Cannot set the incoming URL for reverse proxy scenarios

[flypenguin]

Describe the bug Cannot set the incoming URL, see #1431 - "re-open". THIS IS NOT SOLVED BY SETTING N8N_PORT!

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. start n8n using: N8N_HOST=thing.thang.thong:8080 node_modules/n8n/bin/n8n
2. see this on startup: http://thing.thang.thong:8080:5678/
3. check HTTP trigger nodes, which will have the same setting (which won't work, of course)

Expected behavior to see this: http://thing.thang.thong:8080/ [UPDATE 2021-02-16] - corrected port to :8080

Environment (please complete the following information):

• OS: Mac OS 11.1.2
• n8n Version from git, Feb 8th, 22:44h
• Node.js Version 15.5.0

Additional context THIS IS NOT SOLVED BY SETTING N8N_PORT!

Why not?

• The use case is to run n8n behind a reverse proxy.
• So I have to be able to "tell" n8n which URL it should consider "its own"
• If I set N8N_PORT it will actually try to listen on that port - but the port is used by the reverse proxy, so this is NOT the solution.
• What I want is to be able to copy/paste the HTTP trigger URLs from the node and into the calling system, which is not possible if n8n constructs a URL which is simply wrong from the outside.

Updates

• 2021-02-16 corrected port and nodeJS version

[flypenguin]

hi @janober , sorry for basically just re-opening the bug, unfortunately setting N8N_PORT is not the solution, it doesn't even work. (well it set the port n8n listens on, which is what it should do - it's just not solving the problem while creating a new one). i hope my updated description is understandable, I can provide screenshots and more detailed information if not.

[krynble]

Hello @flypenguin

If your goal is to have n8n running on port 8080, what you must do is:

export N8N_PORT=8080
export N8N_HOST=thing.thang.thong
npm run start

Also from the last issue, if you want port 18443, what you must do is:

export N8N_PORT=18443
export N8N_HOST=thing.thang.thong
npm run start

PS: You should never set the port number on the host variable.

Let me know if this helps you.

[flypenguin]

hi @krynble , no. 😄

let me explain:

• setting N8N_PORT actually SETS the port N8N uses. this is not what I want.
• basically I want to copy-and-paste the correct webhook URL from webhook trigger nodes, which is currently not possible when using a reverse proxy scenario.

I even made a picture ...

[flypenguin]

and yes, you could set the port to 80, but then you would have http://my.n8n.com:80/webhook/... as given url, which is at least ugly, cause it should be either http://my.n8n.com/... (without port) or even better https://my.n8n.com/....

Also if this is all on the same host (for example for explicit SSL offloading by a prefixed reverse proxy, which we are doing for a lot of apps) it's no longer working.

[janober]

Then what you actually want is to set the "WEBHOOK_TUNNEL_URL" environment variable as documented here: https://docs.n8n.io/reference/configuration.html#webhook-url

And please post the next time to https://community.n8n.io as GitHub issues are only for bugs.

[flypenguin]

@janober thanks a lot, this is exactly what i was looking for. weird i missed this. and yes, I considered the perceived non-exitance of this feature ... a bug.

[janober]

Glad to hear that it worked!

If not 100% sure that it is a bug it is always best to post first in the forum. Only then can we make sure that there is one single location where people can search for a solution instead of multiple different ones. In this example would it now be hard for someone else who has the same problem you had, and who would phrase it the same way, to find this solution.

So I ask for that not because I simply want to complain ;-) I simply want to make sure that people find a solution to their problem as easily and as fast as possible.

[flypenguin]

yeah you're right ... I always started to look for the question in the forum, and then I had to remember to go to github. will do :)

[janober]

Thanks. Have fun!