Question
How to Deploy React frontend container with backend server container in App Platform correctly
For reference my github repository containing the frontend and server code is available at https://github.com/taymcl/PristineCleanVenturesLLC
I have a frontend container and another container that starts my server.js. The server is an Express application that listens for POST requests on the api/send-email endpoint and sends it as an email using Nodemailer. It seems that my server is started successfully according to build logs on digital ocean. When I attempt to send a POST request I get a 404 error ‘Failed to load resources’. I set my HTTP request route in the server container to /api/send-email, and set the HTTP port in the server container to 5000 as it is in my code. I just am not sure what the issue as I have tried various configurations on digital ocean and changes to my code. I have a feeling the solution is very simple and I just have lack in experience with deploying on digital ocean/configuring servers, or this is just not possible using App Platform. If I can provide any other information to help let me know.
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.
Featured on Community
Get our biweekly newsletter
Sign up for Infrastructure as a Newsletter.
Hollie's Hub for Good
Working on improving health and education, reducing inequality, and spurring economic growth? We'd like to help.
Become a contributor
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
Hi there,
What you would usually do is to deploy two separate components to your App Platform:
/apior something else that matches your requirementsThat way your static site will be accessible directly via your domain and it will be making all of the requests to the
/apiroute which will be handled by your backend service.Here is a quick video that shows how to deploy an API backend and a React Frontend:
In the video the backend is Laravel but in theory the setup should be the same for any other framework.
If you are still seeing the 404 errors, I could suggest checking the backend service logs to see if you see any problems there. And also trying to manually make the requests using
curlor Postman for example to the/apiendpoint.Let me know how it goes!
Best,
Bobby