Docker from a container calls to another container (Connection Refused) - node.js

Question

I have container for two NodeJS services and one Nginx for reverse-proxy.
I have make NGINX on port 80 so it's publicly available via localhost on my browser
I also use reverse-proxy to proxy_pass to each responsible service.
location /api/v1/service1/ {
proxy_pass http://service1:3000/;
}
location /api/v1/service2/ {
proxy_pass http://service2:3000/;
}
In my service 1, there is an axios module that wants to call to service 2 by making a request to localhost/api/v1/service2
But, it says that connection is refused. I doubt if the localhost in service 1 refer to its container, not the docker host.
version: '3'
services:
service1:
build: './service1'
networks:
- backend
service2:
build: './service2'
networks:
- backend
nginx:
image: nginx:alpine
ports:
- "80:80"
volumes:
- ./nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
networks:
- backend
networks:
backend:
driver: bridge
Even after using network, it still says ECONNREFUSED.
Please help.

Answer 1

Try adding the depends_on in your docker-compose file for the nginx, like below:
version: '3'
services:
service1:
build: './service1'
expose:
- "3000"
networks:
- backend
service2:
build: './service2'
expose:
- "3000"
networks:
- backend
nginx:
image: nginx:alpine
ports:
- "80:80"
volumes:
- ./nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
networks:
- backend
depends_on:
- service1
- service2
networks:
backend:
driver: bridge
This would make sure that both services are running first before the nginx container attempts to connect to them. Perhaps the connection is refused because the nginx container keeps crashing due to it not finding the two services running when it executes its conf file and connect to the backends.