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Consider URLs to a public API:

https://api.example.com/items
https://api.example.com/add
https://api.example.com/remove
...

Internally, the calls are being served from local URLs, for example: 1.2.3.4:8080/get_items. In order to hide the internal URLs, there is a middleware that fetches the data from the internal URls and serves it to the external ones.

What is the proper name for the middleware that fetches the information from the internal URL and serves it to the public API?

"Proxy" seems to general, and "URL rewriter" seems too narrow.

dan
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Adam Matan
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1 Answers1

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What is the proper name for the middleware that fetches the information from the internal URL and serves it to the public API?

A reverse proxy or gateway:

A reverse proxy is a type of proxy server that retrieves resources on behalf of a client from one or more servers. These resources are then returned to the client as though they originated from the server itself (or servers themselves).

Also, see the Apache docs on mod_proxy:

A reverse proxy (or gateway) by contrast, appears to the client just like an ordinary web server... The client makes ordinary requests for content in the name-space of the reverse proxy. The reverse proxy then decides where to send those requests, and returns the content as if it was itself the origin.

A typical usage of a reverse proxy is to provide Internet users access to a server that is behind a firewall.

dan
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