Using Swagger to Manage Microservice Architecture Across IIS Express

Question

I'm coming into an existing application where a single React application exists that calls multiple APIs. The APIs are written in .NET Core and I've been instructed they are typically hosted with IIS Express when debugging locally.

Where I'm running into trouble is understanding how the React application will hit the backend API projects, when the API projects are running on multiple IIS Express instances that don't have static ports.

For instance, I'll hit "run" on the React project which launches the React application along with a controller that might be running on localhost:5888. I can easily hit the controller from the React application using window.host + /Controller/ which will handle resolving the port for me. However, if I "run" another API, from a separate Visual Studio instance, it'll get hosted on a random port, something like localhost:5889. If I try to hit that API with window.host + /SecondAPIMethod/ from the React application, it'll come up with a 404 error, because the React app doesn't know what port the IIS express instance with the second API is running on.

I've been told by coworkers that Swagger is the key to managing this, but I'm unsure how.

Answer 1

It is not running on any random port. Port number is specified in the project properties. When you are debugging in visual studio, you can set the port number by going to project properties -> debug -> App URL. When you deploy the web api on IIS Server, it will run on the port you have specified when configuring the web api. Now when you know the web api (with port number) in advance, you can hard-code the url or put it in app settings file of your react app. Hope this helps.