Enabling React/Express Route with Query Parameters in Nginx - node.js

Working on a link shortening website. Site works as intended in my localhost production environment, but I can't seem to get an Express GET route with query parameters working after enabling Nginx on my deployed Digital Ocean Ubuntu Linux server.
Node.js/Express GET route:
router.get("/:code", async (req, res) => {
try {
const url = await Url.findOne({ urlCode: req.params.code });
if (url) {
return res.redirect(url.longUrl);
} else {
return res.status(404).json("no url found");
}
} catch (error) {
console.error(error);
res.status(500).json("server error");
}
});
Nginx config file (etc/nginx/sites-available/default):
server {
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
root /var/www/html;
server_name myname.com www.myname.com;
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000/;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}
If I change the localhost port to my Express server (7777), the GET route works with the URL query parameter (ie: http://example.com/random8chars), but the React front end doesn't load.
As currently configured (port 3000/React server), a Postman GET route to "/:code" returns the desired result, but when I enter the converted link into the URL bar in Chrome it returns the default splash page. In fact, when I enter ANY extension beyond my site name in Chrome it always shows the default splash page. I know this is an issue with Nginx, but I can't seem to get it to work.
Been working on it all day to no avail. Found multiple Stack Overflow threads touching on the subject but nothing works. I tried adding a second location route to the Nginx config file, to no avail. an example of what I've tried:
location /:code {
proxy_pass http://localhost:7777/:code;
}
Please help! I am stuck and feel like I am so close to getting this working. I would greatly appreciate any insight into fixing this. Thank you.

I was just add a comment, but I don't have the rep yet. So it seems to me that Nginx is trying to serve another file, that doesn't exists. Try to add:
location / {
try_files $uri /index.html;
}
This will make nginx always try in the rigth file ignoring the path.

so i finally solved the issue! i was initially approaching this problem from the wrong perspective. see, when in my development environment, i had a proxy set up on my react server to bounce any unknown requests to my express server. the thing is, that proxy set in the package.json doesn't work in a production environment, which is why my link shortening app worked in dev but wasn't duplicated in production.
this is how i solved it:
i set up nginx to point to my express server # port 7777. i used the npm build command to export my react application to the build folder, and then i set up my express server to serve the build folder. that's it. when you access the website's default URL it loads the react build folder and then when i put in a shortened link (GET /:code) it works like a charm. thanks!

Related

How to set proxy pass for react app on nginx?

My react app has got different routes to consume different functionalities
e.x.
localhost:3000,
localhost:3000/Dashboard,
localhost:3000/Hub,
localhost:3000/Person
etc....
I wanted to configure the react app routes in the nginx in the production environment. What I have actually done so far in the nginx configuration at production env is,
server_name api.vesta-project.net;
location /vqcc {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000/;
}
My problem here is with the current settings, the homepage works well when I say "api.vesta-project.net/vqcc". Whereas, when I click a button that navigates to /Dashboard. I get 404 error as it does not append "vqcc" to the path in the react app internally thus it becomes like api.vesta-project.net/Dashboard" when inspecting the request which is wrong per nginx conf. So I need a solution whenever the client make a request, it should append "vqcc" to the path so that it will become a valid url as per nginx routes.
e.x when client request for api.vesta-project.net/Dashboard, it should become
api.vesta-project.net/vqcc/Dashboard
Pls help me if I can handle this at nginx or package.json without being changing any routes in the react app internally
You can try rewriting the uri in catch-all location.
location / {
rewrite /(.*) /vqcc/$1;
}
location /vqcc{
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000/;
}

Handling redirects in Express to support nginx reverse proxy

I have an express application that is working perfectly on my local environment on port 3001. I need to deploy it on a production server running nginx listening on port 80. Below are some of the express routes
router.get('/', (req, res) => {
//home page, show login page
});
router.post('/login', (req, res) => {
if(errors){
//invalid credentials
return res.redirect('..');
}
//successful login, redirect to admin area
return res.redirect('../admin');
})
and similar routes for authenticated admin users. The routes are not working properly when deployed on nginx using reverse proxy. The nginx reverse proxy settings are as follows:
location /v2manager/ {
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3001/;
}
I want the application to be accessible on the route v2manager on my production domain like example.com/v2manager. So all the routes become as:
example.com/v2manager/ for the home page
example.com/v2manager/login for login POST route, and
example.com/v2manager/admin for the admin area
However, the redirects are not working properly, on login failure the return res.redirect('..') redirects me to example.com which has a different page whereas it should redirect to example.com/v2manager
I can obviously change my application routes to add v2manager everywhere but the route v2manager can change frequently depending upon our environments and versioning. Also, a solution that would not hamper the local environment so that localhost:3000/login would work always
You need set proxy redirect:
location /v2manager/ {
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_redirect ~/(.*)$ /v2manager/$1;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3001/;
}

Change root folder of expressjs app

I'm trying to set the twilio client quickstart app up in nodejs. I'm using nginx as a reverse proxy so that requests made to http://example.com/calls, nginx routes that to localhost:3000, where I have the twilio nodejs quickstart running. The problem is that expressjs is expecting to serve files as if I were calling http://example.com with no subdirectory.
I understand that I would be able to use app.get, but I'm not sure how in the way this particular app is configured. Right now it has:
const http = require('http');
const path = require('path');
const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const router = require('./src/router');
// Create Express webapp
const app = express();
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));// <-Pretty sure I'm supposed to change something here
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended: false}));
In the index.js that node is running on is at
/var/www/example.com/calls/index.js
The static content that I thought ought to be served is at
/var/www/example.com/calls/public/index.html
How to I change this to make express find the content?
Nodejs is definitely recieving the request. The error is Cannot GET /calls/ and the header X-Powered-By is present and set to Express
EDIT:
I would have liked to follow the instructions here but my at&t firewall isn't letting me make changes. Since I have ports 80 and 443 open already I decided my next best bet was to proxy the application to a subfolder of a domain I already have running on my system. Both of the solutions offered so far allow the index.html file inside of the /public folder to be served, but nginx is failing to serve the js file or the the css files located in the same folder.
app.use('/calls',express.static(path.join(__dirname, '/public')));
is currently serving the index.html file at https://example.com/calls, which is great. What stinks is the nginx somehow isn't passing the requests for https://example.com/calls/site.css along to nodejs.
If I add the line
rewrite ^/cawls(.*)$ $1 break;
then nothing gets found.
Here's the nginx call.
location ~/calls(.*)$ {
# rewrite ^/calls(.*)$ $1 break;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
}
Here and here are previous questions related to this problem that no one seems to have an answer for.
Twilio developer evangelist here.
The problem here is that express knows nothing of your /calls route. It expects to be serving content at its application root. You could fix this in the app by appending the /calls route to your static middleware, like so:
app.use('/calls', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
But that would mean that your express app knows about the rest of the applications that you are reverse proxying with nginx. Instead, I would suggest you update your nginx config to proxy pass but strip the /calls route for your express app.
I'm guessing you have some nginx config that looks a bit like this:
location /calls {
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header HOST $http_host;
proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_redirect off;
}
If you add one line to this block it should strip the /calls route for the benefits of your express app.
rewrite ^/calls(/.*)$ $1 break;
Let me know if either of these things helps!
I haven't seen express.static used for HTML. What about serving it from a route?
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'public/index.html'));
})

nginx proxy to remote node.js express app in subdirectory

I am completely stuck with a situation where I want to have several node applications on one server. I get this working fine by having the applications running on different ports. I can access the applications by putting in the ip address with port.
I would like to proxy the applications from my nginx server by using different sub-directories like so:
my.domain
location /app1 {
proxy_pass http://10.131.6.181:3001;
}
location /app2 {
proxy_pass http://10.131.6.181:3002;
}
Doing this I had to move the all the express routes to /app1 for application1. This works but now I am stuck with the static files.
I can now access the application with http://10.131.6.181:3001/app1 which is great, but via http://my.domain/app1 the static files are not loaded.
The static files can be accessed directly http://10.131.6.181:3001/css but not via the proxy http://my.domain/css
Ideally I would like to have the applications on different ports without the sub-directory in the express routes but only sub-directories in the proxy. I tried to put my head through the wall for the last 5 hours but didn't achieve anything.
Now I would happy if can at least get the static files via the nginx proxy.
An updated answer for anyone who needs:
instead of
location /app1 {
proxy_pass http://10.131.6.181:3001/app1;
}
use
location /app1/ {
proxy_pass http://10.131.6.181:3001/;
}
or if on local
location /app1/ {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000/;
}
This is the correct way and this way you will not need to modify express. Express will receive only the part after /app1/
I finally worked it out after a google surge.
I added the directories to the nginx proxy_pass
my.domain
location /app1 {
proxy_pass http://10.131.6.181:3001/app1;
}
location /app2 {
proxy_pass http://10.131.6.181:3002/app2;
}
And I had to change the express applications to use the subdirectory
app.use('/app1', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
app.use('/app1'', require('./routes'));
In the router I had to prefix all the redirects.
router.get('/logout', function (req, res) {
req.logout();
res.redirect('/app1/login');
});
The static files are called like so from html
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/app1/css/style.css"/>
A bit of a pain to change all the redirects and static url. I am sure there is a smarter way by setting a global variable in my node-express app. If anybody knows an easier way please post...

getting a 500 internl server error with nginx?

i have installed nginx on my ubuntu ec2 instance and im building an app using node.js, and when i go my amazon url i.e.
http://elastic.ip.address
it works fine, so its running the / file:
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
return res.render('home');
});
however when i try go to http://elastic.ip.address/page2:
app.get('/page2', function(req, res) {
return res.render('page2');
});
I get the 500 internal server error, so i really don't know whats happening, this works on my localhost without running nginx, but not my ec2.
this is my nginx configuration file layout:
server {
listen 80;
root /home/ubuntu/project/;
server_name static_ip.compute-1.amazonaws.com;
location / {
# First attempt to serve request as file, then
# as directory, then fall back to index.html
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
# Uncomment to enable naxsi on this location
# include /etc/nginx/naxsi.rules
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8124/;
}
A couple things to try:
Have a look at /var/log/nginx/error.log and see if you can get some better information about what's going wrong.
Make sure that the user that nginx is running as has read permissions to /home/ubuntu/project/.

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