Express-Generator - Including socket.io (bin/www) - node.js

Question

I've always been a bit of a Perl/PHP sorta guy, but I fancy a change and Node JS seems like the right place for me to go next.
I've watched a good few hours of tutorials on YouTube and read some posts on here - but I have come up a bit stuck.
I'd like to include socket.io in my express-generated application (v4.10.6).
At the same time though, I don't really want to include the socket.on(...) statements in one file - i'd much rather split it out like you would with a route.
Given that the express-generated app is started in bin/www, i'm confused as to where I need to require('socket.io') and point all the 'on' events to.
This post on stackoverflow, I think may answer my question - but it suggests all the socket handlers are in the ./sockets/base.js file - and I am confused by the Gofilord's response to the answer.
Please forgive my ignorance here - this is all a bit alien to me at the moment, and thank you, as always for taking the time to read this and your help.
/bin/www
#!/usr/bin/env node
var debug = require('debug')('rhubarb');
var app = require('../app');
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 1127);
var server = app.listen(app.get('port'), function() {
debug('Express server listening on port ' + server.address().port);
});

Answer 1

Its typical to require socket.io in app.js and then to tell your io sever to listen to your application. Using the example you posted, that would look like this:
var debug = require('debug')('rhubarb');
var app = require('../app');
var server = require('http').Server(app);
var io = require('socket.io')(server);
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 1127);
var server = server.listen(app.get('port'), function() {
debug('Express server listening on port ' + server.address().port);
});
The socketio docs do a really good job of explaining this. Here's an example from their homepage:
var app = require('express')();
var server = require('http').Server(app);
var io = require('socket.io')(server);
server.listen(80);
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.sendfile(__dirname + '/index.html');
});
io.on('connection', function (socket) {
socket.emit('news', { hello: 'world' });
socket.on('my other event', function (data) {
console.log(data);
});
});
Update:
I typically modularize socketio setup by creating a lib called io.js in /lib with something like this:
module.exports = function(server){
var io = require('socket.io')(server);
// catch errors
io.on('error', function(err){
throw err;
})
// Set Socket.io listeners by creating a socket.io middleware
// attachEventlisteners would live in `/controllers`
io.use(attachEventlisteners);
io.on('connection', function (socket) {
// do things
});
return io; // so it can be used in app.js ( if need be )
}
then in app.js i can simply pass the server in when I require it:
var io = require('./lib/io')(server);
You dont need to do any thing further in app.js since everything is setup in /lib/io.js, but if you wanted to you could because the io server is returned.