cbsnexora/docs/backend-proxy.md

Backend proxy

Usually when working on a web application you consume data from custom-made APIs.

To ease development with our development server integrating live reload while keeping your backend API calls working, we also have setup a backend proxy to redirect API calls to whatever URL and port you want. This allows you:

• To develop frontend features without the need to run an API backend locally
• To use a local development server without CORS issues
• To debug frontend code with data from a remote testing platform directly

How to configure

In the root folder you will find a proxy.conf.js, containing the backend proxy configuration.

The interesting part is there:

const proxyConfig = [
  {
    context: ['/fineract-provider'],
    target: 'https://demo.mifos.community',
    pathRewrite: { '^/fineract-provider': '' },
    changeOrigin: true,
    secure: true,
    logLevel: 'debug',
    onProxyReq: function (proxyReq, req, res) {
      // Log the rewritten path so the console shows the actual forwarded URL
      const rewrittenPath = (req.url || '').replace(/^\/fineract-provider/, '');
      console.log('[Proxy] Proxying:', req.method, req.url, '->', this.target + rewrittenPath);
    },
    onError: function (err, req, res) {
      // Log proxy errors and return HTTP 502 to the client
      console.error('[Proxy] Error while proxying request:', req.method, req.url, '->', this.target, '-', err.message);
      if (res && !res.headersSent) {
        res.writeHead(502, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
        res.end('Proxy error: ' + err.message);
      }
    }
  }
];

This forwards requests sent to /fineract-provider/... on the dev server to the Fineract backend root (for example, /fineract-provider/1.0/... becomes https://demo.mifos.community/1.0/...). Use pathRewrite to strip the prefix because the demo exposes Fineract APIs at the root path.

Error Handling:

The onError handler captures proxy failures (network errors, backend unreachable, timeouts, etc.) and:

• Logs detailed error information to the server console (method, URL, target, error message)
• Returns HTTP 502 (Bad Gateway) to the client with a plain-text error message

Example server console output when proxy fails:

[Proxy] Error while proxying request: GET /fineract-provider/api/v1/clients -> https://demo.mifos.community - ECONNREFUSED

Example client response:

HTTP/1.1 502 Bad Gateway
Content-Type: text/plain

Proxy error: connect ECONNREFUSED

You can add multiple rules or change the target to point to other environments (demo, localhost, etc.).

For the complete set of options, see the http-proxy-middleware documentation.

Corporate proxy support

The repository configures a helper function in proxy.conf.js named setupForProxy which will attach an HttpsProxyAgent to proxy entries when the HTTP_PROXY (or http_proxy) environment variable is present. This lets the dev server forward requests through a corporate proxy when required.

Behavior:

• When HTTP_PROXY is set: Logs "Using proxy server: <url>" and configures the agent for corporate proxy forwarding
• When HTTP_PROXY is not set: Logs "No proxy server configured. API requests will not be proxied." — note that this refers only to corporate proxy forwarding; the Angular dev server proxy (forwarding /fineract-provider to the demo) still works normally

See proxy.conf.js for the exact implementation.

If your corporate proxy uses a custom SSL certificate you may need to set secure: false on the specific proxy entry or configure your environment to trust the corporate CA.