Express.js vhost subdomain set up

Question

Trying to set up connect's vhost middleware. Would love some help.

I've got my normal express.js app, with node_modules, public, views and routes directories. I've added another directory next to those which holds another express.js app.

I've added this line to my top level app (tedxgramercy):

app.use(express.vhost('chatter.tedxgramercy.com', require('./chatter/app.js').app));

And this line to my chatter app:

var app = exports.app = express();

The chatter app calls listen on port 8000, the main (top level) app calls listen on port 3000. I don't know if that's right.

When I launch my app (node app) it runs fine and I can access both apps on localhost:3000 and localhost:8000 respectively, but when I deploy to my server, the subdomain http://chatter.tedxgramercy.com doesn't work.

Any pointers? Do I have to change my DNS to point to the other port or something?

Answer 1

It's a simple, but somewhat tricky setup.

First, the main app.js:

var vhost = require('vhost');

app.use(vhost('chatter.tedxgramercy.com', require('./chatter/app').app))
app.use(router);

I included the router to make it clear that it is critical for it to be used after configuring virtual hosts.

Then, in chatter/app.js:

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

app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
app.set('view engine', 'jade');

var router = express.Router();

router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
  res.render('index');
});

app.use(router);

exports.app = app;

This is the bare minimum setup to render a Jade template in a sub app. Notice that app is exported, but no server is actually started since the main app is the server.