795233 - node/express "hello world" does not seem to work

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Petri Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

While debugging etherpad-lite failing to start up (even though the log output looks fine), I decided to try the "hello world" example from the docs:

http://docs.cloudfoundry.com/frameworks/nodejs/nodejs.html

```
$ cat package.json 
{
 "name":"hello-node",
  "version":"0.0.1",
  "dependencies":{
      "express":""
  }
}

$ cat app.js 
var app = require('express').createServer();
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
    res.send('Hello from Cloud Foundry');
});
app.listen(3000);


$ vmc push
Would you like to deploy from the current directory? [Yn]: 
Application Name: hello-node
Application Deployed URL [hello-node.vcap.mozillalabs.com]: 
Detected a Node.js Application, is this correct? [Yn]: 
Memory Reservation (64M, 128M, 256M, 512M, 1G) [64M]: 
Creating Application: OK
Would you like to bind any services to 'hello-node'? [yN]: 
Uploading Application:
  Checking for available resources: OK
  Processing resources: OK
  Packing application: OK
  Uploading (18K): OK   
Push Status: OK
Staging Application: OK                                                         
Starting Application: ..........................
Error: Application [hello-node] failed to start, logs information below.

====> logs/stderr.log <====

Warning: express.createServer() is deprecated, express
applications no longer inherit from http.Server,
please use:

  var express = require("express");
  var app = express();



Delete the application? [Yn]: 
```

If I run the app.js locally I get the deprecation warnings, but it does work fine.

Comment 1

[Philippe M. Chiasson (:gozer)]

(In reply to Robert Helmer [:rhelmer] from comment #0)
> While debugging etherpad-lite failing to start up (even though the log
> output looks fine), I decided to try the "hello world" example from the docs:
> 
> http://docs.cloudfoundry.com/frameworks/nodejs/nodejs.html
> 
> ```
> $ cat package.json 
> {
>  "name":"hello-node",
>   "version":"0.0.1",
>   "dependencies":{
>       "express":""
>   }
> }
> 
> $ cat app.js 
> var app = require('express').createServer();
> app.get('/', function(req, res) {
>     res.send('Hello from Cloud Foundry');
> });
> app.listen(3000);
> 
> 
> $ vmc push
> Would you like to deploy from the current directory? [Yn]: 
> Application Name: hello-node
> Application Deployed URL [hello-node.vcap.mozillalabs.com]: 
> Detected a Node.js Application, is this correct? [Yn]: 
> Memory Reservation (64M, 128M, 256M, 512M, 1G) [64M]: 
> Creating Application: OK
> Would you like to bind any services to 'hello-node'? [yN]: 
> Uploading Application:
>   Checking for available resources: OK
>   Processing resources: OK
>   Packing application: OK
>   Uploading (18K): OK   
> Push Status: OK
> Staging Application: OK                                                     
> 
> Starting Application: ..........................
> Error: Application [hello-node] failed to start, logs information below.
> 
> ====> logs/stderr.log <====
> 
> Warning: express.createServer() is deprecated, express
> applications no longer inherit from http.Server,
> please use:
> 
>   var express = require("express");
>   var app = express();
> 
> 
> 
> Delete the application? [Yn]: 
> ```
> 
> If I run the app.js locally I get the deprecation warnings, but it does work
> fine.

Did you use the 'node' or the 'node06' runtimes ? By default, our current cloudfoundry setup uses a somewhat dated version of node, if you use

$> vmc push --framework node06 [...]

You'll run your app under a much newer version of node.js. Can you try that first ?

Comment 2

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

Same deal:

```
$ vmc push --runtime node06
Would you like to deploy from the current directory? [Yn]: 
Application Name: hello-world
Application Deployed URL [hello-world.vcap.mozillalabs.com]: 
Detected a Node.js Application, is this correct? [Yn]: 
Memory Reservation (64M, 128M, 256M, 512M, 1G) [64M]: 
Creating Application: OK
Would you like to bind any services to 'hello-world'? [yN]: 
Uploading Application:
  Checking for available resources: OK
  Processing resources: OK
  Packing application: OK
  Uploading (15K): OK   
Push Status: OK
Staging Application: OK                                                         
Starting Application: ..........................
Error: Application [hello-world] failed to start, logs information below.

====> logs/stderr.log <====

Warning: express.createServer() is deprecated, express
applications no longer inherit from http.Server,
please use:

  var express = require("express");
  var app = express();



Delete the application? [Yn]: 
Deleting application [hello-world]: OK
```

Comment 3

[Philippe M. Chiasson (:gozer)]

Sorry, the reason was just too obvious for me to spot it. In CloudFoundry land, the node.js app must bind on a port that's provided by CloudFoundry. Not a hard-coded port 3000.

So, the small change to make is :

[...]
var port = process.env.VMC_APP_PORT || 3000;
app.listen(port);

Comment 4

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

(In reply to Philippe M. Chiasson (:gozer) from comment #3)
> Sorry, the reason was just too obvious for me to spot it. In CloudFoundry
> land, the node.js app must bind on a port that's provided by CloudFoundry.
> Not a hard-coded port 3000.
> 
> So, the small change to make is :
> 
> [...]
> var port = process.env.VMC_APP_PORT || 3000;
> app.listen(port);

Ah ok that makes sense (that's how heroku works too), thanks!

Would be nice if the docs I linked to mentioned it, presumably it's somewhere in there and I missed it.