default webpack proxy blocks file downloads

problem

• when using the proxy field in package.json, e.g. "proxy": "http://localhost:9090", <a href='...' download>download</a>'s will fail because:

The development server will only attempt to send requests without text/html in its Accept header to the proxy.

…which the browser adds when using a:href:download nodes. this means that users cannot interact with HTML5 file downloads when using a simple proxy configuration.

discussion

• i would suggest that the behavior attempt to access the proxy iff the pathname !== pathname(homepage || '/')
  • on 4xx, send the root index HTML, per current behavior

im just thinking out loud here. would love critique/inputs.

i did (after writing this) try the "configure it on your own " method:

  "proxy": {
    "/api": {
      "target": "http://localhost:9090",
      "ws": true
    },
    "/graphql": {
      "target": "http://localhost:9090",
      "ws": true
    }
  }

and it all worked 🍑y.

[cdaringe]

go away stale bot! this is one we should definitely consider!

[Timer]

It’d be hard to get this right without breaking most existing users use case. The advanced proxy is probably the best route.