This may be a very basic question but I simply don't get it. What is the difference between creating an app using Express.js and starting the app listening on port 1234, for example:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
//app.configure, app.use etc
app.listen(1234);
and adding an http server:
var express = require('express');
var http = require('http');
var app = express();
var server = http.createServer(app);
//app.configure, app.use etc
server.listen(1234);
What's the difference?
If I navigate to http://localhost:1234
, thus I get the same output.
Best Answer
The second form (creating an HTTP server yourself, instead of having Express create one for you) is useful if you want to reuse the HTTP server, for example to run
socket.io
within the same HTTP server instance:However,
app.listen()
also returns the HTTP server instance, so with a bit of rewriting you can achieve something similar without creating an HTTP server yourself: