Terminating SSL

Most production environments use a load balancer or HTTP proxy (such as nginx) to perform SSL termination on behalf of web applications in that environment.

If you're using Apollo Server in an application that must perform its own SSL termination, you can use the https module with the expressMiddleware function.

Here's an example that uses HTTPS in production and HTTP in development:

index.ts

1
import { ApolloServer } from '@apollo/server';
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import { expressMiddleware } from '@apollo/server/express4';
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import { ApolloServerPluginDrainHttpServer } from '@apollo/server/plugin/drainHttpServer';
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import typeDefs from './graphql/schema';
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import resolvers from './graphql/resolvers';
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import cors from 'cors';
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import bodyParser from 'body-parser';
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import express from 'express';
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import http from 'http';
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import https from 'https';
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import fs from 'fs';
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async function startApolloServer() {
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  const configurations = {
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    // Note: You may need sudo to run on port 443
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    production: { ssl: true, port: 443, hostname: 'example.com' },
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    development: { ssl: false, port: 4000, hostname: 'localhost' },
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  };
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  const environment = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'production';
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  const config = configurations[environment];
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  const server = new ApolloServer({
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    typeDefs,
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    resolvers,
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  });
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  await server.start();
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  const app = express();
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  // our express server is mounted at /graphql
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  app.use(
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    '/graphql',
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    cors<cors.CorsRequest>(),
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    bodyParser.json(),
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    expressMiddleware(server),
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  );
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  // Create the HTTPS or HTTP server, per configuration
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  let httpServer;
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  if (config.ssl) {
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    // Assumes certificates are in a .ssl folder off of the package root.
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    // Make sure these files are secured.
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    httpServer = https.createServer(
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      {
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        key: fs.readFileSync(`./ssl/${environment}/server.key`),
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        cert: fs.readFileSync(`./ssl/${environment}/server.crt`),
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      },
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      app,
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    );
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  } else {
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    httpServer = http.createServer(app);
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  }
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  await new Promise<void>((resolve) => httpServer.listen({ port: config.port }, resolve));
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  console.log('🚀 Server ready at', `http${config.ssl ? 's' : ''}://${config.hostname}:${config.port}/graphql`);
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  return { server, app };
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}

index.js

1
import { ApolloServer } from '@apollo/server';
2
import { expressMiddleware } from '@apollo/server/express4';
3

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import typeDefs from './graphql/schema';
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import resolvers from './graphql/resolvers';
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import cors from 'cors';
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import bodyParser from 'body-parser';
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import express from 'express';
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import http from 'http';
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import https from 'https';
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import fs from 'fs';
12

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async function startApolloServer() {
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  const configurations = {
15
    // Note: You may need sudo to run on port 443
16
    production: { ssl: true, port: 443, hostname: 'example.com' },
17
    development: { ssl: false, port: 4000, hostname: 'localhost' },
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  };
19

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  const environment = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'production';
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  const config = configurations[environment];
22

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  const server = new ApolloServer({
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    typeDefs,
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    resolvers,
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  });
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  await server.start();
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  const app = express();
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  // our express server is mounted at /graphql
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  app.use('/graphql', cors(), bodyParser.json(), expressMiddleware(server));
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  // Create the HTTPS or HTTP server, per configuration
35
  let httpServer;
36
  if (config.ssl) {
37
    // Assumes certificates are in a .ssl folder off of the package root.
38
    // Make sure these files are secured.
39
    httpServer = https.createServer(
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      {
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        key: fs.readFileSync(`./ssl/${environment}/server.key`),
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        cert: fs.readFileSync(`./ssl/${environment}/server.crt`),
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      },
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      app,
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    );
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  } else {
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    httpServer = http.createServer(app);
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  }
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  await new Promise(resolve =>
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    httpServer.listen({ port: config.port }, resolve),
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  );
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  console.log(
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    '🚀 Server ready at',
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    `http${config.ssl ? 's' : ''}://${config.hostname}:${config.port}/graphql`,
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  );
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  return { server, app };
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}

Edit on GitHub

CORS

Proxy configuration