How to run Theia browser-app on HTTPS instead of HTTP?

[PragyanandGithub]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently running the Theia browser-app locally on http://localhost:3000. I want to configure it to run on HTTPS instead of HTTP for secure communication, especially for production deployment or testing secure features.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

• I’m using Theia v1.57.0 (you can replace with your actual version).
• Running with yarn start or theia start (mention your actual command).
• I haven't configured any certificates yet.

Can anyone guide me on:

1. How to configure HTTPS for Theia browser-app?
2. Where and how to provide SSL certificates (self-signed or otherwise)?
3. Any changes needed in webpack config or startup scripts?

Any help or links to relevant docs would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[msujew]

Hey @PragyanandGithub,

AFAIK the recommendation is to use a reverse proxy that serves the Theia frontend, and handle HTTPS through that. However, I'm not an expert on that. @jfaltermeier can you chime in?

[jfaltermeier]

With the Theia CLI itself, you can run theia start --help to see the available options.
This includes, for example:

  --hostname, -h                         The allowed hostname for connections.
                                                 [string] [default: "localhost"]
  --ssl                                  Use SSL (HTTPS), cert and certkey must
                                         also be set  [boolean] [default: false]
  --cert                                 Path to SSL certificate.       [string]
  --certkey                              Path to SSL certificate key.   [string]

If you prefer not to configure SSL within the Theia application itself, another option is to run the (potentially containerized) Theia instance using plain HTTP and put a reverse proxy like Nginx in front of it. The proxy would handle SSL termination and forward traffic to the Theia application over HTTP.

You might also want to have a look at Theia Cloud, which helps with hosting Theia-based applications on Kubernetes: https://theia-cloud.io/