NginX static routes server

This document describes NginX and how to integrate it with RAIN so it can server static routes.

NginX

NginX is a fully mature web server very configurable that can handle and modify requests depending on it’s configuration. The preffered handling configuration is by using regular expressions.

You can read more about nginx at: http://nginx.org/en/docs/

Integrating with RAIN

We are using NginX to serve static files/routes through NginX and reduce the load on the RAIN server. We have chosen to reconfigure the HaProxy to redirect static routes requests to NginX server and the rest of the requests to the RAIN server. Also we added another command to rain called generate-nginx-conf. This command helps you to generate an NginX configuration file so it knows how to serve the requests and mapping the components with different routes.

HaProxy

This is an example of a valid HaProxy configuration to work with RAIN and NginX by separating the type of requests.

global
    maxconn 40
    daemon
    #debug
    user nobody

defaults
    mode http
    option http-server-close
    timeout connect 500000s
    timeout client 500000s
    timeout server 50000s
    timeout http-keep-alive 5000s
    timeout http-request 5000s
    timeout queue 5000s
    timeout tarpit 5000s
    option forwardfor

listen RAIN_http *:80
    mode http
    stats uri /haproxy
    acl is_javascript path_reg ^\/([\w-]+)\/(?:(\d(?:\.\d)?(?:\.\d)?)\/)?(?:js)\/(.+)
    acl is_resource path_reg ^\/([\w-]+)\/(?:((?:\d\.)?\d\.\d)\/)?(?:([a-z]{2}_[A-Z]{2})\/)?resources\/(.+)
    use_backend static if is_javascript
    use_backend static if is_resource
    default_backend RAIN_server

backend RAIN_server
    server s1 127.0.0.1:1337 check fall 1 inter 1000ms

backend static
    server s1 127.0.0.1:8080 check fall 1 inter 1000ms

The only things added are the two acl containing regexps, these are needed to redirect the requests depending on the url path. Also the use of another backend called static in which you specify where your NginX server is located and on which port is it listening.

NginX

The only thing that you need here is to install the NginX server on your machine. This is done by using the following command:

sudo apt-get install nginx

RAIN & NginX configuration

In our current prototype we provide a way to generate the configuration automatically depending on your components, take into account the version and id.

All you have to do is run the following command:

rain generate-nginx-conf

In the root path of your rain project you will find a nginx.conf file. All you have to do is just move the generated configuration file in to /etc/nginx/.

An example of the output configuration would be:

user root;
events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}
http {
    include mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;
    sendfile on;
    gzip on;
    upstream backend {
        server 127.0.0.1:1337;
    }
    server {
        listen 8080;
        server_name localhost;
        charset UTF-8;
        location / {
        }
        location ~* example/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/example_list/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* example/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/example_list/$1;
        }
        location ~* language_selector/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/language_selector/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* language_selector/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/language_selector/$1;
        }
        location ~* container_example/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/container_example_2_0/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* container_example/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/container_example_2_0/$1;
        }
        location ~* error/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/error/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* error/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/error/$1;
        }
        location ~* external_theming/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/external_theming/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* external_theming/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/external_theming/$1;
        }
        location ~* core/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/core/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* core/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/core/$1;
        }
        location ~* demo_container/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/demo_container/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* demo_container/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/demo_container/$1;
        }
        location ~* placeholder/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/placeholder/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* placeholder/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/placeholder/$1;
        }
        location ~* layout/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/layout/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* layout/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/layout/$1;
        }
        location ~* css-renderer/.*(js.*\.js)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/css_renderer/client/$1;
        }
        location ~* css-renderer/.*(resources.*)$ {
            alias /home/atrifan/my_space/rainjs/components/css_renderer/$1;
        }
    }
}

You can also change default values in the configuration by editing the bin/init/conf/nginx.conf file in your rain folder.