How to create a middle layer for two different servers running independently in node.js

Question

I am trying to implement a node.js layer between two servers which will help in redirecting to the respective server on a route/url change, provided both the servers are inside one folder.

What I wanted to achieve:

If I hit localhost:8000/app1 --> server1 should be called
similarly, localhost:8000/app2 --> server2 should be called

So far I have tried:

const path = require("path");
const express = require("express");

const router = express.Router();
const PORT = 8000;

const server1 = require('./server1')
const server2 = require('./server2')

app.get('/app1', function(req, res){
    res.send(server1);
});

app.get('/app2', function(req, res){
    res.send(server2);
});
  
app.listen(PORT, function(err){
    if (err) console.log(err);
    console.log("Server listening on PORT", PORT);

I have also tried to understand express vhost in this scenario but did not got any success.

I would love to understand if this is possible?

Answer 1

Maybe Express provides this kind of functionality, but more likely you have to launch a web server like NGINX or Apache2. In their configuration you can tell that "http://localhost:8000/app1" has to be mapped to server1 and "http://localhost:8000/app2" has to be mapped to server 2. NGINX example:

Assume that server 1 is running on port 3001, and server2 on 3002.

location /app1 {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:3001;
}

location /app2 {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:3002;
}

Here's the guide: https://www.nginx.com/blog/deploying-nginx-plus-as-an-api-gateway-part-1/