How to create a node.js server?

Question

I'm trying to create my first node.js server and I have some problems.

When I use

var http = require("http");

var server = http.createServer();
server.listen(8888);

No connection can be established to the server.

But when I use this

var http = require("http");

http.createServer(function(request, response) {
  response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
  response.write("Hello World");
  response.end();
}).listen(8888);

The server lands ok.

I used this in a file called server.js and runned the command node server.js. I'm using v 0.12.0 What am I missing? Why the server doesn't work on the first case?

you could add event listener server.on('connect', function (request, socket, head) { console.log('someone connected'); }); and this should be the same as passing function to createServer() — Glib Ischenko
– Glib Ischenko, Commented Oct 1, 2015 at 10:31

Quentin · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-01 10:29:01Z

6

The first block of code creates a server and listens on a port.

When you point a browser at it, the browser makes a request and then waits for a response.

You haven't told the server what to respond with, so it sits there doing nothing.

Eventually the browser times out.

In the second set of code, you've told the server how to respond to requests.

edited Oct 1, 2015 at 10:29

answered Oct 1, 2015 at 10:25

Quentin

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6 Comments

Ionut Necula Over a year ago

So if I say console.log('Test'); in the server.js file it should work? Cause I made that and it's not working.

Quentin Over a year ago

When I add console.log('Test'); to the end of the first script, it gets output on my console when I run the program.

Quentin Over a year ago

So it does work. Telling Node to output something to the console is not the same as telling it how to respond to an HTTP request.

Ionut Necula Over a year ago

So getting to what am I missing. What I now understand is that with node you need to tell him to make an HTTP request on the server, when with Apache not? Is this correct?

Quentin Over a year ago

When you are writing an HTTP server using Node, you have to tell it how to respond to a request. When you are using Apache, that is an HTTP server that someone else has written for you, and it has been written so that if you haven't told it how to respond to a request, it will respond with a 404 error page.

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