Custom Node-RED root path ignored

[Neraud]

Summary

When trying to run Node-RED with a custom root path, some 404 errors appear when editing a flow with homeassistant nodes.

The only visible symptom is that autocomplete is broken and a red "404" error is displayed at the top of the page. Manually filling-in the inputs seems to work fine.

Steps to reproduce

Setup

I've started from scratch on a Debian stretch box, and installed both node-red and node-red-contrib-home-assistant via npm :

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ node -v
v6.12.3
node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ npm -v
3.10.10
node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ npm list node-red
/opt/node-red
└── [email protected]

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ npm list node-red-contrib-home-assistant
/opt/node-red
└── [email protected]

(I've stuck to [email protected] to avoid 3.0 issues that are already logged)

No custom root path

After the fresh install, custom root path are disabled in the settings.js :

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ grep "http.*Root:" /opt/node-red-data/settings.js
    //httpAdminRoot: '/admin',
    //httpNodeRoot: '/red-nodes',
    //httpRoot: '/red',

And Node-RED listens on /

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ /usr/bin/node --max-old-space-size=128 /opt/node-red/node_modules/node-red/red.js --userDir /opt/node-red-data -v
19 Feb 11:00:34 - [info]

Welcome to Node-RED
===================

19 Feb 11:00:34 - [info] Node-RED version: v0.18.3
19 Feb 11:00:34 - [info] Node.js  version: v6.12.3
19 Feb 11:00:34 - [info] Linux 4.9.0-3-amd64 x64 LE
19 Feb 11:00:34 - [info] Loading palette nodes
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [warn] ------------------------------------------------------
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [warn] [node-red/rpi-gpio] Info : Ignoring Raspberry Pi specific node
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [warn] ------------------------------------------------------
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [info] Settings file  : /opt/node-red-data/settings.js
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [info] User directory : /opt/node-red-data
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [warn] Projects disabled : set editorTheme.projects.enabled=true to enable
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [info] Flows file     : /opt/node-red-data/flows_HomeTest.json
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [info] Creating new flow file
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [info] Starting flows
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [info] Started flows
19 Feb 11:00:35 - [info] Server now running at http://127.0.0.1:1880/

When adding a simple Home Assistant Service node, an ajax call is sent to : http://[domain]:1880/homeassistant/services The autocomplete works fine.

Custom httpRoot

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ grep "http.*Root:" /opt/node-red-data/settings.js
    //httpAdminRoot: '/admin',
    //httpNodeRoot: '/red-nodes',
    httpRoot: '/red',

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ /usr/bin/node --max-old-space-size=128 /opt/node-red/node_modules/node-red/red.js --userDir /opt/node-red-data -v
19 Feb 11:14:57 - [info]

Welcome to Node-RED
===================
[...]
19 Feb 11:14:58 - [info] Server now running at http://127.0.0.1:1880/red/

In the Node-RED admin, called with "/red", the Ajax calls are still sent to http://[domain]:1880/homeassistant/services Which generates Cannot GET /homeassistant/services

However, if I add the root path manually, it answers correctly : http://[domain]:1880/red/homeassistant/services

Custom httpAdminRoot

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ grep "http.*Root:" /opt/node-red-data/settings.js
    httpAdminRoot: '/admin',
    //httpNodeRoot: '/red-nodes',
    //httpRoot: '/red',

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ /usr/bin/node --max-old-space-size=128 /opt/node-red/node_modules/node-red/red.js --userDir /opt/node-red-data -v
19 Feb 11:28:19 - [info]

Welcome to Node-RED
===================
[...]
19 Feb 11:28:19 - [info] Server now running at http://127.0.0.1:1880/admin/

In the Node-RED admin, called with "/admin", the Ajax calls are still sent to http://[domain]:1880/homeassistant/services Which generates Cannot GET /homeassistant/services

However, if I add the root path manually, it answers correctly : http://[domain]:1880/admin/homeassistant/services

Workaround

I'm running NGinx as a Reverse Proxy. Adding a custom location to proxy to Node-RED works :

location /homeassistant/ {
	proxy_pass http://localhost:1880/red/homeassistant/;
	...
}

location /red/ {
	proxy_pass http://localhost:1880/red/;
	...
}

[AYapejian]

👍 for the awesomely detailed submission

I'll dig into this as soon as I have some time

[Neraud]

BTW, I've updated NodeJS and node-red-contrib-home-assistant, and have the same behavior :

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ node -v
v8.9.4

node-red@HomeTest:/opt/node-red$ npm list node-red-contrib-home-assistant
/opt/node-red
└── [email protected]

[geek65535]

Thanks for the information. The workaround worked for me!

[elmexdechileen]

Awesome, thank you!

[oskapt]

For anyone running HAProxy instead of nginx, add this to the corresponding frontend or backend or listen section:

reqrep ^([^\ :]*)\ (/homeassistant/.*)     \1\ /admin/\2

(If you are using httpRoot instead of httpAdmin, replace admin with your the value of the httpRoot key from settings.js.)

[stuomas]

Would it be possible to post the complete workaround? Name/path of the file, and the whole file, or atleast the whole server {} section. There is enough room in the Internet :)

[oskapt]

@stuomas it depends on how your personal reverse proxy is configured. For me, I'm using HAProxy in front of a 3-node Kubernetes cluster where I'm running NodeRED. I'm rewriting the URL in the backend for that cluster:

backend bk_rancher_http
  balance source

  # rewrite requests for nr-hass HA entities
  # see https://github.com/AYapejian/node-red-contrib-home-assistant/issues/41
  reqrep ^([^\ :]*)\ (/homeassistant/.*)     \1\ /admin/\2

  server rancher01 10.68.0.40:80 check fall 3 rise 2
  server rancher02 10.68.0.36:80 check fall 3 rise 2
  server rancher03 10.68.0.37:80 check fall 3 rise 2