Chat application using socket.io not connecting when deploying on production server

Question

I am trying to implement chat application using nodejs and socket.io. The application works on localhost. But when I deploy same on my production server then socket.io can't make any connection.

Code for server.js

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var socket = require('socket.io');
var chat_controller = require('./controllers/ChatController.js');
var user_controller = require('./controllers/UserController.js');
var Group_controller = require('./controllers/GroupChatController.js');

app.get('/search', function (req, res) {
    user_controller.get(req, res);
});
app.get('/groupSearch', function (req, res) {
    user_controller.get(req, res);
});
var server = app.listen(3600, function () {
    var host = server.address().address
    var port = server.address().port
    console.log("Example app listening at http://%s:%s", host, port)
});

var io = socket(server);
io.on('connection', (socket) => {
    console.log('made socket connection', socket.id);
    socket.broadcast.emit('userconnected');
    chat_controller.respond(io, socket);
    Group_controller.respond(io, socket);
    user_controller.respond(io, socket);
});
io.on('disconnect', function () {
    console.log('made socket disconnect', socket.id);
});

Code for client.js

var socket = io.connect('https://www.mywebsite.com', {
    path: '/apichat'
});
 /* Other events related to socket. */

As my server uses SSL I can't used IP:PORT directly so I am using ProxyPass as

ProxyPass /apichat http://127.0.0.1:3600

After all this still socket connection is not established between server and client.

Error shown in browser console is:

POST https://www.mywebsite.com/apichat/?EIO=3&transport=polling&t=MUc-TJK 404 (Not Found)

And in browser Network tab it shows:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Error</title>
</head>
<body>
<pre>Cannot POST /</pre>
</body>
</html>

I have checked many other questions posted here and other sites but no question address this issue.

Please Help.

soodssr soodssr · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-20T12:36:09

The issue you are encountering is probably due to ssl enabled on your website. You need to pass ssl related files in your app.js file. Sample code for this is as follow:

var fs = require('fs');
var options = {
   key: fs.readFileSync('PATH_TO_SSL_KEYS.key'),
   cert: fs.readFileSync('PATH_TO_SSL_CERTS.crt'),
   ca: fs.readFileSync('PATH_TO_SSL.pem')
};
var app = require('https').createServer(options, handler), io = require('socket.io').listen(app);

io.set('transports', [ 
  'websocket', 
  'flashsocket', 
  'htmlfile', 
  'xhr-polling', 
  'jsonp-polling', 
  'polling'
]);
function handler(req, res) {
  res.writeHead(200);
  res.end("welcome sir!");
}
var chat_controller = require('./controllers/ChatController.js');
var user_controller = require('./controllers/UserController.js');

io.sockets.on('connection', function (socket) {
  socket.broadcast.emit('userconnected');
  chat_controller.respond(io, socket);
  user_controller.respond(io, socket);

  socket.on('message', function (data) {
    socket.broadcast.emit('message', data);
  });
});  
io.on('disconnect', function (socket) {
  console.log('made socket disconnect', socket.id);

});
app.listen(3300);

Try editing your application file as per above mentioned sample code and then try to use it. If you can't get path to ssl related file, then you need to contact either your system administrator or the hosting provider.

I hope it helped.

Chat application using socket.io not connecting when deploying on production server

1 Answers