myself a website.
I assume you are talking about a site that serves static HTML files, right? If that's the case that's very easy to support in Node.js either writing your own web server or using Express.js to serve static files.
I do not see any examples where I can use a directory where I have a web page,
written in java script and point it to run as a web site. All the examples
have some thing like server.js and that runs and routes the call.
Here is an extremely simple example to serve plain HTML files in Node.js https://gist.github.com/2573391 Don't use this in production, though. It's just an example and it does not have any kind of error handling or security.
what is the other way to host web sites and use node.js to simple run
as a fast web server.
As others have said, you should look into Express.js http://expressjs.com/ It provides some of the infrastructure that you are very likely going to need when building traditional web sites.
You say you're running a "very small business application" behind IIS. Unless it's written for Node.js (in JavaScript), it won't work.
There are no examples pointing to a directory and running that as a website, because that's not how things are done in Node.js. You write a Node.js-application and pull in a webserver-library.
Put simply, In Node.js, you don't embed the appliation in the webserver; you embed the webserver in the application.
When I used node.js, I redirected HTTP requests by a proxy server, nginx. I don’t know if you can directly bind node.js as an HTTP server, but for what’s it worth, nginx is pretty nice!
First things first, allow me to share an introduction. IMHO you should take this decision ( of moving from IIS to nodeJS) by adding various parameters. I belong to the Java & PHP community yet I use NodeJS to achieve extremely specific implementation where NodeJS perform the fastest ( fast IO, AJAX-JSON responses & more ). As you are coming with a Microsoft background you should bare with less comfortable solutions.
Yes, its possible to run NodeJs as a windows service and Forever will do fine.
and yes you can create "Virtual Directories" but by creating symbolic links to each of your customer's web site.
I recommend to take a good look at bouncy & express, If you're willing to take this step then these packages is just what you need.
Cheers!