I'm trying to deploy a project that uses several Docker containers, and I'm hitting a wall with the networking setup. My backend services and database spin up smoothly, but the frontend can't connect to the backend unless I use a reverse proxy, specifically the Nginx Proxy Manager. This workaround works, but it adds a layer of complexity that I want to avoid. My ideal setup would allow users to run `docker compose up -d` and have everything work right out of the box without needing to manually configure a proxy. I feel like I'm missing something when it comes to container networking. I'd love any tips on how to configure my `docker-compose.yml` so the frontend can directly communicate with the backend using service names. Other projects like Supabase and Gitea seem to manage this just fine, so I'm looking for some guidance!
1 Answer
It sounds like you might not be overriding the API URL in your frontend's `.env` file within the compose configuration. Make sure your frontend knows what the backend's address is; using "localhost" won't work between containers since each one thinks of localhost as itself. Try checking the network tab in your browser's dev tools to see which URL it's attempting to connect to and ensure the ports align correctly with your backend's exposed port.
Thanks, I will check look into it.