How to allow CORS?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I am trying to support CORS in my Node.js application that uses the Express.js web framework. I have read a Google group discussion about how to handle this, and read a few articles about how CORS works. First, I did this (code is written in CoffeeScript syntax):

app.options "*", (req, res) ->
  res.header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*'
  res.header 'Access-Control-Allow-Credentials', true
  # try: 'POST, GET, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS'
  res.header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods', 'GET, OPTIONS'
  # try: 'X-Requested-With, X-HTTP-Method-Override, Content-Type, Accept'
  res.header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'Content-Type'
  # ...

It doesn't seem to work. It seems like my browser (Chrome) is not sending the initial OPTIONS request. When I just updated the block for the resource I need to submit a cross-origin GET request to:

app.get "/somethingelse", (req, res) ->
  # ...
  res.header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*'
  res.header 'Access-Control-Allow-Credentials', true
  res.header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods', 'POST, GET, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS'
  res.header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'Content-Type'
  # ...

It works (in Chrome). This also works in Safari.

I have read that...

In a browser implementing CORS, each cross-origin GET or POST request is preceded by an OPTIONS request that checks whether the GET or POST is OK.

So my main question is, how come this doesn't seem to happen in my case? Why isn't my app.options block called? Why do I need to set the headers in my main app.get block?

manpreet 2 years ago

app.use(function(req, res, next) {
    var oneof = false;
    if(req.headers.origin) {
        res.header('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', req.headers.origin);
        oneof = true;
    }
    if(req.headers['access-control-request-method']) {
        res.header('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', req.headers['access-control-request-method']);
        oneof = true;
    }
    if(req.headers['access-control-request-headers']) {
        res.header('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', req.headers['access-control-request-headers']);
        oneof = true;
    }
    if(oneof) {
        res.header('Access-Control-Max-Age', 60 * 60 * 24 * 365);
    }

    // intercept OPTIONS method
    if (oneof && req.method == 'OPTIONS') {
        res.send(200);
    }
    else {
        next();
    }
});

manpreet 2 years ago

npm install cors

var express = require('express');
var cors = require('cors');
var app = express();
app.use(cors());

manpreet 2 years ago

Do something like this:

app.use(function(req, res, next) {
    res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
    res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept");
    next();
});

manpreet 2 years ago

// CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) headers to support Cross-site HTTP requests

app.all('*', function(req, res, next) {
       res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
       res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "X-Requested-With");
       res.header('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'Content-Type');
       next();
});