HTTP Forward

The HTTP Forward Plugin provides two actions for forwarding HTTP requests to upstream services. These actions allow seamless integration of load balancing or single-endpoint forwarding into your application’s routing layer.

Actions

plugins.httpfw.actions.HttpAction

• Purpose:
  This action forwards HTTP requests to a single upstream endpoint. It is designed for use cases where requests need to be routed directly to a specific service or server.

• Usage:
  Attach this action to a route to forward incoming requests to the defined upstream endpoint. It is suitable for scenarios such as API gateways, proxies, or microservices architectures with a one-to-one mapping of routes to services.

• Configuration Integration:
  The action is configured through the plugin by specifying the upstreamEndpoint. The route’s action field references this action by name.

Configuration Parameters

• UpstreamEndpoint
  The URL of the upstream service to which requests will be forwarded.
  Example: "http://localhost:8080".
  Default: None (must be configured).

Example Configuration

Below is an example of how to configure the HTTP Forward Plugin:

plugins.yaml

plugins:
  # ...
  - path: /plugins/httpfw.so

actions.yaml

actions:
  # ...
  ForwardToService:
    use: plugins.httpfw.actions.HttpAction
    config:
      upstreamEndpoint: "http://localhost:8080"

routes.yaml

routes:
  # ...
  - path: "/api/resource"
    method: "GET"
    action: ForwardToService

plugins.httpfw.actions.BalancerHttpAction

• Purpose:
  This action forwards HTTP requests to one of several upstream endpoints using a load-balancing strategy. It is ideal for distributing requests across multiple service instances.

• Usage:
  Attach this action to a route to enable load-balanced forwarding to multiple upstream endpoints. It is suitable for high-availability and scalable architectures.

• Configuration Integration:
  The action is configured through the plugin by specifying a list of upstreamEndpoints. The route’s action field references this action by name.

Configuration Parameters

• UpstreamEndpoints
  A list of URLs representing the upstream services. Requests are distributed among these services.
  Example:

  upstreamEndpoints:
    - "http://localhost:8081"
    - "http://localhost:8082"

Example Configuration

Load-Balanced Forwarding with BalancerHttpAction:

plugins.yaml

plugins:
  # ...
  - path: /plugins/httpfw.so

actions.yaml

actions:
  # ...
  LoadBalancedForward:
    use: plugins.httpfw.actions.BalancerHttpAction
    config:
      upstreamEndpoints:
        - "http://localhost:8081"
        - "http://localhost:8082"
        - "http://localhost:8083"

routes.yaml

routes:
  # ...
  - path: "/api/scale"
    method: "POST"
    action: LoadBalancedForward

Best Practices

• Health Checks: Regularly monitor the health of upstream endpoints to ensure availability and minimize downtime.
• Connection Pooling: Optimize connections to upstream services to reduce latency and resource usage.
• Combine with Middleware: Use the HTTP Forward Plugin with authentication, rate limiting middlewares for a robust and secure routing solution.