I've being reading alot on how node.js can be used to add real time features to web applications. Am a PHP developer but i have good grasp on javascript. I have XAMPP installed my windows 7 machine which i use for development and i just installed node.js using the windows installer on the node.js site. How do i make app communicate with the node.js server ?
I'm on OSX, and I'm basically heading down this same path.
First off, don't think of node.js like you would PHP and think you're setting up a vhost in XAMPP.
You need to look in to getting node.js to be listening as a server. There are several tutorials out there that go over this, but this one can help get you started:
http://www.albatrossrevue.com/2012/01/31/an-introduction-to-node-js/2000