Simple Node.js Proxy

When I wanted to refresh my React.js skills, I quickly moved to create a dashboard of cryptocurrencies, their prices, and and other aspects of digital value. Getting rolling with React.js is a breeze — create-react-app {name} and you’re off and running. Getting the API working isn’t quick, especially if they don’t accept cross-origin requests.

I set out to find the easiest possible Node.js proxy and I think I found it: http-proxy-middleware; check out how easy it was to use:

// ... after `npm install express http-proxy-middleware`

const express = require('express');
const { createProxyMiddleware } = require('http-proxy-middleware');

const app = express();
app.use('/coins/markets', createProxyMiddleware({ 
    target: 'https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/markets?vs_currency=USD&order=market_cap_desc&per_page=100&page=1&sparkline=false',
    headers: {
        accept: "application/json",
        method: "GET",
    },
    changeOrigin: true
}));
app.listen(3001);

After node server.js is executed, I can hit http://localhost:3001/coins/markets from my React app and receive quotes from CoinGecko’s API. Perfect!

I’m so grateful for projects like http-proxy-middleware ; they allow us to easily move past development issues and help us move forward!