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A multipurpose, full-featured, middleware-oriented and hackable HTTP/S and WebSocket proxy with powerful built-in features such as versatile routing layer, traffic interceptor and replay to multiple backends, built-in balancer, traffic retry/backoff logic, hierarchical configuration, among others. Built for node.js/io.js.

rocky can be fluently used programmatically or via command-line interface. It's framework agnostic, but you can optionally plug in with connect/express apps.

To get started, take a look to how does it work, basic usage, middleware layer and examples.

Note: retry feature is temporary not available in latest node.js versions.

Contents

Features

When rocky can be useful?

Installation

npm install rocky --save

Benchmark

See benchmark/README.md for detailed benchmark results.

About

Versions

How does it work?

         |==============|
         | HTTP clients |
         |==============|
               ||||
         |==============|
         |  HTTP proxy  |   ->  Via the built-in HTTP server or via connect/express
         |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
         | Rocky Router |   ->  The built-in featured router matches the proper route
         |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
         |  Middleware  |   ->  Dispatch the hierarchical middleware layer
         |==============|
            ||      |
  (duplex) //        \ (one-way)
         //            \
   /----------\   /----------\    /----------\
   |  target  |   | replay 1 | -> | replay 2 | (*N)
   \----------/   \----------/    \----------/

Projects using rocky

Open an issue or send a PR to add your project!

Middleware layer

One of the most powerful features in rocky is its build-in domain specific middleware, based on connect/express middleware.

The middleware layer provides a simple and consistent way to augment the proxy functionality very easily, allowing you to attach third-party middleware (also known as plugins) to cover specific tasks which acts between different phases of the proxy, for instance handling incoming/outgoing traffic.

rocky middleware layer has the same interface as connect/express middleware, and it's mostly compatible with existent middleware (see express example).

Hierarchies

rocky supports multiple middleware hierarchies:

Types of middleware

rocky introduces multiple types of middleware layers based on the same interface and behavior of connect/express middleware. This was introduced in order to achieve in a more responsive way multiple traffic flows in the specific scope and behavior nature of a programmatic HTTP proxy with traffic replay.

Those flows are intrinsically correlated but might be handled in a completely different way. The goal is to allowing you to handle them accordingly, acting in the middle of those phases to augment some functionality or react to some event with better accuracy.

Supported types of middleware:

router
forward
replay
response
param

Middleware flow

Middleware functions are always executed in FIFO order. The following diagram represents the internal incoming request flow and how the different middleware layers are involved on it:

↓    ( Incoming request )   ↓
↓            |||            ↓
↓      ----------------     ↓
↓      |    Router    |     ↓ --> Match a route, dispatching its middleware if required
↓      ----------------     ↓
↓            |||            ↓
↓   ---------------------   ↓
↓   | Global middleware |   ↓ --> Dispatch on every incoming request (router, param)
↓   ---------------------   ↓
↓            |||            ↓
↓           /   \           ↓
↓         /       \         ↓
↓       /           \       ↓
↓ [ Forward ]    [ Replay ] ↓ --> Dispatch both middleware in separated flows (route forward and replay)
↓      \             /      ↓
↓       \           /       ↓
↓        \         /        ↓
↓    -------------------    ↓
↓    | HTTP dispatcher |    ↓ --> Send requests over the network (concurrently or sequentially)
↓    -------------------    ↓

Middleware API

Middleware layer behaves and has the same interface as connect/express. In other words, you can create or use middleware as you already know with the typical notation function(req, res, next)

As a kind of inversion of control, rocky exposes a tiny API in every http.ClientRequest passed via the middleware layer:

Request
Response

Example replacing the target server URL:

rocky()
  .get('/users/:name')
  .forward('http://old.server.net')
  .use(function (req, res, next) {
    if (req.params.name === 'admin') {
      // Overwrite the target URL only for this user
      req.rocky.options.target = 'http://new.server.net'
    }
    next()
  })

Third-party middleware

Note that you can use any other existent middleware plug in rocky as part of your connect/express app.

Additionally, rocky provides some built-in middleware functions that you can plug in different types of middleware.

Command-line

Installation

For command-line usage, you must install rocky-cli

npm install -g rocky-cli

Usage

Start rocky HTTP proxy server
Usage: rocky [options]

Options:
  --help, -h     Show help                                             [boolean]
  --config, -c   File path to TOML config file
  --port, -p     rocky HTTP server port
  --forward, -f  Default forward server URL
  --replay, -r   Define a replay server URL
  --route, -t    Define one or multiple routes, separated by commas
  --key, -k      Path to SSL key file
  --cert, -e     Path to SSL certificate file
  --secure, -s   Enable SSL certification validation
  --balance, -b  Define server URLs to balance between, separated by commas
  --mute, -m     Disable HTTP traffic log in stdout                    [boolean]
  --debug, -d    Enable debug mode                                     [boolean]
  -v, --version  Show version number                                   [boolean]

Examples:
  rocky -c rocky.toml \
  -f http://127.0.0.1:9000 \
  -r http://127.0.0.1

Examples

Passing the config file:

rocky --config rocky.toml --port 8080

Reading config from stdin:

cat rocky.toml | rocky --port 8080

Transparent rocky.toml file discovery in current and higher directories:

rocky --port 8080

Alternatively rocky can find the config file passing the ROCKY_CONFIG environment variable:

ROCKY_CONFIG=path/to/rocky.toml rocky --port 8080

Or for simple configurations you can setup a proxy without a config file, defining the routes via flag:

rocky --port --forward http://server --route "/download/*, /images/*, /*"

Configuration file

Default configuration file name: rocky.toml

The configuration file must be declared in TOML language

port = 8080
forward = "http://google.com"
replay = ["http://duckduckgo.com"]

[ssl]
cert = "server.crt"
key  = "server.key"

["/users/:id"]
method = "all"
forward = "http://new.server"

["/oauth"]
method = "all"
forward = "http://auth.server"

["/*"]
method = "GET"
forward = "http://old.server"

["/download/:file"]
method = "GET"
timeout = 5000
balance = ["http://1.file.server", "http://2.file.server"]

["/photo/:name"]
method = "GET"
replayAfterForward = true
[[replay]]
  target = "http://old.server"
  forwardHost = true
[[replay]]
  target = "http://backup.server"

Programmatic API

Usage

Example using Express

var rocky = require('rocky')
var express = require('express')

// Set up the express server
var app = express()
// Set up the rocky proxy
var proxy = rocky()

// Default proxy config
proxy
  .forward('http://new.server')
  .replay('http://old.server')
  .replay('http://log.server')
  .options({ forwardHost: true })

// Configure the routes to forward/replay
proxy
  .get('/users/:id')

proxy
  .get('/download/:file')
  .balance(['http://1.file.server', 'http://2.file.server'])

// Plug in the rocky middleware
app.use(proxy.middleware())

// Old route (won't be called since it will be intercepted by rocky)
app.get('/users/:id', function () { /* ... */ })

app.listen(3000)

Example using the built-in HTTP server

var rocky = require('rocky')

var proxy = rocky()

// Default proxy config
proxy
  .forward('http://new.server')
  .replay('http://old.server', { replayOriginalBody: true })
  .options({ forwardHost: true })
  .on('proxy:error', function (err) {
    console.error('Error:', err)
  })
  .on('proxyReq', function (proxyReq, req, res, opts) {
    console.log('Proxy request:', req.url, 'to', opts.target)
  })
  .on('proxyRes', function (proxyRes, req, res) {
    console.log('Proxy response:', req.url, 'with status', res.statusCode)
  })

// Configure the routes to forward/replay
proxy
  .get('/users/:id')
  // Overwrite the path
  .toPath('/profile/:id', { id: '0123' })
  // Add custom headers
  .headers({
    'Authorization': 'Bearer 0123456789'
  })

proxy
  .get('/search')
  // Overwrite the forward URL for this route
  .forward('http://another.server')
  // Use a custom middleware for validation purposes
  .use(function (req, res, next) {
    if (req.headers['Authorization'] !== 'Bearer 012345678') {
      res.statusCode = 401
      return res.end()
    }
    next()
  })
  // Intercept and transform the response body before sending it to the client
  .transformResponseBody(function (req, res, next) {
    // Get the body buffer and parse it (assuming it's a JSON)
    var body = JSON.parse(res.body.toString())

    // Compose the new body
    var newBody = JSON.stringify({ salutation: 'hello ' + body.hello })

    // Send the new body in the request
    next(null, newBody)
  })

proxy.listen(3000)

For more usage cases, take a look to the examples

Configuration

Supported configuration params:

rocky([ options ])

Creates a new rocky instance with the given options.

You can pass any of the allowed params at configuration level and any supported http-proxy options

rocky#forward(url)

Aliases: target, forwardTo

Define a default target URL to forward the request

rocky#replay(url, [ opts ])

Alias: replayTo

Add a server URL to replay the incoming request

opts param provide specific replay options, overwritting the parent options.

Note: replay feature is only valid for HTTP traffic.

rocky#options(options)

Define/overwrite rocky server options. You can pass any of the supported options by http-proxy.

rocky#protocol(name)

Define the proxy protocol operation mode. Supported options are: http, ws

rocky#use([ path ], ...middleware)

Alias: useIncoming

Use the given middleware to handle all http methods on the given path, defaulting to the root path.

rocky#useParam(param, ...middleware)

Alias: param()

Maps the specified path parameter name to a specialized param-capturing middleware. The middleware stack is the same as .use().

Note: this middleware is only valid for HTTP traffic.

rocky#useReplay(...middleware)

Use a middleware for all the incoming traffic in the HTTP replay phase. This middleware stack can be useful to differ between forward/replay traffic, applying separated flows of middleware.

Note: this middleware is only valid for HTTP traffic.

rocky#useForward(...middleware)

Use a middleware for all the incoming traffic only for the HTTP request forward phase.

For most cases you will only use .use(), but for particular modifications only for the forwarded traffic, this middleware can be useful.

Note: this middleware is only valid for HTTP traffic.

rocky#useResponse(...middleware)

Alias: useOutgoing

Use a middleware for the outgoing response traffic of the forwarded request.

This middleware stack is useful to handle intercept and modify server responses before sending it to the end client in the other side of the proxy.

Note: this middleware is only valid for HTTP traffic.

rocky#useWs(...middleware)

Use a WebSocket specific middleware. Middleware chain will be executed on every incoming WebSocket connection.

rocky#useFor(name, ...middleware)

Use a custom middleware for a specific phase. Supported phase names are: forward, 'replay'.

This method is used internally, however it's also public since it could be useful for dynamic middleware configurations instead of using the shortcut methods such as: useReplay or useForward.

rocky#balance(...urls)

Define a set of URLs to balance between with a simple round-robin like scheduler.

rocky#stopReplay()

Disable replay logic.

rocky#retry([ opts, filter ])

Enable and define a custom retry logic as global configuration. See Route#retry for details.

rocky#on(event, handler)

Subscribe to a proxy event. See support events here

rocky#once(event, handler)

Remove an event by its handler function. See support events here

rocky#off(event, handler)

Remove an event by its handler function. See support events here

rocky#removeAllListeners(event)

Remove all the subscribers to the given event. See support events here

rocky#middleware()

Return: Function(req, res, next)

Return a connect/express compatible middleware

rocky#requestHandler(req, res, next)

Raw HTTP request/response handler.

rocky#listen(port, [ host ])

Starts a HTTP proxy server in the given port

rocky#close([ callback ])

Close the HTTP proxy server, if exists. Shortcut to rocky#server.close(cb)

rocky#all(path, [ ...middleware ])

Return: Route

Add a route handler for the given path for all HTTP methods

rocky#route(method, path, [ ...middleware ])

Return: Route

rocky#get(path, [ ...middleware ])

Return: Route

Configure a new route the given path with GET method

rocky#post(path, [ ...middleware ])

Return: Route

Configure a new route the given path with POST method

rocky#put(path, [ ...middleware ])

Return: Route

Configure a new route the given path with PUT method

rocky#delete(path, [ ...middleware ])

Return: Route

Configure a new route the given path with DELETE method

rocky#patch(path, [ ...middleware ])

Return: Route

Configure a new route the given path with PATCH method

rocky#head(path, [ ...middleware ])

Return: Route

Configure a new route the given path with HEAD method

rocky#routeAll()

Return: Route

Route all the incoming traffic to the default target. This is a shortcut to rocky#all('/*').

Note: you must call this method only when you already defined other routes.

rocky#query([ params | parseFn ])

Parse and expose the query params in http.IncomingMessage object via req.query = Object.

Additionally you can pass an object with additional params to add or a middleware function(req, res, next) to work in details with query params.

rocky#headers(headers)

Add/extend custom headers to the incoming request before forward/replay it.

rocky#timeout(milliseconds)

Define a custom timeout for forward/replay traffic in milliseconds.

rocky#router

Internal router instance

rocky#server

HTTP/HTTPS server instance. Only present if listen() was called starting the built-in server.

rocky#mw = MiddlewarePool

Exposes the MiddlewarePool instance.

Route(path)

route#forward(url)

Aliases: target, forwardTo

Overwrite forward server for the current route.

route#replay(url, [ opts ])

Alias: replyTo

Overwrite replay servers for the current route.

opts param provide specific replay options, overwritting the parent options.

Note: replay feature is only valid for HTTP traffic.

route#balance(urls)

Define a set of URLs to balance between with a simple round-robin like scheduler. urls param must be an array of strings.

route#stopReplay()

Disable replay logic for the current route.

route#reply(status, [ headers, body ])

Shortcut method to intercept and reply the incoming request. If used, body param must be a string or buffer

route#unregister()

Unregister the current route. If the route if matched by the router, it will be ignored, continuing to the next route in the stack.

route#timeout(milliseconds)

Define a custom timeout for forward/replay traffic in milliseconds.

route#toPath(url, [ params ])

Overwrite the request path, defining additional optional params.

route#headers(headers)

Define or overwrite request headers for the current route.

route#query([ params | parseFn ])

Parse and expose the query params in http.IncomingMessage object via req.query = Object.

Additionally you can pass an object with additional params to add or a middleware function(req, res, next) to work in details with query params.

route#host(host)

Overwrite the Host header value when forward the request.

route#redirect(url)

Redirect the incoming request for the current route.

route#replayAfterForward([ filter ])

Alias: sequential

Dispatch the replay phase after the forward request ends (either with success or fail status).

Note: this will buffer all the body data. Avoid using it with large payloads

route#replaySequentially([ filter ])

Enable sequential replay process executed in FIFO order: if some replay request fails, the queue is empty and the process will stop

Note: this will buffer all the body data. Avoid using it with large payloads

route#retry([ opts, filter ])

Enable retry logic for forward traffic. See allowed options here. You can also define additional retry validations passing an array of function via strategies field in opts object argument.

Note: enabling retry logic will forces buffering all the body payload. Be careful when using it with large payloads

var customRetryStrategies = [
  function invalidCodes(err, res) {
    return !err && [404, 406].indexOf(res.statusCode) !== -1
  }
]

rocky()
  .get('/download/:id')
  .retry({
    retries: 3,
    factor: 2,
    minTimeout: 100,
    maxTimeout: 30 * 1000,
    randomize: true,
    strategies: customRetryStrategies
  })

rocky.forward('http://inconsistent-server')

route#bufferBody([ filter ])

Alias: interceptBody

Intercept and cache in a buffer the request payload data. Body will be exposed in req.body.

Note: use it only for small payloads, since the whole body will be buffered in memory

route#transformRequest(middleware, [ filter ])

Alias: transformRequestBody()

This method implements a non-instrusive native http.IncomingMessage stream wrapper that allow you to intercept and transform the request body received from the client before sending it to the target server.

The middleware argument must a function which accepts the following arguments: function(req, res, next) The filter arguments is optional and it can be a string, regexp or function(req) which should return boolean if the request passes the filter. The default check value by string or regexp test is the Content-Type header.

In the middleware function must call the next function, which accepts the following arguments: err, newBody, encoding You can see an usage example here.

Caution: using this middleware could generate in some scenarios negative performance side-effects, since the whole payload data will be buffered in the heap until it's finished. Don't use it if you need to handle large payloads.

The body will be exposed as raw Buffer or String on both properties body and originalBody in http.ClientRequest:

rocky
  .post('/users')
  .transformRequest(function (req, res, next) {
    // Get the body buffer and parse it (assuming it's a JSON)
    var body = JSON.parse(req.body.toString())

    // Compose the new body
    var newBody = JSON.stringify({ salutation: 'hello ' + body.hello })

    // Set the new body
    next(null, newBody, 'utf8')
  }, function (req) {
    // Custom filter
    return /application\/json/i.test(req.headers['content-type'])
  })

route#transformResponse(middleware, [ filter ])

Alias: transformResponseBody()

This method implements a non-instrusive native http.RequestResponse stream wrapper that allow you to intercept and transform the response body received from the target server before sending it to the client.

The middleware argument must a function which accepts the following arguments: function(req, res, next) The filter arguments is optional and it can be a string, regexp or function(res) which should return boolean if the request passes the filter. The default check value by string or regexp test is the Content-Type header.

In the middleware function must call the next function, which accepts the following arguments: err, newBody, encoding You can see an usage example here.

Caution: using this middleware could generate in some scenarios negative performance side-effects since the whole payload data will be buffered in the heap until it's finished. Don't use it if you need to handle large payloads.

The body will be exposed as raw Buffer or String on both properties body and originalBody in http.ClientResponse:

rocky
  .post('/users')
  .transformResponse(function (req, res, next) {
    // Get the body buffer and parse it (assuming it's a JSON)
    var body = JSON.parse(res.body.toString())

    // Compose the new body
    var newBody = JSON.stringify({ salutation: 'hello ' + body.hello })

    // Set the new body
    next(null, newBody, 'utf8')
  }, function (res) {
    // Custom filter
    return /application\/json/i.test(res.getHeader('content-type'))
  })

route#options(options)

Overwrite default proxy options for the current route. You can pass any supported option by http-proxy

route#use(...middleware)

Alias: useIncoming

Use a middleware for the incoming traffic for the current route for both replay/forward phases.

route#useReplay(...middleware)

Use a middleware for current route incoming traffic in the HTTP replay phase. This middleware stack can be useful to differ between forward/replay traffic, applying separated flows of middleware.

route#useForward(...middleware)

Use a middleware for current route incoming traffic only for the HTTP request forward phase. For most cases you will only use .use(), but for particular modifications only for the forwarded traffic, this middleware can be useful.

route#useFor(name, ...middleware)

This method is used internally, however it's also public since it could be useful for dynamic middleware configurations instead of using the shortcut methods such as: useReplay or useForward.

route#on(event, ...handler)

Subscribes to a specific event for the given route. Useful to intercept the status or modify the options on-the-fly

Events

For more information about events, see the events fired by http-proxy

route#once(event, ...handler)

Subscribes to a specific event for the given route, and unsubscribes after dispatched

route#off(event, handler)

Remove an event by its handler function in the current route

route#mw = MiddlewarePool

Exposes the MiddlewarePool instance used for the route scope.

rocky.middleware

Expose the built-in internal middleware functions.

You can reuse them as standard middleware in different ways, like this:

rocky()
  .all('/*')
  .use(rocky.middleware.headers({
    'Authorization': 'Bearer 0123456789'
  }))
  .useReplay(rocky.middleware.host('replay.server.net'))

rocky.middleware.requestBody(middleware)

Intercept and optionally transform/replace the request body before forward it to the target server.

See rocky#transformRequestBody for more details.

rocky.middleware.responseBody(middleware)

Intercept and optionally transform/replace the response body from the server before send it to the client.

See rocky#transformResponseBody for more details.

rocky.middleware.toPath(path, [ params ])

Overrites the request URL path of the incoming request before forward/replay it.

rocky.middleware.headers(headers)

Add/extend custom headers to the incoming request before forward/replay it.

rocky.middleware.query([ query | parserFn ])

Add/extend custom query string params to the incoming request.

rocky.middleware.host(host)

Overwrite the Host header before forwarding/replaying the request. Useful for some scenarios (e.g Heroku).

rocky.middleware.reply(status, [ headers, body ])

Shortcut method to reply the intercepted request from the middleware, with optional headers and body data.

rocky.middleware.redirect(url)

Shortcut method to redirect the current request.

rocky.Route

Accessor for the Route module

rocky.Base

Accessor for the Base module

rocky.protocols

Expose protocol-specific modules.

rocky.httpProxy

Accessor for the http-proxy API

rocky.MiddlewarePool

Middleware pool abstraction layer used internally by rocky. See the midware-pool package for details.

rocky.VERSION

Current rocky package semver

Special Thanks

License

MIT - Tomas Aparicio

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