how to open a browser and only use that instance in node

I have the following node proxy server set up to strip out the page name from a request made from one web app and use it to display page info in a second web app. It works fine but for every request intercepted a new browser is opened up. Is there anyway to detect if an internet explorer browser is aleady open so i can use that?

var http = require('http'),
  httpProxy = require('http-proxy'),
  request = require('request'),
  open = require('open');


// 
// Create proxy server  
// 
httpProxy.createProxyServer({target:'http://localhost:9000'}).listen(9085);

// 
// Create target server 
// 
http.createServer(function (req, res) {

if (req.method=='GET') {
  if (req.url.indexOf("Page.do") > -1) {

    var temp = req.url.split("Page.do")[0].split("/");
    var pageName = temp[temp.length - 1];

    var docURL = "http://localhost:9081/mysecondwebapp/pages/" + pageName +     ".html";  

    open(docURL, "iexplore");   
   };
  };

}).listen(9000);

Here is an iframe + socket.io solution I've talking in comments. I used express.io module because I'm more familiar with it than with original socket.io module.

Here is a server-side code:

app = require('express.io')();
app.http().io();

var base = 'http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_';

// Send the client html.
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  res.sendfile(__dirname + '/client.html');
})

app.post('/:tag', function(req, res) {
  // Send new url to the all active clients
  app.io.broadcast('update', {
    url: base + req.params.tag + '.asp'
  });
  // End original request
  res.send(200);
})

app.listen(9000);

and client.html with iframe and simple JS snippet:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <script src="/socket.io/socket.io.js"></script>
    <style type="text/css">
      body iframe {
        overflow: hidden;
        overflow-x: hidden;
        overflow-y: hidden;
        position: absolute;
        height: 100%;
        width: 100%;
        margin: 0;
        padding: 0;
        top: 0;
        left: 0;
        right: 0;
        bottom: 0
      }
  </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <iframe id="frame" frameborder="0" height="100%" width="100%"></iframe>
    <script>
      io = io.connect();
      frame = document.getElementById('frame');
      io.on('update', function(data) {
        frame.src = data.url;
      });
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Here is how it works:

  1. Start node.js server and navigate to localhost:9000 in your browser.
  2. Use curl or any other http utility to send POST request to localhost:9000/iframe.
  3. You'll see w3schools page for iframe tag displayed in previously opened window.
  4. Send another POST request to see help for some other tag.

I hope this simple example will help you.

Here are all the links I used to write it: