Node.js: Receive events from browser

Question

How do I receive events from the browser in my node.js code? (e.g: I imagine Mixpanel, kissmetrics, etc do something like this?

thanks

@Lime I want to receive events from the browser such as "User signed up", "User logged in", etc. and read them on my Node.js server. Thanks — donald, Jul 20 '11 at 08:34

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 19 '11 at 19:25

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The same way any other web server receives events from the browser: the browser makes an HTTP request to the URL of your server and the server receives that request. Listening for HTTP requests is the "Hello World" example for node.js.

answered Jul 19 '11 at 19:25

Dan Grossman

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 19 '11 at 19:34

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What you're looking for is http://hummingbirdstats.com/ realtime stats 20 times a second.

You should also checkout socket.io if you haven't. Websockets events are faster than HTTP requests.

answered Jul 19 '11 at 19:34

generalhenry

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Can I use socket.io to know when a user clicks a button for example? would that work for that use case as well and not only pageviews? – donald Jul 19 '11 at 19:47
You could track clicks with AJAX calls, they're one every couple seconds. With socket.io you can go as far as tracking mouse-movements, sending in data multiple times a seconds so see the mice moving in real time. – generalhenry Jul 19 '11 at 19:55
But how do I know that the mice is moving? Or that the user has clicked in the button? Don't I have to add a "onClick()" ? – donald Jul 19 '11 at 20:03
Yes, on the client side (using jQuery) it's something like `$('body').mousemove( function (e) { socket.emit('mousemove',{x:e.pageX,y:e.pageY}); } );` – generalhenry Jul 19 '11 at 20:06
AJAX example: `$('button').click(function(){ $.post('/buttonClick',{...}); });` – generalhenry Jul 19 '11 at 20:12

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 19 '11 at 19:25

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You have to send them to your server, via AJAX or some similar method.

Remember, node code runs on the server; the browser runs on the client. The way to get information back and forth from a server to a client running a web browser is an HTTP request.

answered Jul 19 '11 at 19:25

Paul Sonier

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 19 '11 at 20:46

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I recommend dnode. Search for dnode on the browser in the README. It's a quick and complete example of making a RPC. In this case the remote function would be an event handler.

It uses socket.io, which supports websockets, flash sockets, and xhr.

answered Jul 19 '11 at 20:46

Benjamin Atkin

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Node.js: Receive events from browser

4 Answers4