Express and WebSocket listening on the same port

Based on your code and comments, here’s a super simple example of how it would work together.

First, the http-server.js – a typical express app, except that we do not start the server with app.listen():

'use strict';

let fs = require('fs');
let express = require('express');
let app = express();
let bodyParser = require('body-parser');

app.use(bodyParser.json());

// Let's create the regular HTTP request and response
app.get("https://stackoverflow.com/", function(req, res) {

  console.log('Get index');
  fs.createReadStream('./index.html')
  .pipe(res);
});

app.post("https://stackoverflow.com/", function(req, res) {

  let message = req.body.message;
  console.log('Regular POST message: ', message);
  return res.json({

    answer: 42
  });
});

module.exports = app;

Now, the ws-server.js example, where we create the WSS server from a node native http.createServer(). Now, note that this is where we import the app, and give this native http.createServer the app instance to use.

Start the app with PORT=8080 node ws-server.js :

(Note you’re launching the second, socket related, file (ws-server) not the first, http related, file (http-server).)

'use strict';

let WSServer = require('ws').Server;
let server = require('http').createServer();
let app = require('./http-server');

// Create web socket server on top of a regular http server
let wss = new WSServer({

  server: server
});

// Also mount the app here
server.on('request', app);

wss.on('connection', function connection(ws) {
 
  ws.on('message', function incoming(message) {
    
    console.log(`received: ${message}`);
    
    ws.send(JSON.stringify({

      answer: 42
    }));
  });
});


server.listen(process.env.PORT, function() {

  console.log(`http/ws server listening on ${process.env.PORT}`);
});

Finally, this sample index.html will work by creating both a POST and a Socket “request” and display the response:

<html>
<head>
  <title>WS example</title>
</head>

<body>
  <h2>Socket message response: </h2>
  <pre id="response"></pre>
  <hr/>
  <h2>POST message response: </h2>
  <pre id="post-response"></pre>
  <script>

  // Extremely simplified here, no error handling or anything
document.body.onload = function() {

    'use strict';

  // First the socket requesta
  function socketExample() {
    console.log('Creating socket');
    let socket = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:8080/');
    socket.onopen = function() {

      console.log('Socket open.');
      socket.send(JSON.stringify({message: 'What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?'}));
      console.log('Message sent.')
    };
    socket.onmessage = function(message) {

      console.log('Socket server message', message);
      let data = JSON.parse(message.data);
      document.getElementById('response').innerHTML = JSON.stringify(data, null, 2);
    };
  }

  // Now the simple POST demo
  function postExample() {

    console.log('Creating regular POST message');
  
    fetch("https://stackoverflow.com/", {  
      method: 'post',  
      headers: {  
        "Content-type": "application/json"  
      },  
      body: JSON.stringify({message: 'What is the meaning of post-life, the universe and everything?'})  
    })
    .then(response => response.json())  
    .then(function (data) {  
    
      console.log('POST response:', data);
      document.getElementById('post-response').innerHTML = JSON.stringify(data, null, 2);   
    })  
    .catch(function (error) {  
      console.log('Request failed', error);  
    });   
  }

  // Call them both;

  socketExample();
  postExample();
}
  </script>
</body>
</html>

Note you’ll need a quite recent browser, one that has both WebSocket and fetch APIs for this client side part, but it’s irrelevant anyway, it just gives you the gist of it.

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