React | Package.Json | “proxy” Not Working in Google App Engine

Question

I created a basic React app with 'create-react-app' and a simple Express service. In the react application I added 'proxy' to the Package.json file which points to the Express service url.

 "proxy": <EXPRESS URL HERE>

When testing locally React calls Express through the proxy and everything works. When I deploy to Google App Engine the proxy isn't working. I tested Express service(on App Engine) with my local React instance and things work as expected. When I deploy the React app to App Engine(after running NPM RUN BUILD), the proxy is not working.

Video i watched on getting React/Express working together with 'proxy': https://youtu.be/8bNlffXEcC0

Answer 1

That setting is for development only as per https://create-react-app.dev/docs/proxying-api-requests-in-development

For production you'll need express to serve up both the express API and the React build. You can do this with something like this in your express code:

app.use(express.static(`${__dirname}/../build`)) // serves the react build
app.use('/api', apiRouter) // your api code

Now when you start up your express server it will serve up your API and your build code at once.