socket.io with express

Question

i have a project and I'm using socket.io with express ,

so what i need (i tried) is broadcasting a message but from an express action. is this possible i don't know how to get a reference to send or broadcast.

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
//i need to send messages from here 
});

Other things like using both express+socket.io is working with me :)

Answer 1

As long as I understand,

Why not use the socket message type as an event instead of a http get or post? On the client side you would send a message via the websocket with let's say an event property.

So in your case:

<script>
  // Initialize socket.io ...

  // and then
  socket.send({event: 'homepage loaded', foo: 'bar'});
</script>

And on the server side:

var io = io.listen(server);

io.on('connection', function (client) {
  client.on('message', function (message) {
    if (message.event == 'homepage loaded') {
      client.broadcast(...);
    }
  });
});