express-memcached-session

Express.js + Memcached Sessions on Google App Engine

This is a simple guide to using memcached for session state while running Express.js on Google App Engine. Each Google App Engine application comes with a memcached service instance, which can be reached with a standard memcached driver at memcache:11211. This sample uses the connect-memcached module to store session data in memcached.

Clone the Express.js + Memcached Sessions app

If you haven't already, copy the repository to your local machine by entering the following command in your terminal window:

git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/nodejs-docs-samples.git
cd nodejs-docs-samples/appengine/express-memcached-session

Alternatively, you can download the sample as a zip and extract it.

Run the app on your local computer

1. Install dependencies. Enter the following command:

   npm install

2. Run the start script.

   npm start

3. In your web browser, enter the following address:

   http://localhost:8080

You can see the sample app displayed in the page. This page was delivered by the Express.js web server running on your computer.

In your terminal window, press Ctrl+C to exit the web server.

Deploy the app to Google Cloud Platform

In your terminal window, enter the following command to deploy the sample:

gcloud app deploy

See the app run in the cloud

In your web browser, enter the following address:

https://<your-project-id>.appspot.com

For convenience, you can use an npm script to run the gcloud command. Add these lines to your package.json file:

"scripts": {
  "start": "node server.js",
  "deploy": "gcloud app deploy"
}

At the terminal you can now run the following command to deploy your application:

npm run deploy

Configuration

Every Managed VMs application requires an app.yaml file to describe its deployment configuration.

runtime: nodejs
vm: true
env_variables:
  PORT: 8080
  MEMCACHE_URL: memcache:11211

Notice the MEMCACHE_URL environment variable–this is where you can reach your standard memcached cluster across instances.