I recently had the requirement to implement a global none app store specific leaderboard system that can track scores and players for a mobile game that I am developing in Unity3D. After much investigation node.js seems to be the technology to use to create a server to handle it. I want it to be as quick as possible without having to resort to C++, plus I’ve been looking for an excuse to play with node.js in more detail. Ok, so I went to ovh.net<\/a> and purchased one of their super cheap VPS (Virtual private server). I opted for Debian 8 LAMP (this is the Debian 8 Linux OS with, Apache web server, MySQL and PHP). After reading up the set up instructions, I managed to get logged into my VPS using PUTTY on Windows.<\/p>\n First thing to do is install node.js to the VPS. In the Putty terminal type the following:<\/p>\n Download and run the Nodesource PPA (personal package archive) installer script: Install node.js: Install the build essentials for some packages that require compilation Ok, so now we have node.js installed, its time to create a hello world and run it to ensure that it works. In terminal create hello.js: If you do not have the nano text editor installed then you can install it as follows: Once the file is open add the following code:<\/p>\n [sourcecode language=”js”] Make the script executable: Run the script: Note that the script is blocking because it is sat in an infinite loop waiting for connections, so you can no longer type anything into terminal. To test, run another instance of terminal (Putty on Windows) and enter the following to test the script: The next issue we need to look at is how to make our script run in the background so it does not block. To do that we need install a tool called PM2 (process manager for node.js): Once installed we can set our script off running as a background process with: And to make PM2 re-run when the server reboots: Note that when PM2 restarts it will restart all of its running processes.<\/p>\nInstalling node.js on a VPS<\/h1>\n
\n
\ncd ~
\ncurl -sL https:\/\/deb.nodesource.com\/setup_6.x -o nodesource_setup.sh
\nsudo bash nodesource_setup.sh
\n<\/code><\/p>\n
\n
\nsudo apt-get install nodejs
\n<\/code><\/p>\n
\n
\nsudo apt-get install build-essential
\n<\/code><\/p>\nTesting out the node.js installation<\/h1>\n
\n
\ncd ~
\nnano hello.js
\n<\/code><\/p>\n
\n
\nsudo apt-get install nano
\n<\/code><\/p>\n
\n#!\/usr\/bin\/env nodejs
\nvar http = require(‘http’);
\nhttp.createServer(function (req, res)
\n{
\n res.writeHead(200, {‘Content-Type’: ‘text\/plain’});
\n res.end(‘Hello World!\\n’);
\n}).listen(8080, ‘localhost’);
\nconsole.log(‘Server is running at http:\/\/localhost:8080\/’);
\n[\/sourcecode]<\/p>\n
\n
\nchmod +x .\/hello.js
\n<\/code><\/p>\n
\n
\n.\/hello.js
\n<\/code><\/p>\n
\n
\ncurl http:\/\/localhost:8080
\n<\/code>
\nYou should see “Hello World” printed out which is the response from the hello.js script.<\/p>\nInstalling and using Process Manager (PM2) for node.js<\/h1>\n
\n
\nsudo npm install -g pm2
\n<\/code><\/p>\n
\npm2 start hello.js<\/p>\n
\n
\npm2 startup systemd
\n<\/code><\/p>\nGetting node.js to work with Apache<\/h1>\n