Deploy Xojo Web Apps with Caddy Reverse Proxy

Deploying Xojo web applications offers developers flexible pathways to production. For devs prioritizing minimal infrastructure management, Xojo Cloud provides a fully-managed solution with automatic scaling, SSL, and zero-server-maintenance. However, for developers requiring granular control over their deployment environment, implementing a reverse proxy like Caddy delivers enterprise-grade performance while simplifying critical operations.

This guide focuses on production-ready Caddy configurations that streamline deployments for self-managed Xojo applications, delivering:

Automated TLS certificate management
Native load balancing between instances
Simplified configuration compared to traditional proxies
Header optimizations specifically tuned for Xojo’s framework

You’ll learn configuration strategies that in some benchmarks, can have resource savings as high as 40% over conventional proxies while maintaining Xojo’s signature performance characteristics.

Core Configuration Strategies

Basic Reverse Proxy Setup

yourdomain.com {
    # Connect to Xojo application
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080 {
        # Preserve client information
        header_up X-Forwarded-For {http.request.remote.host}
        header_up Host {http.request.host}
    }
    
    # Automate HTTPS
    tls admin@yourdomain.com
}

Note: The header_up directives ensure Xojo correctly logs client IPs in web events

Load Balancing Across Instances

app.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080 localhost:8081 localhost:8082 {
        load_balancer {
            policy round_robin
            health_interval 10s
            health_uri /health
        }
        # Timeouts for heavy processing
        lb_try_duration 30s
    }
}

Security Hardening Measures

yourdomain.com { 
	# Critical protection headers 
	header { 
		X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" 
		X-Frame-Options "DENY" 
		Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'" 
	} 

	# Rate limiting for API endpoints 
	route /api/* { 
		rate_limit { 
			zone api 
			burst 100 
			period 10s 
		} 
	} 
}

Production-Ready Deployment Scripts

Linux Systemd Service
/etc/systemd/system/xojo-caddy.service:

[Unit]
Description=Xojo Caddy Reverse Proxy
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=caddy
ExecStart=/usr/bin/caddy run --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

For a broader, step-by-step guide on preparing your server, please see our foundational tutorial: Tutorial: Deploying Web Apps on Linux. The systemd service above integrates perfectly into that workflow.

Windows Deployment Package
Xojo-Caddy.bat:

@echo off
REM Start Xojo application instances
start "Xojo Instance 1" /MIN XojoWebApp.exe --port=8080
start "Xojo Instance 2" /MIN XojoWebApp.exe --port=8081

REM Launch Caddy reverse proxy
start "Caddy Proxy" /MIN caddy.exe run --config C:\caddy\Caddyfile

Optimized Xojo-Caddy Template
Save as Caddyfile in your deployment root:

# Production-Grade Xojo Proxy Template
yourdomain.com, www.yourdomain.com {
    # Automated HTTPS
    tls contact@yourdomain.com
    
    # Primary app routing
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080 localhost:8081 {
        header_up X-Forwarded-Proto https
        header_up X-Real-IP {http.request.remote}
    }
    
    # Static content handling
    handle /static/* {
        root * /var/www/static
        file_server
    }
    
    # Security headers
    header {
        Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000"
        Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
    }
}

Conclusion

Caddy eliminates proxy complexity while delivering enterprise capabilities:

Simplified Operations: Single configuration file replaces complex proxy setups
Automatic Security: Continuous HTTPS protection without maintenance
Effortless Scaling: Built-in load balancing grows with your user base
Reduced Overhead: 40% fewer resources than traditional proxies in benchmarks

Implement the provided Xojo-Caddy template to achieve production-grade deployment in under 15 minutes. Monitor performance via Caddy’s built-in /metrics endpoint and scale horizontally as traffic increases.

Gabriel is a digital marketing enthusiast who loves coding with Xojo to create cool software tools for any platform. He is always eager to learn and share new ideas!