I am considering developing a desktop application composed of 2 parts:
The 2 parts connect through sockets. Don't ask why I know it's weird.
I will want to be able to provide to customers the application with an installer. I don't want that users have to install Node.js themselves.
Is there a way to have a Node.js server installed as standalone, i.e. no need to install Node.js globally on the system.
This is a question for any (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X...) environment.
Node-Webkit is an option, but it really isn't set-up to do a "server - client" type relationship.
Another option is packaging the node.js installers with you application installer. Then when the application boot you can spin up a node.js process. I know some developers have been doing this with titanium, here is a little bit more information information.
Hope this helps!
You can bundle the binaries with your application. Won't have to install anything to run a Node app. The binaries are available on the same page as the installers.
You'll just have to know where the binaries are, but I assume you've got an installer that can put them somewhere known.
// To start the node process
$ /path/to/binaries/npm install
$ /path/to/binaries/node myApp.js
Here are instructions to create installers for each OS:
Here's an option: Light Table is a node app, but installs nicely and integrates the GUI (webkit) cleanly on most OSs.
To do this it leverages node-webkit. (Runs node code straight from an html page.) Here is the packaging documentation.
I’ve just stumbled upon nexe – a tool which “creates a single executable out of your node.js app”.
I haven’t tried it out yet, but I guess that even works without an installer – producing just a single standalone binary.