php-node Node Express cannot find module - php

Question

The error is:
Cannot find module 'php'
Error: Cannot find module 'php'
at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:336:15)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:278:25)
at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
at require (module.js:384:17)
at new View (F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\publisherServer\node_modules\express\lib\view.js:50:49)
at EventEmitter.app.render (F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\publisherServer\node_modules\express\lib\application.js:545:12)
at ServerResponse.res.render (F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\publisherServer\node_modules\express\lib\response.js:938:7)
at F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\publisherServer\routes\index.js:12:6
at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\publisherServer\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:82:5)
at next (F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\publisherServer\node_modules\express\lib\router\route.js:110:13)
The Route for this page to render as php is as follows:
router.get('/index.php', function(req, res, next) {
var render = require('php-node')({bin:"F:\\xampp\php\\php.exe"});
res.render('index.php');
});
I have run a npm install -g, npm install node-php -g at both project level and level above with no success:
F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\publisherServer>npm install -g
publisherServer#0.0.0 F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_mod
ules\publisherServer
├── php-node#0.0.2
├── debug#2.2.0 (ms#0.7.1)
├── serve-favicon#2.2.1 (ms#0.7.1, fresh#0.2.4, parseurl#1.3.0, etag#1.6.0)
├── cookie-parser#1.3.5 (cookie#0.1.3, cookie-signature#1.0.6)
├── morgan#1.5.3 (basic-auth#1.0.1, depd#1.0.1, on-finished#2.2.1)
├── body-parser#1.12.4 (bytes#1.0.0, content-type#1.0.1, depd#1.0.1, raw-body#2.
0.2, on-finished#2.2.1, qs#2.4.2, iconv-lite#0.4.8, type-is#1.6.2)
├── express#4.12.4 (merge-descriptors#1.0.0, utils-merge#1.0.0, methods#1.1.1, f
resh#0.2.4, cookie#0.1.2, escape-html#1.0.1, cookie-signature#1.0.6, range-parse
r#1.0.2, content-type#1.0.1, parseurl#1.3.0, finalhandler#0.3.6, vary#1.0.0, ser
ve-static#1.9.3, content-disposition#0.5.0, path-to-regexp#0.1.3, depd#1.0.1, on
-finished#2.2.1, qs#2.4.2, etag#1.6.0, proxy-addr#1.0.8, send#0.12.3, type-is#1.
6.2, accepts#1.2.7)
├── hjs#0.0.6 (hogan.js#3.0.2)
└── less-middleware#1.0.4 (mkdirp#0.3.5, node.extend#1.0.10, less#1.7.5)
F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\publisherServer>npm start
> publisherServer#0.0.0 start F:\Users\MichaelJacksonIsDead\publisherServer
> node ./bin/www
GET /index.php 500 41.145 ms - 954
Does anyone have any expirence with this issue? As far as I can tell I have correctly installed it... also to make sure I added the package to my json file as follows:
"dependencies": {
"body-parser": "~1.12.4",
"cookie-parser": "~1.3.5",
"debug": "~2.2.0",
"express": "~4.12.4",
"hjs": "~0.0.6",
"less-middleware": "1.0.x",
"morgan": "~1.5.3",
"serve-favicon": "~2.2.1",
"php-node": "0.0.2"
}
Lastly I did not have enough rep to open a tag php-node for the project # https://www.npmjs.com/package/php-node, not a issue but would of been nice to have a more speficic tag :)

Answer 1

I have found the answer, thank you #mscdex and #adeneo
I replaced the default:
// view engine setup
app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
app.set('view engine', 'hjs');
with
// use PHP as view engine in Express
var phpnode = require('php-node')({bin:"F:\\xampp\\php\\php.exe"});
app.engine('php', phpnode);
app.set('view engine', 'php');
under routes:
/* GET home page. */
router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
res.render('index.hjs', { title: 'Express' });
});
router.get('/index.php', function(req, res, next) {
res.render('index.php');
});
The app still supports php and index.hjs pages.

Answer 2

You should only use -g when you're installing a module from npm that contains a command line utility (e.g. express-generator is an example of this). However in almost all cases you should just simply do npm install <module name> which will install the module locally and allow you to require() it.
So do npm install in your project's root directory and require() should be able to find php-node.

Answer 3

only if the plugin are use you are not 100% happy of it there is a simple method(this is only a prototype so if you are node.js expert you may improve it) to build FROM ONLY ONE SERVER APPS NODE.JS - PHP (and theoretical you have yet sqlite3 and after installing a mariadb or mysql server you can use them as well) :
https://stackoverflow.com/a/68422021/5781320