Run a Node.js application

Create a website

Create a website in the Control Panel — see Create your first website.

Create server.js

Save this sample script as server.js. It prints information about the server, the request and the environment:

var http = require('http');
var os = require('os');
var url = require('url');

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' });

    let currentPath = process.cwd();
    let scriptPath = __dirname;

    let protocol = req.headers['x-forwarded-proto'] || 'http';
    let currentUrl = protocol + '://' + req.headers.host + req.url;

    const envVariables = [
        "PORT",
        "HTTP_PLATFORM_IIS_APP_POOL_ID",
        "HTTP_PLATFORM_IIS_SITE_ID",
        "HTTP_PLATFORM_IIS_SITE_NAME",
        "HTTP_PLATFORM_IIS_VERSION",
        "HTTP_PLATFORM_IIS_HTTPAUTH",
        "HTTP_PLATFORM_PORT",
        "HTTP_PLATFORM_TOKEN",
        "HTTP_PLATFORM_APPL_PATH",
        "HTTP_PLATFORM_IIS_WEBSOCKETS_SUPPORTED"
    ];

    let html = `
        <h1>Server Information:</h1>
        <ul>
            <li><strong>Node version:</strong> ${process.version}</li>
            <li><strong>Environment:</strong> ${process.env['NODE_ENV']}</li>
            <li><strong>Working Directory:</strong> ${currentPath}</li>
            <li><strong>Script Path:</strong> ${scriptPath}</li>
        </ul>

        <h2>Request URL:</h2>
        <ul>
            <li><strong>Current URL:</strong> ${currentUrl}</li>
            <li><strong>Host:</strong> ${req.headers.host}</li>
            <li><strong>Original URL:</strong> ${req.headers['x-original-url'] || 'Not set'}</li>
            <li><strong>Rewrite URL:</strong> ${req.headers['x-rewrite-url'] || 'Not set'}</li>
            <li><strong>Protocol:</strong> ${req.headers['x-forwarded-proto'] || 'http'}</li>
        </ul>

        <h2>Environment Variables:</h2>
        <ul>
    `;

    envVariables.forEach(variable => {
        html += `<li><strong>${variable}:</strong> ${process.env[variable] || 'Not set'}</li>`;
    });

    html += `
        </ul>

        <h2>Request Headers:</h2>
        <ul>
    `;

    for (let header in req.headers) {
        html += `<li><strong>${header}:</strong> ${req.headers[header]}</li>`;
    }

    html += `
        </ul>
    `;

    res.end(html);
}).listen(process.env.PORT || 3000);

Create web.config

Save this configuration as web.config. It is required — without it the web server does not start Node.js at all:

<configuration>
  <system.webServer>

    <handlers>
      <add name="httpPlatformHandler" path="*" verb="*" modules="httpPlatformHandler" resourceType="Unspecified" />
    </handlers>

    <httpPlatform processPath="node" arguments=".\server.js" startupTimeLimit="20" stdoutLogEnabled="false" stdoutLogFile=".\logs\node">
      <environmentVariables>
        <environmentVariable name="PORT" value="%HTTP_PLATFORM_PORT%" />
        <environmentVariable name="NODE_ENV" value="production" />
      </environmentVariables>
    </httpPlatform>

  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Upload both files

Upload server.js and web.config into the /wwwroot folder of your website, for example over FTP or SFTP. /wwwroot is the website root and both files must be located directly in it.

Open the website

Open the address of your website in a browser. The sample script shows the Node.js version, the request URL, the environment variables and the request headers.