I've developed an application that I would like to use meteor.js for real time updates (I want to enhance but not change my program, for example when a user adds a comments make it update in real-time ) . Problem is meteor.js uses node.js (so javascript as server-side code). I use LAMP stack, Is it possible to get PHP to feed data into meteor.js from mysql.
Meteor is more than just an 'interactive webapplication'-builder or javascript framework. The idea is to have only one programming language (besides HTML/CSS for markup) to do all the work. Basically it creates a 'remote server' (in the clients browser) it can push data to and at the same time it publishes various API's to the users system. The data passed through these API's / connections has a specific structure which has to be adhered at all time.
Meteor is built around NodeJS, which makes it hard (if not impossible) to run it without this backend. Sure you can try to mimic the backend using PHP, but it would be a waste of time. Reading your question you'll be better of using a javascript framework like jQuery or Prototype. Unlike Meteor you will need to do the AJAX calls (POST & CallBack) yourself, but you can actually decide which backend you want to use yourself (including PHP / MySQL).
If you want to do this anyway you need to check the Meteor & NodeJS source code to see what the minimum requirements are to make Meteor run under PHP. The PHP stack has to interpret the commands Meteor sends and receivers, but this won't be an easy task.
You can use comet (or reverse ajax) for realtime updates.
Trying to marry node.js with PHP doesn't sound like a worthwhile path to go down. If someone insisted on using a system like Meteor.js, yet with a PHP back-end, it would make more sense to look at AngularJS which is mainly the client side.
Of course, that is different technology stack. If someone really insisted on the blending, one could consider using server side sockets to interact with PHP Web services; and/or use mongodb and/or mysql-node to interact with the same databases.
I released a meteorite package that interacts with a Wordpress site that has the Wordpress JSON API. A quick fix. For now.
Comes with a backend call that will return the raw data, or a publication that stores the posts using their id's instead of a randomly generated mongoid. And some basic templates to get you started including a Session variable that keeps track of the currently selected post.
I'm working on it a lot more and will eventually have a version that directly makes mysql calls from node so you won't need php or Wordpress; just the ability to access the mysql database (which can be remote, with the appropriate configuration, or on the same machine).
Related
I am relatively new to node.js and socket.io. Currently I have a half finished private web project, which runs only with PHP with a MySQL database on the server side. I decided to bring it to a more advanced level using socket.io, for several features within the project.
So I read a lot about it and watched a whole bunch of tutorials. Also I found this and this during my research.
My question is, if that is still the common way to develop a web application?
More exactly: to use on one event (like a form submit) both an AJAX request and a socket.emit, for those events it is necessary/wanted.
The background of this thought is the following. I have a whole bunch of calculations running now in PHP. And the node.js server runs logically in JavaScript. So I can easily implement a node.js server without changing anything on my AJAX requests. Or rewrite everything I have so far, to js and use only a node.js server.
But this leads to 3 more questions:
Which runs possibly faster on the server side. A calculation scripted with PHP or JavaScript?
How to use transactions on a node.js server while using MySQL?
And how great is the influence by converting a PHP array to a JSON object, what you could avoid with the usage of just the node.js server where you don't need to convert anything.
JavaScript is executed on the client side so you are limited by the user's hardware whereas PHP is executed on your server. See this post for more info about performance comparaison.
I highly suggest you take a look at this pure node.js client that will perfectly do the job in your case.
PHP has many functions to use on JSON data (json_decode(), json_encode(), ...) but Node.js don't require JSON data to be converted. In the end, it really depend on your usage and how you plan to store and use that data
Ive built an AngularJS application over the last several months that utilizes a MySQL database for its data. This data is fetched by Angular making calls to PHP and PHP returns JSON strings etc.
The issue is once this application is running inside node-webkit, none of the php works, so all of the content areas are empty. I assume (though the documentation on this issue is null and so i have no confirmation) this happens because Node-webkit is a client-side application framework and therefor wont run server-side languages like php. Is there a way to expand node webkit to run php and other server side languages?
I have done my best to find an answer to this question before posting, but documentation for this is nonexistent, and all of the information I have found about node-webkit talks about installing node on your server and installing npms for MySQL and having angular make calls to node. This defeats the purpose of the application entirely as it is designed so that the exe/deb/rpm/dmg can run and you can set up a database with any cloud database provider and be ready to go. Not ideal if you have to buy a vps just to run this one thing.
I have to assume this is possible in some way. i refuse to believe that everyone with an nw application hard codes all their data.
Thanks in advance
I know of four methods to accomplish this. Some of which you have preferred not to do but I am going to offer them in the hopes it helps you or someone else.
Look for an NPM that can do this for you. You should be able to do this functionality within node.js. - https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=mysql
You can host your PHP remotely. Using node-remote you can give this server the appropriate access to your NW.js project.
You can code a RESTful PHP application that your JavaScript can pass off information to.
You can use my boilerplate code to run PHP within a NW.js project. It however fires up an express.js web server internally to accomplish this. But the server is restricted to the machine and does not accept outside connections - https://github.com/baconface/php-webkit
1 and 4 both carry a risk in your case. Your project can be reversed engineered to reveal the source code and the connection information can be retrieved rather easy. So this should only be in an application on trusted machines and 2 and 3 are the ideal solutions.
I'm attempting to build a notification system for a PHP application. Every time a booking is placed, we need a notification to appear within a specified user account type inside the application.
I'm using CodeIgniter 2 on a virtual dedicated host, so I'd have the option of requesting the installation of whatever is required to get the job done.
So far, I know that PHP has limited powers over how can trigger jQuery, in that it's limited to the web browser. I know that Node.js and Socket.io can do what I want, but how would that tie in with PHP, if at all?
I also know that a polling mechanism would be bad. I've considered a method that would send the row ID via PHP to a jQuery script within the confirmation page, which could — in theory — accomplish what I have in mind, but this would rely on the web browser of the customer, which is a bit weak.
I've spent a couple of days fumbling around this question, since I'm only just getting to grips with jQuery, while I know hardly anything about Node.js or Socket.io, or what they can and cannot do, or — as mentioned earlier — how they connect with PHP.
Any advice would be welcome.
With real time push methods server pushes data to the clients(channel subscribers) whenever there is an event occurs in the server. This method is advanced than pull method like polling etc, and this will be a live communication(ie, client gets live updates from server with no time. In pull method there is a time interval between each query).
Examples for real time push methods: Faye, pusher, socket.io, slanger
Most of the real time push methods are built on ruby or nodejs. So if you wish to setup your on real time server you must setup them in your server(probably ruby or nodejs) and you can communicate with that server from php using curl statements.
Also there are php libraries available for these operations.
If you like to setup slanger then you can use the pusher php library itself (may be you need to modify it slightly to use with slanger). And if you like to use faye then here is a php library wrote my self: faye php wrapper
You could store notifications in database, with corresponding timestamp.
Then, use long pooling to receive messages in jQuery, that calls PHP for notifications.
Cool example was given in this anwser:
How do I implement basic "Long Polling"?
I'm setting up a realtime app that will be using socket.io. There's currently some core functionally in php, that utilizes memcache and mysql backend.
Would it make sense in the socket.io server to do an ajax request (if that's even possible) to the php page that handles this? There's a lot of MySQL querying, I know it can be done in node.js, but I'd rather keep this part abstracted in php if possible.
So, my question is, is that a proper thing to do? Call a php page from within the socket.io server to then return to the client?
Thanks!
I don't see any problems with having your node.js app communicate with your PHP app by exposing a RESTful API or some PHP script that you can POST to or GET from your socket.io node.js server. There are plenty of npm modules (like request) that can make HTTP requests like that a breeze for you. After retrieving the data from PHP in your node app, you can use socket.io to emit() the data to the socket.io client on the frontend.
There is nothing wrong with that. You are simply using a RESTful API to access the MySQL data, thus isolating the database details.
If one day you are tired of PHP, you can easily switch to Ruby, Python or Whatever for that part without even touching the node.js. If your logic is already written in PHP (you are upgrading an old app), it make even more sense as you can reuse what has already been tested and debugged. A lot of folks are advocating for that kind of separation between systems. Just look at all the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) buzz.
Where I work we are using this very architecture in a project (though in this case its an ASP.NET MVC Website calling a Java EE app) and it served us very well. With the event model of node.js, its even better since you won't block waiting for the PHP.
But of course, there are some drawback
Performance overhead
Architecture is more complicated
You now work with two language instead of only one (though javascript and PHP are so often used together that I don't think it's really is a problem in this case)
So you need to ask yourself if your problem really need that solution. But in a lot of case the answer may be yes. Just don't forget the virtue of Keeping It Simple and Stupid (the KISS principle)
I want to create a live, checkers-like app, which will work like this: There will be multiple icons/avatars displayed on this checkerboard like surface. I want to have a command prompt beneath this board, or some other sort of interface, that will allow them to control a certain avatar, and get it to preform actions. Multiple users will be using it at one time, and I will all be able to view the other user's changes/actions to the checkerboard.
What I'm wondering is: what's the best way to do this? I've got my HTML, CSS, and JS approach down, but not my data storage method. I know that, using PHP, I've got the choices to use either: file-based storage, MYSQL, or some other method. I need to know which is better, because I don't want to have server-lag, poor-response time, or some other issue, especially in this case since actions will be preformed every other second 2 or so, by these multiple users.
I've done similar stuff before, but I'm wanting to hear how others would handle it (advice, etc.) from more experienced programmers.
Sounds like a great project for node.js!
To clarify, node.js is a server-side implementation of javascript. What you'll want is a comet based application (a web-based client application that receives server side pushes instead of the client constantly polling the server), which is exactly what node.js is good at.
Traditional ajax calls for your clients to poll the server for data. This creates enormous overhead for both the client and the server. Allowing the server to push requests directly to the client without the client repeatedly asking solves the overhead issue and creates a more responsive interface. This is accomplished by holding asynchronous client connections on the server and only returning when the server has something to respond with. Once the server responds with data, another connection is immediately created and held by the server again until data is ready to be sent.
You may be able to accomplish the same thing with PHP, but I'm not that familiar with PHP and Comet type applications.
Number of users and hosting costs will play into your file vs DB options. If you're planning on more than a couple of users, I'd stick to the database. There are some NoSQL options available out there, but in my experience MySQL is much faster and more reliable than those options.
Good luck with your project!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_%28programming%29
http://www.nodejs.org/
http://zenmachine.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/node-js-and-comet/
http://socket.io/ - abstracts away the communication layer with your clients based on their capability (LongPolling, WebSockets, etc.)
MySQL and XCache !!!!
Make sure you use predefined statements so MySQL does not need to compile the SQL again. Also memtables could be used to use memory storage
Of course make use of indexes appropriately.
If the 'gamestate' is not that important you can even store everything in XCache.
Remember that XCache does not store data persistently (after Apache restart)