Global socket.io in an application

app.js

var http = require('http');
var sockets = require('./sockets');

var server = http.createServer(app);
sockets.connect(server);

sockets.emit('event', { message: 'This is an event!' });

sockets.js

var socketIO = require('socket.io');
var io = null;

module.exports = {

    connect: function(server) {
        io = socketIO(server);
    },

    emit: function(event, values) {
        if (io) {
            io.sockets.emit(event, values);
        }
    }
}