How to connect to index.php file with Express and Node.js

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I would like to create a real time application, but I am new to Node.js, Express and Socket.io. I would like to connect with Express to a file called index.php. Unfortunately I saw that Express connects by default to a file called index.html.

This is a part of my index.js file:

var express = require('express');
var socket = require('socket.io');

var app = express();

//App setup
var server = app.listen(4000, function() {
    console.log('listening on requests on port 4000');
});

//Static files
app.use(express.static('public'));

//Socket setup
var io = socket(server);

This is my index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Socket Sender</title>
        <script src="https://cdn.socket.io/3.1.1/socket.io.min.js" integrity="sha384-gDaozqUvc4HTgo8iZjwth73C6dDDeOJsAgpxBcMpZYztUfjHXpzrpdrHRdVp8ySO" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
    </head>
<body onload="redirect()">
    <button id="send">Send</button>
    <div id="table_container">
    </div>
    <script language=javascript>
        function redirect(){
          window.location = "index.php";
        }
    </script>
    <!--<script src="/receiver.js"></script>-->
</body>
</html>

As you can see, I used a workaround to connect to a php file. So the index.html should redirect to index.php but for some reason the browser only downloads index.php and doesn't render that file.

Can help?

express node.js php
1 Answers

Ciao Michele,

you can try with a PHP interpreter for NodeJS, it is called php-express. So, first of all need to install it with:

npm install php-express

than your project structure must be:

./ index.js
--/public/index.html // <--- html file for redirect
--/views/index.php // <--- your php file

index.js

var express = require('express');
var socket = require('socket.io');
var phpExpress = require('php-express')({
    binPath: 'php'
});

var app = express();

//App setup
var server = app.listen(4000, function() {
    console.log('listening on requests on port 4000');
});


app.engine('php', phpExpress.engine);

app.all(/.+\.php$/, phpExpress.router);

//Static files
app.use(express.static('public'));


//Socket setup
var io = socket(server);
  • in index.html need to append href attribute to window.location

example of your index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Socket Sender</title>
    <script src="https://cdn.socket.io/3.1.1/socket.io.min.js" integrity="sha384-gDaozqUvc4HTgo8iZjwth73C6dDDeOJsAgpxBcMpZYztUfjHXpzrpdrHRdVp8ySO" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
</head>
<body onload="redirect()">
<button id="send">Send</button>
<div id="table_container">
</div>
<script language=javascript>
    function redirect(){
        window.location.href = 'index.php';
    }
</script>
<!--<script src="/receiver.js"></script>-->
</body>
</html>

than an example of your index.php file

<?php

echo "Hello World";

?>

as finally run your express web server with:

node index.js
user_18945920
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