Adding CORS support to an API proxy

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CORS (Cross-origin resource sharing) is a standard mechanism that allows JavaScript XMLHttpRequest (XHR) calls executed in a web page to interact with resources from non-origin domains. CORS is a commonly implemented solution to the "same-origin policy" that is enforced by all browsers. For example, if you make an XHR call to the Twitter API from JavaScript code executing in your browser, the call will fail. This is because the domain serving the page to your browser is not the same as the domain serving the Twitter API. CORS provides a solution to this problem by allowing servers to "opt-in" if they wish to provide cross-origin resource sharing.

Video: Watch a short video to learn how to enable CORS on an API proxy.

Typical use case for CORS

The following JQuery code calls a fictitious target service. If executed from within the context of a browser (a web page), the call will fail because of the same-origin policy:

<script>
var url = "http://service.example.com";
$(document).ready(function(){
  $("button").click(function(){
    $.ajax({
        type:"GET",
        url:url,
        async:true,
        dataType: "json",
           success: function(json) {
              // Parse the response.
              // Do other things.
           },
           error: function(xhr, status, err) {
              // This is where we end up!
            }
    });
  });
});
</script>

One solution to this problem is to create an Apigee API proxy that calls the service API on the back end. Remember that Edge sits between the client (a browser in this case) and the backend API (the service). Because the API proxy executes on the server, not in a browser, it is able to call the service successfully. Then, all you need to do is attach CORS headers to the TargetEndpoint response. As long as the browser supports CORS, these headers signal to the browser that it's okay to "relax" its same-origin policy, allowing the cross-origin API call to succeed.

Once the proxy with CORS support is created, you can call the API proxy URL instead of the backend service in your client-side code. For example:

<script>
var url = "http://myorg-test.apigee.net/v1/example";
$(document).ready(function(){
  $("button").click(function(){
    $.ajax({
        type:"GET",
        url:url,
        async:true,
        dataType: "json",
           success: function(json) {
              // Parse the response.
              // Do other things.
           },
           error: function(xhr, status, err) {
              // This time, we do not end up here!
            }
    });
  });
});
</script>

Attaching an Add CORS policy to a new API proxy

You can add CORS support to an API proxy by attaching an "Add CORS" policy to the API proxy when you create it. To add this policy, select the Add CORS headers checkbox in the Security page of the Build a Proxy wizard.

When you select this checkbox, a policy called Add CORS is automatically added to the system and attached to the TargetEndpoint response preflow, as shown in the following figure:

Add CORS policy added to navigator under Policies and attached to TargetEndpoint response preflow in right pan

The Add CORS policy is implemented as an AssignMessage policy, which adds the appropriate headers to the response. Basically, the headers let the browser know which origins it will share its resources with, which methods it accepts, and so on. You can read more about these CORS headers in the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing W3C Recommendation.

You should modify the policy, as follows:

  • Add the content-type and authorization headers (required to support basic authentication or OAuth2) to the Access-Control-Allow-Headers header, as shown in the code excerpt below.
  • For OAuth2 authentication, you may need to take steps to correct non-RFC-compliant behavior.
  • It is recommended that you use <Set> to set the CORS headers instead of <Add>, as shown in the excerpt below. When using <Add>, if the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header already exists, you will receive the following error:

    The 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header contains multiple values '*, *', but only one is allowed.

    For more information, see CORS Error : header contains multiple values '*, *', but only one is allowed.

<AssignMessage async="false" continueOnError="false" enabled="true" name="add-cors">
    <DisplayName>Add CORS</DisplayName>
    <FaultRules/>
    <Properties/>
    <Set>
        <Headers>
            <Header name="Access-Control-Allow-Origin">{request.header.origin}</Header>
            <Header name="Access-Control-Allow-Headers">origin, x-requested-with, accept, content-type, authorization</Header>
            <Header name="Access-Control-Max-Age">3628800</Header>
            <Header name="Access-Control-Allow-Methods">GET, PUT, POST, DELETE</Header>
        </Headers>
    </Set>
    <IgnoreUnresolvedVariables>true</IgnoreUnresolvedVariables>
    <AssignTo createNew="false" transport="http" type="response"/>
</AssignMessage>

Adding CORS headers to an existing proxy

You need to manually create a new Assign Message policy and copy the code for the Add CORS policy listed in the previous section into it. Then, attach the policy to the response preflow of the TargetEndpoint of the API proxy. You can modify the header values as needed. For more information on creating and attaching policies, see What's a policy?.

Handling CORS preflight requests

CORS preflight refers to sending a request to a server to verify if it supports CORS. Typical preflight responses include which origins the server will accept CORS requests from, a list of HTTP methods that are supported for CORS requests, headers that can be used as part of the resource request, the maximum time preflight response will be cached, and others. If the service does not indicate CORS support or does not wish to accept cross-origin requests from the client's origin, the cross-origin policy of the browser will be enforced and any cross-domain requests made from the client to interact with resources hosted on that server will fail.

Typically, CORS preflight requests are made with the HTTP OPTIONS method. When a server that supports CORS receives an OPTIONS request, it returns a set of CORS headers to the client that indicate its level of CORS support. As a result of this handshake, the client knows what it is allowed to request from the non-origin domain.

For more information on preflight, refer to the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing W3C Recommendation. There are in addition numerous blogs and articles on CORS that you can refer to.

Apigee does not include a CORS preflight solution out of the box, but it is possible to implement, as described in this section. The objective is for the proxy to evaluate an OPTIONS request in a conditional flow. The proxy can then send an appropriate response back to the client.

Let's look at a sample flow, and then discuss the parts that handle the preflight request:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<ProxyEndpoint name="default">
    <Description/>
    <Flows>
        <Flow name="OptionsPreFlight">
            <Request/>
            <Response>
                <Step>
                    <Name>add-cors</Name>
                </Step>
            </Response>
        <Condition>request.verb == "OPTIONS" AND request.header.origin != null AND request.header.Access-Control-Request-Method != null</Condition>
        </Flow>
    </Flows>

    <PreFlow name="PreFlow">
        <Request/>
        <Response/>

    </PreFlow>
    <HTTPProxyConnection>
        <BasePath>/v1/cnc</BasePath>
        <VirtualHost>default</VirtualHost>
        <VirtualHost>secure</VirtualHost>
    </HTTPProxyConnection>
    <RouteRule name="NoRoute">
        <Condition>request.verb == "OPTIONS" AND request.header.origin != null AND request.header.Access-Control-Request-Method != null</Condition>
    </RouteRule>
    <RouteRule name="default">
        <TargetEndpoint>default</TargetEndpoint>
   </RouteRule>
   <PostFlow name="PostFlow">
        <Request/>
        <Response/>
    </PostFlow>
</ProxyEndpoint>

The key parts of this ProxyEndpoint are as follows:

  • A RouteRule is created to a NULL target with a condition for the OPTIONS request. Note that there is no TargetEndpoint specified. If the OPTIONS request is received and the Origin and Access-Control-Request-Method request headers are not null, the proxy immediately returns the CORS headers in a response to the client (bypassing the actual default "backend" target). For details on flow conditions and RouteRule, see Conditions with flow variables.

    <RouteRule name="NoRoute">
    <Condition>request.verb == "OPTIONS" AND request.header.origin != null AND request.header.Access-Control-Request-Method != null</Condition>
</RouteRule>
  • An OptionsPreFlight flow is created that adds an Add CORS policy, containing the CORS headers, to the flow if an OPTIONS request is received and the Origin and Access-Control-Request-Method request headers are not null. 

     <Flow name="OptionsPreFlight">
            <Request/>
            <Response>
                <Step>
                    <Name>add-cors</Name>
                </Step>
            </Response>
        <Condition>request.verb == "OPTIONS" AND request.header.origin != null AND request.header.Access-Control-Request-Method != null</Condition>
 </Flow>

Using the sample CORS solution

A sample CORS solution, implemented as a shared flow, is available on GitHub. Import the shared flow bundle to your environment and attach it using flow hooks or directly to the API proxy flows. For details, see the CORS-Shared-FLow README file provided with the sample.