Configuring php with nginx inside a reactjs app - php

Question

I have a nginx configuration for a react app. I however would also like to include a sitemap.php that I build dynamically with php.
So here is my nginx config:
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name mysite.com;
index index.html index.htm;
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
}
location /sitemap.xml {
alias /var/www/web-app/public/sitemap.php;
}
location / {
root /var/www/web-app/public;
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
default_type "text/html";
}
}
The snippets file consist of this:
# regex to split $uri to $fastcgi_script_name and $fastcgi_path
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
# Check that the PHP script exists before passing it
try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;
# Bypass the fact that try_files resets $fastcgi_path_info
# see: http://trac.nginx.org/nginx/ticket/321
set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi.conf;
Also, this is hosted on an Ubuntu 16.04 digitalocean VPS.
My react app still loads fine. It is based on the index.html in my site root (/var/www/web-app/public). If I put test.php in the public folder, I get a 404 error. For my sitemap.xml alias, it forwards correctly to sitemap.php (also in public) but the php does not render.
So my two biggest issues here:
1. Why am I getting a 404 on /mysite.com/test.php?
2. And why is my php not rendering when it does work? (i.e. sitemap.php)

Answer 1

You are missing a root statement for your location ~ \.php$ block, so your PHP files will not be found. As this seems to be a common root with the location / block, simply move the statement up to server block scope:
root /var/www/web-app/public;
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
}
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
default_type "text/html";
}
There are a number of ways to redirect /sitemap.xml to /sitemap.php, but a rewrite...last will be simplest and invisible to users:
location = /sitemap.xml {
rewrite ^ /sitemap.php last;
}
See this document for location syntax, and this one for the rewrite directive.