Problems setting up SSL locally with Phoenix/Elixir - ssl

Question

I've created a new Phoenix web application on OSX and I'm trying to get SSL working on localhost. To do that, I read and performed the steps of this article. So now I have a server.key, server.crt and server.csr files. The files are not binary and are in readable form. I placed those files in the priv folder as the Phoenix docs suggested.
My config file looks like this:
config :{{name}}, {{name}}.Endpoint,
http: [port: 4000],
debug_errors: true,
code_reloader: true,
cache_static_lookup: false,
check_origin: false,
watchers: [node: ["node_modules/brunch/bin/brunch", "watch", "--stdin"]],
https: [port: 4043,
otp_app: :{{name}},
keyfile: System.get_env("server.key"),
certfile: System.get_env("server.crt"),
# OPTIONAL Key for intermediate certificates
# cacertfile: System.get_env("INTERMEDIATE_CERTFILE_PATH")
]
When I run mix phoenix.server I'm getting the following error:
** (Mix) Could not start application {{name}}: {{name}}.start(:normal, []) returned an error: shutdown: failed to start child: {{name}}.Endpoint
** (EXIT) shutdown: failed to start child: Phoenix.Endpoint.Server
** (EXIT) shutdown: failed to start child: {:ranch_listener_sup, {{name}}.Endpoint.HTTPS}
** (EXIT) shutdown: failed to start child: :ranch_acceptors_sup
** (EXIT) an exception was raised:
** (MatchError) no match of right hand side value: {:error, {:options, {:certfile, nil}}}
(ranch) src/ranch_acceptors_sup.erl:30: :ranch_acceptors_sup.init/1
(stdlib) supervisor.erl:243: :supervisor.init/1
(stdlib) gen_server.erl:306: :gen_server.init_it/6
(stdlib) proc_lib.erl:237: :proc_lib.init_p_do_apply/3
What am I doing wrong? I'm a Phoenix newbie and the project I'm working on requires SSL on localhost to prevent cross-domain issues.

Answer 1

It seems phoenix is not able to find your certificates.
To overcome this problem, you can either provide an absolute path or can take advantage of otp_app to use a relative path where phoenix can search for the certificates. If you provide otp_app, phoenix will look in your application root for certificates.
If you want to provide an absolute path you can do something like that:
keyfile: Path.expand("../../../some/path/to/ssl/cer.key", __DIR__),
certfile: Path.expand("../../../some/path/to/ssl/cer.crt", __DIR__)
If you want to take advantage of otp_app, create two env variable say KEY_HOME and CERT_HOME. Go to console and fire these two commands. You should add them to your bashrc file later.
export KEY_HOME=priv/ssl/server.key
export CERT_HOME=priv/ssl/server.crt
you must include priv directory here
Now your config looks like this
https: [port: 443,
otp_app: :hello_phoenix,
keyfile: System.get_env("KEY_HOME"),
certfile: System.get_env("CERT_HOME")
]
Don't forget to copy your files in priv/ssl.