ssl certificate without web server

BIZ TMS XData
1

I'm new to web programming and am trying to develop a PWA.

I have the basics worked out on my development machine but am having trouble moving to ssl that PWA's require. I have 2 problems that may be simple but I have not been able to find the answer.

First the Rest server is automatically registered on the development machine but when I move it to the production machine I get a registration issue. How do you register a REST server?

Second, this will be an in house app. The client app is on an old domain I have at Dreamhost. The REST server is on a Windows PC connected to a NAS running MariaDB. So the Rest server is not on a Web server just a plain Windows machine. I have been able to forward the port through the router to the REST server, and it all worked through plain http, though I constantly get warnings about it not being safe :). How can I set up the windows machine to accept https? The data will be accessed by our tech's in the field, this is not a public app.

I am happy to read any doc's but don't know where to start. Any help would be appreciated.

2

You have to reserve the URL your server will listen, in the computer it will run. Here is information about it and how to do it: Http Server | TMS Sparkle documentation

This is not possible. HTTPS implies a certificate issued to a domain. Your server needs to run in a computer with a public domain, or in other words, your server needs to be accessed through a public domain, so a certificate can be issued and verified to that domain.

3

Thank you Wagner,

I checked the docs and the config tool on my development machine. Also, a YouTube video you did 6 years ago on setting up a cert.

Please be patient, do I have this right?

  1. I don't want to build a website, but still need a domain to attach a certificate to.
  2. I need a web server with the domain DNS attached
  3. I then need a cert bound to that Domain.
  4. I use sparkle to register the Server and the SSL tab to bind the cert to the server

I just need the domain so I can use HTTPS with my REST Server (I already have it working over HTTP). Would IIS work for this?

Thanks again.
BTW I got the HTTP server working following your course.

4

Hi @Shelton_Gary1,

Yes, your assumptions are correct.

The thing is, certificates are issued by a 3rd party, which has the authority to issue (and sign) them.

For those 3rd parties to issue the certificate, you have to prove to them that you own/control the domain you are asking a certificate for. So, they need to be able to reach your domain and access information that only the domain owner could provide.

5

For now, since I'm just trying to build a PWA and the Web server will only contain those files will IIS suffice or do I need something like Apache?

6

For Web Core files, you can use IIS.
For XData server, you can simply run the server application as an executable.

7

Thank You

I also found your presentations from TMS Training Days 2023 on courses.landgraf.dev, they were very helpful

1 Like