Question

Installation of socket.io package on Windows 7 x64 bit environment over Express 3.x gives me very hard time.

I had to sort out tens or compilation errors and I had to install the following Windows 7 package for the installation process output no error:

• Cygwin C++ compiler
• Cygin C++ extra-library
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express
• Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0
• Microsoft Performance Toolkit Microsoft Windows SDK 7.1
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Compiler Update for the Windows SDK 7.1.

(Visual Studio compiler gives me a warning C4267 (see bellow))

Despite of that correct installation I still have client side error:

Error: io is not defined
var socket = io.connect('/');

I followed the recommendation for socket.io.js to be served by nodejs server with app.js:

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

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

Client side decalaration in jade file is :

script(src='/socket.io/socket.io.js')

And my client script section for socket.io is :

var socket = io.connect('/');

socket.io is installed into the node-login directory which is where are located my app/public and app/server directories.

socket.io installation log:

D:\dev\node-login>npm install socket.io
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/socket.io
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/socket.io
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/socket.io-client/0.9.11
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/policyfile/0.0.4
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/base64id/0.1.0
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/redis/0.7.3
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/socket.io-client/0.9.11
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/base64id/0.1.0
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/policyfile/0.0.4
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/redis/0.7.3
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/uglify-js/1.2.5
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/ws
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/xmlhttprequest/1.4.2
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/active-x-obfuscator/0.0.1
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/active-x-obfuscator/0.0.1
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/uglify-js/1.2.5
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/xmlhttprequest/1.4.2
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/ws
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/zeparser/0.0.5
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/commander
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/options
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/zeparser/0.0.5
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/commander
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/options

> ws@0.4.25 install D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\socket
.io-client\node_modules\ws
> (node-gyp rebuild 2> builderror.log) || (exit 0)


D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\socket.io-client\node_modu
les\ws>node "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node-gyp-bin\\..\..\no
de_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" rebuild
  bufferutil.cc
..\src\bufferutil.cc(55): warning C4267: 'initializing' : conversion from 'size
_t' to 'unsigned int', possible loss of data [D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\so
cket.io\node_modules\socket.io-client\node_modules\ws\build\bufferutil.vcxproj]
..\src\bufferutil.cc(66): warning C4267: 'initializing' : conversion from 'size
_t' to 'unsigned int', possible loss of data [D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\so
cket.io\node_modules\socket.io-client\node_modules\ws\build\bufferutil.vcxproj]
C:\Users\Vivaldi\.node-gyp\0.8.17\deps\v8\include\v8.h(183): warning C4506: no
definition for inline function 'v8::Persistent<T> v8::Persistent<T>::New(v8::Ha
ndle<T>)' [D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\socket.io-clie
nt\node_modules\ws\build\bufferutil.vcxproj]
          with
          [
              T=v8::Object
          ]
     Creating library D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\soc
  ket.io-client\node_modules\ws\build\Release\bufferutil.lib and object D:\dev\
  node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\socket.io-client\node_modules\
  ws\build\Release\bufferutil.exp
  Generating code
  Finished generating code
  bufferutil.vcxproj -> D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\s
  ocket.io-client\node_modules\ws\build\Release\\bufferutil.node
  validation.cc
C:\Users\Vivaldi\.node-gyp\0.8.17\deps\v8\include\v8.h(183): warning C4506: no
definition for inline function 'v8::Persistent<T> v8::Persistent<T>::New(v8::Ha
ndle<T>)' [D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\socket.io-clie
nt\node_modules\ws\build\validation.vcxproj]
          with
          [
              T=v8::Object
          ]
     Creating library D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\soc
  ket.io-client\node_modules\ws\build\Release\validation.lib and object D:\dev\
  node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\socket.io-client\node_modules\
  ws\build\Release\validation.exp
  Generating code
  Finished generating code
  validation.vcxproj -> D:\dev\node-login\node_modules\socket.io\node_modules\s
  ocket.io-client\node_modules\ws\build\Release\\validation.node
socket.io@0.9.13 node_modules\socket.io
+-- base64id@0.1.0
+-- policyfile@0.0.4
+-- redis@0.7.3
+-- socket.io-client@0.9.11 (xmlhttprequest@1.4.2, uglify-js@1.2.5, active-x-obf
uscator@0.0.1, ws@0.4.25)

D:\dev\node-login>

Why the client can’t find socket.io.js?

Answer 1

Answered here: https://github.com/LearnBoost/socket.io/issues/944

Change this

var server = http.createServer(app);

into this

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

Also I’m really surprised that you had such a pain to install it. I agree there is more pain to install various web related things on windows then linux, but node and all packages coming with it is NOT one of those. At least I had no problems with it, simple installation and then packages management via nmp makes it as easy as it would be on linux.