Configuring Express 4.0 routes with socket.io

Question

I have created a new Express application. It generated app.js for me and I have then created the following index.js bringing in socket.io:

var app = require(\'./         


        

Answer 1

SocketIO does not work with routes it works with sockets.

That said you might want to use express-io instead as this specially made for this or if you are building a realtime web app then try using sailsjs which already has socketIO integrated to it.

Do this to your main app.js

app = require('express.io')()
app.http().io()

app.listen(7076)

Then on your routes do something like:

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
    // Do normal req and res here
    // Forward to realtime route
    req.io.route('hello')
})

// This realtime route will handle the realtime request
app.io.route('hello', function(req) {
    req.io.broadcast('hello visitor');
})

See the express-io documentation here.

Or you can do this if you really want to stick with express + socketio

On your app.js

server = http.createServer(app)
io = require('socket.io').listen(server)
require('.sockets')(io);

Then create a file sockets.js

module.exports = function(io) {

    io.sockets.on('connection', function (socket) {
        socket.on('captain', function(data) {
            console.log(data);
            socket.emit('Hello');
        });
    });
};

You can then call that to your routes/controllers.