NGINX config for php backend and JS frontend - php

Question

I'm trying to serve my frontend app under /, but have requests for /oauth2 pass off to a php backend. Here is my latest nginx config attempt:
upstream dockerphp {
server backendphp:9000;
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name localhost;
index index.html;
root /application/frontend/build;
location /oauth2 {
root /application/public;
index index.php;
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
#try_files /index.php$is_args$args =404;
location ~ \.php$ {
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_pass dockerphp;
fastcgi_index index.php;
}
}
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
}
}
I've tried just about every combination of config I can think of and just can't get it to work. Most of the time I end up with 404s.
Both my nginx and php docker containers have the same /application directory mounted.
With the above config, any requests to /oauth2/blah are being picked up by the location block at the bottom and therefore back to my frontend. This is probably my biggest problem - the /oauth2 location block to my mind is more "specific" so why isn't it "winning"?
I tried the commented out try_files line instead (to see whether index.php being the "fallback" value had an effect on specificity), and nginx just started downloading the index.php file rather than passing on the request. Help?

Answer 1

This is the approach that I use:
attempt to serve js / static pages first
if 1.) fails, pass to PHP backend
define a location for handling .php
upstream dockerphp {
server backendphp:9000;
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name localhost;
index index.html;
root /application/frontend/build;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ #php;
}
location #php {
root /application/public;
index index.php;
try_files $uri $document_root/index.php?$query_string;
# $document_root/index.php is the important part due to how root and alias directives work
}
location ~ \.php$ {
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_pass dockerphp;
fastcgi_index index.php;
}
}

Answer 2

The location /oauth2 only wins when the URL you try is exactly website.com/oauth2. Add ^~ and the route will win all of the URLs starting with /oauth2, like this:
location ^~ /oauth2 {

Answer 3

For reference I eventually found a simple working solution (below).
upstream dockerphp {
server backendphp:9000;
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name localhost;
index index.html;
root /application/frontend/build;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
}
location /oauth2 {
try_files $uri $uri/ #php;
}
location #php {
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_pass dockerphp;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /application/public/index.php;
}
}