nodebox

This is a "Hello World" for Node.js, but it's sandboxed in a VirtualBox VM. Experiment with Node, blow it up, start over. Configure a development VM with code reloading and Node listening right on port 80, or configure a production-ish VM with nginx proxying to a daemonized Node process.

Dependencies

NodeBox uses Vagrant to create VirtualBox virtual machines that are then provisioned with Chef (solo). Your host machine needs to be set up for Ruby and RubyGems, and you need to download VirtualBox 4.0.x. The Vagrant getting started guide has more information on Vagrant's dependencies.

Install vagrant: $ gem install vagrant

nodebox.json

NodeBox is configured using the required nodebox.json file in this directory. Current options (no promises that they will remain stable any time in the near future):

app_name:     your application's name. this affects various directory names on
              the VM (e.g. the app directory is /var/www/app_name/)

environment:  "development" or "production". see below for details.

app_port:     Node listens on this port on the VM. Should be 80 for "development"

host_port:    Vagrant forwards this port on the host to port 80 on the VM.
              Point your host browser at localhost:host_port to see the app.

modules:      An array of modules that will be installed on the VM by npm.

node_version: Self explanatory. No guarantee that all node versions will work.
              Last tested on Node.js 0.8.2

npm_version:  Self explanatory. No guarantee that all node versions will work.
              Last tested on npm 1.1.24

Development NodeBox

$ git clone git://github.com/waldvogel/nodebox.git
$ cd nodebox
$ vagrant up

... make your coffee ...

After configuring the VM, the supervisor module logs the output to /tmp/node.log. This allows you to see errors and console output in your shell. Supervisor reloads code on changes. To see the output you can do this:

vagrant ssh -c 'tailf /tmp/node.log'

This will log into the VM and tail the file. Abort with Ctrl-C

On the host machine you can acces the app via:

http://localhost:8000

Now, change something in app.js. Supervisor reloads the code, so you can view your changes right away with another curl on the host.

Production-ish NodeBox

Edit the environment in nodebox.json

{
  ...
  "environment": "production",
  ...
}

$ vagrant reload

Acknowledgements

NodeBox uses Chef cookbooks by opscode and mdxp. Using Monit and Upstart was not my idea.