Run Ghost as an NPM module on a subdomain using Node.JS

Question

Is there any way to run Ghost on a subdomain using Node.JS? I am able to run it normally on Node.JS like:

App.Modules.Ghost = require('ghost'); /**< Ghost module. */
App.Apps.Ghost = App.Modules.Ghost({ config: '/Assets/Ghost/Config.js'.LocalFilePath }); /**< Create Ghost app. */

Then, I am then able to go to http://example.com/ghost/ and view my blog. Although this works for now, I want to be able to view my blog at http://blog.example.com/ using Node.JS.

Answer 1

Sadly, the way networking works prevents this in the context you desire. In order to achieve that sort of functionality, you would need a proxy server to go in front of the entire application. I would suggest NginX for this ability, due to its speed and wide-spread use.

Why is this not possible?

In this sense, networking is the system where you bind to an IP and a port. When you bind, nothing else can bind to that same IP/port. Since a domain (and subdomain) simply point to an IP address, there is no way that you can separate these connections at the networking level. This is why the Host HTTP header was added.

How does NginX do it?

NginX parses the Host header and can send the connection to your Ghost server as you wish it to be forwarded to. This also allows you to forward the main domain (http://example.com) to whatever website you like, therefor using different applications and such on the same IP and port.

This answer contains the best directions on how to achieve this functionality.