Can't call my Laravel API from the Node.js container but I can call it from Postman

Question

I have the following 4 containers:

1. php-fpm for Laravel API backend
2. node.js container for the Next.js frontend
3. nginx container
4. mysql container

I am able to call the Laravel API and get the correct JSON data from Postman using http://localhost:8088/api/products , but when I try from the Node container, I get FetchError: request to http://localhost:8088/api/ failed, reason: connect ECONNREFUSED 10.0.238.3:8088. I am not sure if it's the nginx configuration issue, or docker-compose.yml configuration issue. I also tried to call the API from the node container using several other options (none of them worked):

1. http://php:8088/api/products
2. http://localhost:8088/api/products
3. http://php:9000/api/products - gives a different error: FetchError: request to http://php:9000/api/products/ failed, reason: read ECONNRESET

This is the docker-compose.yml:

networks:
    laravel:
        driver: bridge

services:
    nginx:
        image: nginx:stable-alpine
        container_name: nginx
        ports:
            - "8088:80"
        volumes:
            - ./laravel-app:/var/www/html 
            - ./nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
        
        depends_on:
            - php
            - mysql           
            - node             
        networks:
            - laravel
            
    mysql:
        image: mysql
        container_name: mysql
        restart: unless-stopped
        tty: true
        ports:
            - "4306:3306"
        volumes:
            - ./mysql:/var/lib/mysql
        environment:
            MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel          
            MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: password
            SERVICE_TAGS: dev
            SERVICE_NAME: mysql            
        networks:
            - laravel
                     
    
    php:
        build:
            context: .
            dockerfile: Dockerfile
        container_name: php
        volumes:
            - ./laravel-app:/var/www/html
        ports:
            - "9000:9000"
        networks:
            - laravel

    node:
        build:
            context: ./nextjs
            dockerfile: Dockerfile
        container_name: next
        
        volumes:
            - ./nextjs:/var/www/html
        ports:
            - "3000:3000"
            - "49153:49153"

        networks:
            - laravel

And this is the nginx default.conf file:

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php index.html;
    server_name localhost;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    root /var/www/html/public;
    
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }
    
    location ~ \.php$ {        
        try_files $uri = 404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass php:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }
    
}

Answer 1

If you want to reach your Laravel API from the node service, you must use http://nginx/your_api_endpoint.

Nginx acts as a reverse proxy here, it takes the traffic on the port 80 (listen 80;) and redirects it to your Laravel container (fastcgi_pass php:9000;).

So your target is not the Laravel container itself, it is nginx.

http://nginx/api/products/ should works if everything else is ok.