WDS entry protocol incorrectly changed to https when using a reverse proxy web server

[joews]

Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?
Edge case bug + suggested feature to fix

What is the current behavior?
When WDS serves HTTP and is fronted by a web server that serves HTTPS, WDS overrides the client script entry URL to always use https (#592). This is incorrect in this case because WDS is serving HTTP.

N.B. Browsers mark HTTP requests from HTTPS pages as a security violation, but it is possible add an exception. It's not ideal but I think that's acceptable in a dev environment.

I think the aim of #592 could be met and this issue avoided by changing protocol override check:

1. Check if the WDS config has https: true
2. Check if the WDS entry URL has no protocol or uses protocol http:
3. If 1 and 2, change the entry URL to use https:.

This fixes the case where WDS is misconfigured, but allows other setups to use the specified entry point regardless of the actual URL the app is served at.

If this fix sounds good, or if there is an alternative, I will submit a PR.

If the current behavior is a bug, please provide the steps to reproduce.

1. Start WDS on port 3000 with entry webpack-dev-server/client?http://localhost:3000
2. Use, e.g. Apache or nginx to reverse proxy requests for https://localhost/wds-test-app/* to http://localhost:3000.
3. Browse to the app at https://localhost/wds-test-app.

WDS will request https://localhost:3024/sockjs-node/info?t=... - note https instead of http.

I can provide a gist that mimics this with an express proxy server if that would be useful.

What is the expected behavior?
WDS will request the protocol and hostname from the entry point. When the app first loads I will see a browser security warning, which I will dismiss in this case.

For example in Chrome:

If this is a feature request, what is motivation or use case for changing the behavior?
To enable the use of WDS behind a web server.

I think this is quite common where apps assume a front web server for TLS termination/auth, load balancing or user sharding.

Please mention your webpack and Operating System version.
webpack-dev-server@2.4.2
webpack@2.3.0

MacOS 10.12.3

[shellscape]

We'd happily review a Pull Request for this issue.

[shellscape]

@joews this ticket is stale at almost 6 months and will be closed if there's no response from the community. last chance to weigh in 😅

[joews]

@shellscape thanks for the ping! I'll put together a PR. Thanks 😄

[shellscape]

@joews please note if we reach the 30 day mark from the stale notice that we'll be closing this as abandoned.

[shellscape]

It looks like this issue has gone stale/abandoned. It's also worth noting that version 3 won't suffer from the same issue. If anyone gets the urge to put together a PR for the 2.x branch, we can reopen and evaluate.