Ackee runs a simple server that doesn't support TSL/SSL. This means it's not possible to directly connect via HTTPS. It's recommended to use a reverse proxy instead. This document explains how.
A reverse proxy is a type of proxy server that retrieves resources on behalf of a client from one or more servers. These resources are then returned to the client, appearing as if they originated from the proxy server itself.
A reverse proxy makes it easy for you to run Ackee on your server along with other services. It also allows you to secure connections using TLS/SSL.
I highly recommend this article if you want to lean more about reverse proxies.
This configuration redirects all requests to the non-www domain example.com, secures connections using TSL/SSL and allows CORS requests from a list of known domains.
👉 The CORS headers are required so your sites can send data to Ackee, even when their domain is different to the one Ackee uses.
#
# Set "$cors_header" to avoid "if" inside location context
# https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/depth/ifisevil/
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14499320/how-to-properly-setup-nginx-access-control-allow-origin-into-response-header-bas
#
map $http_origin $cors_header {
default "";
~*^https://([^/]+\.)*(domainone|domaintwo)\.com$ $http_origin;
}
#
# Redirect all www to non-www
#
server {
listen 80;
listen 443 ssl;
server_name www.example.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}
#
# Redirect all non-encrypted to encrypted
#
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com;
return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}
#
# There we go
#
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
server_name example.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
access_log /var/log/nginx/log/example.com.access.log main;
error_log /var/log/nginx/log/example.com.error.log;
location / {
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin "$cors_header" always;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Methods "GET, POST, PATCH, OPTIONS" always;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Headers "Content-Type, Authorization, Time-Zone" always;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Credentials "true" always;
add_header Access-Control-Max-Age "3600" always;
add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" always;
add_header X-Frame-Options deny;
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_next_upstream error timeout invalid_header http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504;
proxy_redirect off;
proxy_buffering off;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}
}
This configuration secures all connections using TSL/SSL and allows https://example.com to send data to https://ackee.example.com.
ℹ️ This configuration only allows requests from a single domain. Take a look at our recommended configuration if you want to allow requests from multiple domains or use the insecure wildcard configuration.
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
server_name ackee.example.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/ackee.example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/ackee.example.com/privkey.pem;
access_log /var/log/nginx/log/ackee.example.com.access.log main;
error_log /var/log/nginx/log/ackee.example.com.error.log;
location / {
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin "https://example.com" always;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Methods "GET, POST, PATCH, OPTIONS" always;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Headers "Content-Type, Authorization, Time-Zone" always;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Credentials "true" always;
add_header Access-Control-Max-Age "3600" always;
add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" always;
add_header X-Frame-Options deny;
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_next_upstream error timeout invalid_header http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504;
proxy_redirect off;
proxy_buffering off;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}
}
A wildcard (*) isn't recommended as it's neither a secure solution nor does it allow Ackee to ignore your own visits. Please disable the ignoreOwnVisits option in ackee-tracker if using a wildcard is the only option for you.
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
server_name ackee.example.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/ackee.example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/ackee.example.com/privkey.pem;
access_log /var/log/nginx/log/ackee.example.com.access.log main;
error_log /var/log/nginx/log/ackee.example.com.error.log;
location / {
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*" always;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Methods "GET, POST, PATCH, OPTIONS" always;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Headers "Content-Type, Authorization, Time-Zone" always;
add_header Access-Control-Max-Age "3600" always;
add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" always;
add_header X-Frame-Options deny;
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_next_upstream error timeout invalid_header http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504;
proxy_redirect off;
proxy_buffering off;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}
}