Integrating Node.js with PHP

Presentation I made for PHPHants March 2013 meetup. Also see demo apps:

https://github.com/lboynton/phphants-march-php
https://github.com/lboynton/phphants-march-node

Transcript

1. Integrating Node.js with PHP Lee Boynton PHPHants March 2013 Meetup
2. So... WTF is Node.js?
3. Server-side JavaScript
4. It's single threaded...
5. ...one process serves multiple clients
6. Apache + mod_php Webserver Clients (Example borrowed from Marc Gear's excellent server side scripting smack down)
7. nginx + php-fpm Still pretty similar, there is a pool of available PHP processes
8. Node.js Webserver Clients
9. A simple Node.js webserver var http = require('http'); http.createServer(function (req, res) { res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'}); res.end('Hello World\n'); }).listen(1337, '127.0.0.1'); console.log('Server running at http://127. 0.0.1:1337/');
10. Why should I use Node.js then?
11. l33tness #1 Reason
12. Use same language on the frontend and backend!
13. Websockets!!!!
14. • Persistent connection to server via web browser • Low latency • Bi-directional • Much better than XHR long polling (comet) Websockets
15. • Games • News feeds • Chat • Real-time applications The possibilities...
16. Awesome! Let's ditch PHP! Or use the right tool for the right job...
17. • PHP works • Familiarity, maturity • Existing code in PHP • Node still in its infancy (created in 2009) ◦ Not as many frameworks, libraries ◦ May have to write more code for some basic things ◦ APIs may change, not version 1.0 yet Reasons to use PHP still
18. Oh yeah, the integrating part... Memcache/redis/ something else PHP Node Session data Session data
19. However... Sessions are serialized by PHP: not|a:2:{i:0;s:4:"easy";i:1;a:1:{s:2:"to";s:5:"parse";}} Easier to parse JSON in Node.js: {"this": {"is": "easier"}}
20. Use my session save handler... On Packagist: lboynton/memcached-json- session-save-handler Or msgpack: https://github. com/msgpack/msgpack-php • ini_set('session.serialize_handler', 'msgpack')
21. Quick example... (PHP) // create connection to memcached $memcached = new Memcached(); $memcached->addServer('localhost', 11211); // register handler (PHP 5.3 compatible) $handler = new Lboy\Session\SaveHandler($memcached); session_set_save_handler( array($handler, 'open'), array($handler, 'close'), array($handler, 'read'), array($handler, 'write'), array($handler, 'destroy'), array($handler, 'gc') ); register_shutdown_function('session_write_close'); session_start(); // start using the session $_SESSION['serialisation'] = 'this should be in json';
22. Quick example... (Node.js) 1. Get session ID from cookie 2. Get session data out of memcached 3. Use session data to identify client and send relevant info to their browser See demo app...
23. Conclusion... • Using Node is fun... • Good way to add real-time functionality to existing website • Can be used for much more
24. Links • http://nodejs.org/ • https://npmjs.org/ • http://socket.io/ • https://packagist. org/packages/lboynton/memcached-json- session-save-handler • https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-php • https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-node