I suggest you use Socket.io along side node.js. Install and download the libs from http://socket.io/. You can run it along side your Apache server no problems.
First create a node server:
var http = require('http')
, url = require('url')
, fs = require('fs')
, io = require('../')//path to your socket.io lib
, sys = require(process.binding('natives').util ? 'util' : 'sys')
, server;
server = http.createServer(function(req, res){
var path = url.parse(req.url).pathname;
}),
server.listen(8084);//This could be almost any port number
Second, run your server from the command line using:
node /path/to/your/server.js
Third, connect to the socket using client side js:
var socket = new io.Socket(null, {port: 8084, rememberTransport: false});
socket.connect();
You will have to have include the socket.io lib client side aswell.
Send data from client side to the node server using:
socket.send({data:data});
Your server.js should also have functions for processing requests:
io.on('connection', function(client){
//action when client connets
client.on('message', function(message){
//action when client sends msg
});
client.on('disconnect', function(){
//action when client disconnects
});
});
There are two main ways to send data from the server to the client:
client.send({ data: data});//sends it back to the client making the request
and
client.broadcast({ data: data});//sends it too every client connected to the server
