How to run PrimeFaces behind reverse proxy in a subdomain? - apache

Question

I have build an application with PrimeFaces and want to run that behind an apache reverse proxy.
My target url looks like this http://myserverurl.org:8080/myapplication/.
I want to access the application via subdomain like this http://myapplication.myserverurl.org.
I have configured a VirtualHost in apache:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName myapplication.myserverurl.org
ProxyPass / http://myserverurl.org:8080/myapplication/
ProxyPassReverse / http://myserverurl.org:8080/myapplication/
</VirtualHost>
That works not so well. I can see the JSF page, but there is no CSS applied etc. I can see that the first request is redirected correctly, but the following requests (to load jQuery, CSS, etc.) are not.
They try to access an url like http://myapplication.myserverurl.org/myapplication/faces/javax.faces.resource/primefaces.js?ln=primefaces which is obviously wrong. They must not include the /myapplication/ path again, since the proxy redirects already to that path.
How can I solve this issue? Is this a PrimeFaces problem or a problem with my reverse proxy configuration?

Answer 1

Using (or not using) AJP has no bearing on resolving this specific issue.
Primefaces internally uses context path variable to include CSS and Javascript resources. Even using AJP you will end up with:
/unwantedAppContext/javax.faces.resource/jquery/jquery.js.jsf?ln=primefaces
What you could do to resolve this add another proxy pass to handle the unwanted context. This may not be the best solution, but it works.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName myapplication.myserverurl.org
ProxyPass /myapplication/ http://myserverurl.org:8080/myapplication/
ProxyPassReverse /myapplication/ http://myserverurl.org:8080/myapplication/
ProxyPass / http://myserverurl.org:8080/myapplication/
ProxyPassReverse / http://myserverurl.org:8080/myapplication/
</VirtualHost>
The order of the pass matters.
This issue was also reported in the icefaces forum
http://www.icesoft.org/JForum/posts/list/4433.page#sthash.h1qSqiYg.dpbs

Answer 2

It may be different depending on the application server but, as a main rule, you should use AJP for the proxying.
First step is to enable ajp modules depending on OS. Ubuntu looks like this.
sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_ajp
Step 2, change the proxy definition in the apache conf to something like:
ProxyPass / ajp://localhost:8009/myapplication
ProxyPassReverse / ajp://localhost:8009/myapplication
Step 3 is to enable it on the application server. Again, it varies depending of the one you use. Tomcat has a commented out section in the server.xml. Glassfish has a check-box in the admin console and an asadmin command (but I can't remember it)

Answer 3

Consider using ProxyHTMLURLMap directive from mod_proxy_html module. This module manipulates output HTML links to be pointed to the right location. In your case all the links that tell http://myapplication.myserverurl.org/ need to be changed back to /, i.e.
ProxyHTMLURLMap http://myapplication.myserverurl.org/ /
This way you can modify any call-back links that are pointing to wrong location.

Answer 4

Answer of jjhavokk works but
for Graphics you need to reference them via request.contextPath
<img src="#{request.contextPath}/resources/yourfolder/yourpng.png" />
Place it in webapp/resources/yourfolder/yourpng.png
With my .css file this was not needed
h:outputStylesheet name="css/screen.css"
in webapp/resources/css