Evan Shortiss
Software Engineer and Mobile Developer. Works at FeedHenry
Developing Against Secure Backends with FeedHenry
What is fh-dev-proxy?
It's a Node Module
Consisting of a tiny API & express middleware to solve a problem...
The Problem
- We can't access secure web services!
- Customer whitelists platform for access
- Developers require access from offices
- Requesting a VPN is a slow process
- Developers not 100% in control of access
Problem Overview
Forming a Solution
- We're impatient, eager, and time is money
- Platform has access to client services
- Platform can run Node.js instances
- We can code...right?
The One Solution?
Do what our apps do!
Use the platform!
Solution Overview
How can we make a reusable solution?
Goals
- Simple to use
- Reusable
- Unobtrusive
- No need to push code for. Every. Damn. Change
- One time configuration
- Should "just work" when deployed to platform
- Secure!
Intercept calls to core http & https...
*skeptical glares ensue*
Architecture
httpOverride
- Low level - intercepts calls to http(s).request
- Works for any modules using http/https
- Any host that is configured will be proxied
- Proxied requests sent via https to platform (secure)
- Special headers to transmit original request
- Platform sends request using original protocol
- Streams response to local development machine
Using fh-dev-proxy
It's easy.
Steps
- Create a service using this template
- Add PROXY_VALID_HOSTS env var to service
- In cloud app run npm i fh-dev-proxy@0.2.1 --save
- Wrap cloud app code like this
- Profit?
Questions & Demo
fh-dev-proxy
By Evan Shortiss
fh-dev-proxy
A guide to local development against secure backend services.
