Catching incoming HTTP Requests on server side with Node.js

Question

I want to implement a server side application catching incoming http requests with a certain header.After catching the request it extracts information about type of HTTP request (GET,HEAD,PUT,POST etc.), requested url and sends it to another server, collecting the data ( a webservice or a server having a 3rd party tool like statsd).

Application needs to be as lightweight as possible.

On a side note corresponding server where the requests are coming to, will be in a high load, as a result application needs to perform well under such load. I know that this application can be implemented in any language, however I want to try something new.

Is node.js suitable for developing such an application regarding complexity and performance?

Answer 1

You can do package sniffing in Node.JS with the node_pcap package. It relies on libpcap. Though there is a port of libpcap in Windows, there might be some configuration that needs to be done in order to get it work in Windows.

When a network package is captured you can easily check if it is an http request with a certain header.

If that is too low level for you, you can also use http_trace that specifically traces http requests for you.

Here are some references to get you started:

• How To Node - Capturing Packets in Javascript
• StackOverflow - Capturing packets with NodeJS on Windows