can i access the rest-api from other computer if i deploy my nodejs application on docker swarm?

Question

I am working on an supply chain management application. I developed frontend of the application in ReactJS and backed in docker and nodeJS. My question is if i deploy my backend ie NodeJS sdk on docker swarm. Can i access the deployed API's in different computer?

Answer 1

You can achieve service (backend) is reachable from the outside in primarily two ways:

• eighter you expose the port of the service directly, and you can then connect straight to it (it is not recommended to do so on any actual deployments) by using ports configuration. By doing so the exposed port will be available to access the service from the outside world.
• or you deploy another service which will act as a reverse proxy / API gateway. So the proxy (nginx, traefik, ...) will listen for all incoming requests, check SSL, ..., and then it will forward the request to the right service. This is the recommended way because you hide your actual service behind a proxy, and also put all of the auth/ssl details on the proxy itself, so you free your service from needing to know anything about that technical details.