How to access to API of Joplin headless server

Support
1
  • Joplin cli-v1.0.150
  • OS: Ubuntu 18.04

I started headless Jopline:
$ joplin --profile ~/.config/joplin/ server start &

I can see it working fine:

curl http://127.0.0.1:41184/ping
2019-12-18 14:16:08: "Request: GET /ping"
JoplinClipperServer

I need to use api from integromate (for now as an example), so trying to initiate HTTP GET request to http://<public_ip>:41184/ping
but I always getting timeout error.

Maybe I’m missing something to enable access to Joplin api over internet. Thanks to advice.

2

The port is bound to the local loopback adapter only. Therefore you can’t connect to it directly. You would have to setup a reverse proxy.

3

Thanks @tessus. I will try to setyp reverse proxy on apache although I didn’t do that before.

4

Don’t forget to secure it somehow. TLS and user credentials might be a good idea.

5

After some readings and trials, simply the steps are:

  1. Had enabled Apache proxy modules:

    sudo a2enmod proxy
sudo a2enmod proxy_http

  2. And created /etc/apache2/sites-available/joplin.conf , contains:

    <VirtualHost *:8001>
    ProxyPass / http://localhost:41184/
</VirtualHost>

  3. Enable the new conf: sudo a2ensite joplin

and it works :slight_smile:

6

Just to be clear: Your config transfers data in plain text, which means the token is also transferred easily readable by adversaries.

2 Likes
7

I had:
[x] Enable end-to-end encryption
[x] Periodic sync on server

crontab -e
*/30 * * * /usr/bin/joplin sync

Next I want configure:
[ ] Auto start joblin as a service when vm start
[ ] Create and install SSL

8

I saw you are using Apache httpd. There's a module that takes care of Let's Encrypt certs. If you want more control about the process, here's an article I wrote a while back on how to use and automate certbot.

1 Like
9

Is there a reason for not also giving the ability to bind to 0.0.0.0?

10

Yep, for security reasons. The traffic to the clipper server is not encrypted. People do the strangest things…