Running nodejs under nginx

Question

I'm currently trying out nginx and nodejs with connect running nodejs proxied in nginx. The problem I have is that I currently don't run nodejs under the root (/) but under /data as nginx should handle the static requests as normal. nodejs should not have to know that it's under /data but it seems to be required.

In other words. I want nodejs to "think" it runs at /. Is that possible?

nginx config:

upstream app_node {
    server 127.0.0.1:3000;
}

server {
...

     location /data {
            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://app_node/data;
            proxy_redirect off;
    }
}

nodejs code:

exports.routes = function(app) {
    // I don't want "data" here. My nodejs app should be able to run under
    // any folder
    app.get('/data', function(req, res, params) {
            res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-type': 'text/plain' });
            res.end('app.get /data');
    });
    // I don't want "data" here either
    app.get('/data/test', function(req, res, params) {
            res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-type': 'text/plain' });
            res.end('app.get /data/test');
    });
};

Answer 1

I think this solution may be better (if you are using something like Express OR something similar that uses the "middleware" logic):

Add a middleware function to change the url like so

rewriter.js

module.exports = function temp_rewrite() {
  return function (req, res, next) {
    req.url = '/data' + req.url;
    next();
  }
}

In your Express app do like so:

app.config

// your configuration
app.configure(function(){
  ...
  app.use(require('./rewriter.js').temp_rewrite());
  ...
});

// here are the routes
// notice you don't need to write '/data' in front anymore all the time

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
  res.send('This is actually site.com/data/');
});

app.get('/example', function (req, res) {
  res.send('This is actually site.com/data/example')
});

Answer 2

I normally do this:

nginx config:

upstream app_node {
  server 127.0.0.1:3000;
}

server {
  ...
  location /data/ {
    ...
    proxy_pass http://app_node
    rewrite ^/data/(.*)? /$1 break;
  }
}

node.js app:

app.get('/something', function(req, res, next) {
  ...
});

Then from the outside world I could make a request such as http://my-host-name/data/something?someKey=someValue , which nginx will pass over to the node.js app, who will only see it as /something?someKey=someValue (since the url was rewritten).

I know this isn't the only approach, but imo among the better ones, as I always respect the philosophy of " things that do one thing and do it well ". Here, Nginx is good at rewriting URLs, whereas Node.js is good at handling the requests themselves.

Answer 3

Temporary solution: Not ideal to me but it'll have to due for now as I can at least configure it. I'm starting the node server using:

node app2.js /data

Code to handle the root node:

exports.routes = function(app) {
    var me = this;

    // get the root path
    me.proxyRootPath = process.argv[2];

    // using the proxyRootPath to answer to the correct request
    app.get(me.proxyRootPath, function(req, res, params) {
            res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-type': 'text/plain' });
            res.end('app.get /data');
    });
    // using the proxyRootPath to answer to the correct request
    app.get(me.proxyRootPath + '/test', function(req, res, params) {
            res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-type': 'text/plain' });
            res.end('app.get /data/test');
    });
};

Answer 4

Solutions:

• Write your app to look for the directory on the command line. Pass the directory on the command line when you run the app.

• Write your app to look for the directory in a specific environment variable. Set the environment variable first when you run the app.

• Write your app to assume its current directory is the intended directory. Change into the directory first when you run the app.

• Write your app to step up the directory tree looking for a known file (eg, step up the directory looking for ./app2.js , and then the directory in which that file is found is the intended directory).