Starting with Apache and mod_proxy, i ended up with a plain node solution, which i really like.

Let’s take a quick look on some different approaches out there:

—1—

Using apache on port 80 as a proxy

ProxyPass /nodeurls/ http://localhost:9000/
ProxyPassReverse /nodeurls/ http://localhost:9000/

via stackoverflow

— no websockets
++ probably the easiest way to integrate with your running AMPP-stack

—2—

Using a node.js app on port 80 as a Wrapper for other node apps.

express.createServer()
  .use(express.vhost('hostname1.com', require('/path/to/hostname1').app)
  .use(express.vhost('hostname2.com', require('/path/to/hostname2').app)
.listen(80)

via stackoverflow

++ you can use websockets on port 80
— apps crash/restart/stop globally
–what about your apache or the like?

—3—

Using node.js with node-http-proxy on port 80

var http = require('http')
, httpProxy = require('http-proxy');

httpProxy.createServer({
  hostnameOnly: true,
  router: {
    //web-development.cc
    'www.my-domain.com': '127.0.0.1:3001',
    'www.my-other-domain.de' : '127.0.0.1:3002'
  }
}).listen(80);

++ proxy websockets to any port
— you might need to move your old web server to another port

The really cool thing about using node-http-proxy is its capability of proxying websockets.
So you can have your apps running independtly on different ports while serving everything to the user over port 80 and use stuff like socket.io.

Since i’m new to node.js and miles away from beeing a admin, any feedback is highly appreciated :)

Here are some things that come real hany when you are working with jade.

This one really saved my mental health in more than one case.
Just paste your HTML and you get nice and clean jade code:

http://html2jade.aaron-powell.com/

If you are using Netbeans, make sure you don’t miss to install the beautifully working plugin for .jade files.

https://github.com/lumenlunae/jade-netbeans-syntax-highlighting

If you are developing in PHP and want to check out jade anyway, check this out:

No seriously, check THIS:

https://github.com/everzet/jade.php

Actually its all said on the post itself: installation, features and restrictions.
So go and read it.

Its still a bit early stage and only runs on a nightly-build netbeans but it already has some helpful features.

For me i just like to have a node.js icon as my project icon ;).
No serious, i like the npm support, see image, especially for browsing the modules to see what is all available.

Whats also is nice and that you have the modules in the file tree and that they show the module info.

A GUI for installing the modules and editing the package file i dont really need but its nice to have.
Then starting the app from a button in netbeans is also nice.

I guess whats missing the most is code completion, maybe that will be added sometime soon.
I hope so, because having code completion for node modules would be pretty cool.

Also node.js via macports holen:

$ sudo port install nodejs

Und den node.js-eigenen Package-Manager:

$ sudo port install npm

Mit diesem installieren wir als nächsts less, und zwar “global” (via -g)-Flag (“global” bedeutet, dass das Modul unter $nodejs_lib_path/../node_modules abgelegt wird, ansonsten wird es im aktuellen Arbeitsverzeichnis unter ./node_modules installiert):

$ sudo npm install -g less

Damit haben wir alles, um unsere less CSS Stylesheets kompilieren zu können.

Als nächstes holen wir uns den Yui-Kompressor, diesen habe ich mir einfach aus dem Netz gezogen und unter app/java/yuicompressor-2.4.6.jar abgelegt (Die Binary findet ihr unter http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/compressor/).

Nun die Konfiguration:

app/config.yml:

# Assetic Configuration
assetic:
    debug:          %kernel.debug%
    use_controller: false
    filters:
        cssrewrite: ~
        less:
          node: /opt/local/bin/node
          node_paths: [/opt/local/lib/node, /opt/local/lib/node_modules]
        yui_css:
          jar: %kernel.root_dir%/java/yuicompressor-2.4.6.jar

Zu beachten sind die “node_paths”. Der node.js-Modulpfad muss explizit angegeben werden, sonst kann node.js die require()-Statements nicht auflösen (das sind sozusagen die node.js-“Classpaths”). /opt/local/lib/node zeigt auf Core-Module, in /opt/local/lib/node_modules liegt unser less.

Um den Yui-Kompressor zu aktivieren, reicht der simple Pfad zur .jar-Datei.

Nun müssen wir nur noch unser Twig-Layout anpassen:

src/Nerdpress/DemoBundle/Resources/views/layout.html.twig:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
        {% stylesheets
                '@NerdpressDemoBundle/Resources/public/css/main.css'
                '@NerdpressDemoBundle/Resources/public/css/layout.css'
        	filter='less,?yui_css'
                combine=true
        %}
          <link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ asset_url }}" type="text/css" media="all" />
        {% endstylesheets %}

Das “?” vor dem Filter “yui_css” bedingt, dass die CSS-Compression nur angeschaltet wird, wenn der Debug-Parameter auf false steht. “Combine” bedeutet, dass alle CSS-Dateien in einer einzigen, großen Datei zusammengefügt werden, und “less” bedeutet letztlich, dass alle CSS-Dateien mittels less CSS precompiled werden.

That´s it. Die Seite im Browser öffnen und das Ergebnis bewundern. Viel Spaß! Symfony ist schon was feines…