frontendserver

frontendserver

A wrapper around node-http-proxy, to make it easier to use with name-based SSL.

Running

See configuration first. Then from the frontendserver directory run node bin/router.js

In the launch directory you'll find scripts/configuration files for various systems. (Currently only launchd).

Configuration

By default is in etc/router.json. To load something else use the FES_CONFIG= environment variable. (Either use an absolute path or relative to the working directory when you start frontendserver.)

A bare bones file etc/router.json.sample is included with frontendserver. Copy it to etc/router.json to get started.

router.json

All paths are relative to the path router.json is loaded from (or use an absolute path).

• ports to listen for HTTP/HTTPS on different ports set this (default: {"ports": { "http": 8080, "https": 8443 }})

• routes see directions below

• serverAgent if you want to override the default Server: HTTP header.

• ssl include this key to enable the SSL server, see directions below.

routes

Routes are the mappings from incoming protocol + host name pairings to either remote (proxied) HTTP/HTTPS servers, redirects or local file system paths.

A typical routes key looks like:

{
  "routes": {
    "http://test1/": "http://127.0.0.1:9999/",
    "http://test2/": "https://127.0.0.1:9998/",
    "http://test3/": "redirect://test1/",
    "http://test4/": "file:///var/www/test4/",
    "http://test5/": "file:///var/www/test5/test.html",
    "default://http": "file://var/www/default/"
  }
}

We'll cover those line by line.

"http://test1/": "http://127.0.0.1:9999/"

Proxies HTTP requests with the host name "test1" using HTTP to 127.0.0.1:9999. (Note the port we are listening on is ignored when comparing the hostname to test1).

"http://test2/": "https://127.0.0.1:9998/"

Proxies HTTP requests with the host name "test2" using HTTPS to 127.0.0.1:9998. (Note the port we are listening on is ignored when comparing the hostname to test1).

"http://test3/": "redirect://test1/"

Redirects HTTP requests from http://test3/ to http://test1/. The path/query string are preserved (e.g. http://test3/search?q=Hello will redirect to http://test1/search?q=Hello)

"http://test4/": "file:///var/www/test4/"

Requests to http://test4/ will be served directly by frontendserver from /var/www/test4/.

"http://test5/": "file:///var/www/test5/test.html"

Requests to any URL at http://test4/ will be served directly by frontendserver with the file /var/www/test5/test.html.

"default://http": "file://var/www/default/"

Requests that over HTTP that are not matched by one of the other records will be served by this rule, here by serviing files from /var/www/default. It could just as easily be a redirect or a proxy rule though!

SSL

frontendserver supports SNI to provide name based routing over SSL.

To simply configuration you'll need to package the key, certificate any chained authority certificates into an SSL bag.

To create an SSL bag:

$ coffee /path/to/frontendserver/lib/package-ssl.coffee --key path/to/ssl.key --cert path/to/ssl.certificate --ca path/to/first-authority.cert --ca path/to/second-authority.cert --out mybag.json

The SSL configuration looks like:

{
  "ssl": {
    "default": "ssl/default.json",
    "location": "ssl/"
  }
}

• default is the SSL bag to use by default.
• location is a folder with additional SSL bags to load. Each bag should be named "hostname.json". (Yes, this means frontendserver doesn't support wildcard certificates very well right now.)

Licence

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2014 Patrick Quinn-Graham

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.