access to HTTP server object in node.js express

Question

I am inside a middleware (function(req, res, next) {...}).

Is there a way to access the HTTP server object from the req?

UPDATE

Let me be more specific. I am trying to find out a port that the server listens on, or unix socket path, if it's listening on that.

Answer 1

How about in your main app file:

var express = require('express');
var http = require('http');
var app = express();

app.use(app.router);

app.get('/', function (req, res, next) {
  console.log(req.socket.server);
});

app.server = http.createServer(app);
app.server.listen(3000);

As Brad mentioned, Express does expose something resembling the object returned from #createServer(), however, TJ has been giving serious consideration to dropping any inclusion of the HTTP module in express in future releases. Using the code above will be future safe.

Answer 2

If what you are trying to do is expose the server object inside your routers, then yeah, middleware is the way to go:

var express = require('express');
var http = require('http');
var app = express();
var server = http.createServer(app);

app.use(function(req, res, next){ //This must be set before app.router
   req.server = server;
   next();
});

app.use(app.router); 

server.listen(3000);

The middleware is used to expose the server object. Then, you can just access it in any of your routers like so:

app.get('/', function (req, res, next) {
  console.log(req.server.get('port')); // displays 3000
});

Answer 3

Function app.listen returns your http server.

Source express/lib/application.js

app.listen = function listen() {
  var server = http.createServer(this);
  return server.listen.apply(server, arguments);
};