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
Clients Webserver
(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
Clients Webserver

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 Worldn');
}).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. #1 Reason
l33tness

12. Use same language on
the frontend and
backend!

13. Websockets!!!!

14. Websockets
● Persistent connection to server via web
browser
● Low latency
● Bi-directional
● Much better than XHR long polling (comet)

15. The possibilities...
● Games
● News feeds
● Chat
● Real-time applications

16. Awesome!
Let's ditch PHP!
Or use the right tool for the right job...

17. Reasons to use PHP still
● 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

18. Oh yeah, the integrating part...
Memcache/redis/
something else
Session data Session data
PHP Node

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)
$handler = new LboySessionSaveHandler($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