Isomorphic-fetch prevents outline from running behind a proxy

[thllwg]

Preface: I am not a node developer and my analysis may be based on wrong assumptions.

I'm trying to run a self-hosted version of outline. The server runs behind a corporate proxy. Consequently, I've set environment variables (HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, NO_PROXY). I can reach outline's login-page from the internet without any problems and (upon clicking "login with slack") are forwarded to slack to allow access to the workspace. However, it appears that while outline is reachable from the internet, outline itself is not able to reach the internet and thus cannot make use of slacks callback url. See corresponding log:

outline_1   | ClientError [BadRequestError]: request to https://slack.com/api/oauth.access?client_id=*****************.*****************&client_secret=*********************************&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2F******.*********.**%3A30705%2Fauth%2Fslack.callback&code=***************.******************.************************* failed, reason: connect ETIMEDOUT 3.123.248.34:443
outline_1   |     at new InvalidRequestError (/opt/outline/build/server/errors.js:51:34)
outline_1   |     at request (/opt/outline/build/server/slack.js:49:11)
outline_1   |     at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:93:5)
outline_1   |     at async /opt/outline/build/server/auth/slack.js:66:16
outline_1   |     at async /opt/outline/node_modules/koa-mount/index.js:58:5 {
outline_1   |   id: 'invalid_request',
outline_1   |   headerSent: true
outline_1   | }

Upon further inspection, I learned that Nodejs doesn't respect HTTP_PROXY environment variables and developers are responsible themselves to support operations behind a proxy (nodejs/node/issues/8381). Outline uses the isomorphic-fetch package to handle the communication with the slack API. Unfortunately, isomorphic-fetch does not read HTTP_PROXY environment variables either (matthew-andrews/isomorphic-fetch/issues/171). By replacing isomorphic-fetch with fetch-with-proxy, I got outline running behind a proxy (see fork: dad89f8 and bddefc4).
However, this proof of concept is probably still hacky.

Expected behavior
Outline should respect http_proxy environment variables.

Outline (please complete the following information):

• Install: self-hosted
• Version: 4b60346

[tommoor]

Hi @thllwg – your analysis and solution seems correct. Swapping out the dep will need more testing to ensure it does not regress other situations. Would you like to put a PR in?

[stale]

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