prerender-apache

This is the Prerender.io middleware configuration for an Apache server to allow Google (and other crawlers) to crawl your javascript website.

The httpd.conf and .htaccess in this repository are full files for reference, but I will discuss the modifications made to each file here.

httpd.conf

Uncomment these lines to allow the rewrite in .htaccess and to allow the proxy over https:

LoadModule headers_module libexec/apache2/mod_headers.so
LoadModule proxy_module libexec/apache2/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module libexec/apache2/mod_proxy_http.so
LoadModule ssl_module libexec/apache2/mod_ssl.so
LoadModule rewrite_module libexec/apache2/mod_rewrite.so

And add this to the bottom of the file to allow the proxy over https:

# Prerender.io configuration

# Allow proxying over https
SSLProxyEngine on

# These two commands ignore the validity of the SSL Certificate of the Prerender server
# Only uncomment the two SSLProxy lines if you are testing with a local prerender server over https with a self-signed cert
# A hosted Prerender server should have a valid SSL Certificate so the next two lines can stay commented in production
#SSLProxyCheckPeerName off
#SSLProxyVerify none

.htaccess

Here is the actual config that sends the request to Prerender.io:

# Change YOUR_TOKEN to your prerender token
# Change https://service.prerender.io/ (at the end of the last RewriteRule)
# to http://localhost:3000/ when testing with a local prerender server

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    RequestHeader set X-Prerender-Token "YOUR_TOKEN"
    RequestHeader set X-Prerender-Version "prerender-apache@2.0.0"
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On

    <IfModule mod_proxy_http.c>
        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} googlebot|bingbot|yandex|baiduspider|facebookexternalhit|twitterbot|rogerbot|linkedinbot|embedly|quora\ link\ preview|showyoubot|outbrain|pinterest\/0\.|pinterestbot|slackbot|vkShare|W3C_Validator|whatsapp|redditbot|applebot|flipboard|tumblr|bitlybot|skypeuripreview|nuzzel|discordbot|google\ page\ speed|qwantify|bitrix\ link\ preview|xing-contenttabreceiver|google-inspectiontool|chrome-lighthouse|telegrambot [NC,OR]
        RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} _escaped_fragment_
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(?!.*?(\.js|\.css|\.xml|\.less|\.png|\.jpg|\.jpeg|\.gif|\.pdf|\.doc|\.txt|\.ico|\.rss|\.zip|\.mp3|\.rar|\.exe|\.wmv|\.doc|\.avi|\.ppt|\.mpg|\.mpeg|\.tif|\.wav|\.mov|\.psd|\.ai|\.xls|\.mp4|\.m4a|\.swf|\.dat|\.dmg|\.iso|\.flv|\.m4v|\.torrent|\.ttf|\.woff|\.svg))

        RewriteRule ^(index\.html|index\.php)?(.*) https://service.prerender.io/%{REQUEST_SCHEME}://%{HTTP_HOST}$2 [P,END]
    </IfModule>
</IfModule>