Exploring the HTTP Object | Node Cookbook

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Node Cookbook

By : David Mark Clements

4 (9)

Node Cookbook

4 (9)

By: David Mark Clements

Overview of this book

The principles of asynchronous event-driven programming are perfect for today's web, where efficient real-time applications and scalability are at the forefront. Server-side JavaScript has been here since the 90's but Node got it right. With a thriving community and interest from Internet giants, it could be the PHP of tomorrow. "Node Cookbook" shows you how to transfer your JavaScript skills to server side programming. With simple examples and supporting code, "Node Cookbook" talks you through various server side scenarios often saving you time, effort, and trouble by demonstrating best practices and showing you how to avoid security faux pas. Beginning with making your own web server, the practical recipes in this cookbook are designed to smoothly progress you to making full web applications, command line applications, and Node modules. Node Cookbook takes you through interfacing with various database backends such as MySQL, MongoDB and Redis, working with web sockets, and interfacing with network protocols, such as SMTP. Additionally, there are recipes on correctly performing heavy computations, security implementations, writing, your own Node modules and different ways to take your apps live.

Node Cookbook

Node Cookbook

Credits

Credits

About the Author

About the Author

About the Reviewers

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

www.PacktPub.com

Preface

Preface

Free Chapter

Making a Web Server

Making a Web Server

Introduction

Setting up a router

Serving static files

Caching content in memory for immediate delivery

Optimizing performance with streaming

Securing against filesystem hacking exploits

Exploring the HTTP Object

Exploring the HTTP Object

Introduction

Processing POST data

Handling file uploads

Using Node as an HTTP client

Implementing download throttling

Working with Data Serialization

Working with Data Serialization

Introduction

Converting an object to JSON and back again

Converting an object to XML and back again

Browser-server transmission via AJAX

Working with real data: fetching trending tweets

Interfacing with Databases

Interfacing with Databases

Introduction

Writing to a CSV file

Connecting and sending SQL to a MySQL server

Storing and retrieving data with MongoDB

Storing and retrieving data with Mongoskin

Storing data to CouchDB with Cradle

Retrieving data from CouchDB with Cradle

Accessing CouchDB changes stream with Cradle

Storing and retrieving data with Redis

Implementing PubSub with Redis

Transcending AJAX: Using WebSockets

Transcending AJAX: Using WebSockets

Introduction

Creating a WebSocket server

Seamless fallbacking with socket.io

Callbacks over socket.io transport

Creating a real-time widget

Accelerating Development with Express

Accelerating Development with Express

Introduction

Generating Express scaffolding

Defining and applying environments

Dynamic routing

Templating in Express

CSS engines with Express

Initializing and using a session

Making an Express web app

Implementing Security, Encryption, and Authentication

Implementing Security, Encryption, and Authentication

Introduction

Implementing Basic Authentication

Cryptographic password hashing

Implementing Digest Authentication

Setting up an HTTPS web server

Preventing cross-site request forgery

Integrating Network Paradigms

Integrating Network Paradigms

Introduction

Sending email

Sending SMS

Communicating with TCP

Creating an SMTP server

Implementing a virtual hosting paradigm

Writing Your Own Node Modules

Writing Your Own Node Modules

Introduction

Creating a test-driven module API

Writing a functional module mock-up

Refactoring from functional to prototypical

Extending the module's API

Deploying a module to npm

Taking It Live

Taking It Live

Introduction

Deploying to a server environment

Automatic crash recovery

Continuous deployment

Hosting with a Platform as a Service provider

Processing POST data

If we want to be able to receive POST data, we have to instruct our server on how to accept and handle a POST request. In PHP we could access our POST values seamlessly with $_POST['fieldname'], because it would block until an array value was filled. By contrast, Node provides low-level interaction with the flow of HTTP data allowing us to interface with the incoming message body as a stream, leaving it entirely up to the developer to turn that stream into usable data.

Getting ready

Let's create a server.js file ready for our code, and an HTML file called form.html, containing the following code:

<form method=post>
<input type=text name=userinput1><br>
<input type=text name=userinput2><br>
<input type=submit>
</form>

Note

For our purposes, we'll place form.html in the same folder as server.js, though this is not generally a recommended practice. Usually, we should place our public code in a separate folder from our server code....

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