Why does my JavaScript get a “No 'Access-Contr

Question

I am trying to do authorization using JavaScript by connecting to the RESTful API built in Flask. However, when I make the request, I get the following error:

XMLHttpRequest cannot load http://myApiUrl/login. No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header is present on the requested resource. Origin 'null' is therefore not allowed access.

I know that the API or remote resource must set the header, but why did it work when I made the request via the Chrome extension Postman?

This is the request code:

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    dataType: 'text',
    url: api,
    username: 'user',
    password: 'pass',
    crossDomain : true,
    xhrFields: {
        withCredentials: true
    }
})
    .done(function( data ) {
        console.log("done");
    })
    .fail( function(xhr, textStatus, errorThrown) {
        alert(xhr.responseText);
        alert(textStatus);
    });

Answer 1

If I understood it right you are doing an XMLHttpRequest to a different domain than your page is on. So the browser is blocking it as it usually allows a request in the same origin for security reasons. You need to do something different when you want to do a cross-domain request. A tutorial about how to achieve that is Using CORS.

When you are using postman they are not restricted by this policy. Quoted from Cross-Origin XMLHttpRequest:

Regular web pages can use the XMLHttpRequest object to send and receive data from remote servers, but they're limited by the same origin policy. Extensions aren't so limited. An extension can talk to remote servers outside of its origin, as long as it first requests cross-origin permissions.

Answer 2

If you are using Node.js, try it:

app.use(function(req, res, next) {
    res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
    res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept");
    next();
});

More information: CORS on ExpressJS

Answer 3

This is not a fix for production or when application has to be shown to the client, this is only helpful when UI and Backend development are on different servers and in production they are actually on same server. For example: While developing UI for any application if there is a need to test it locally pointing it to backend server, in that scenario this is the perfect fix. For production fix, CORS headers has to be added to the backend server to allow cross origin access.

The easy way is to just add the extension in google chrome to allow access using CORS.

(https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/allow-control-allow-origi/nlfbmbojpeacfghkpbjhddihlkkiljbi?hl=en-US)

Just enable this extension whenever you want allow access to no 'access-control-allow-origin' header request.

Or

In Windows, paste this command in run window

chrome.exe --user-data-dir="C:/Chrome dev session" --disable-web-security

this will open a new chrome browser which allow access to no 'access-control-allow-origin' header request.

Answer 4

For Ruby on Rails server in application_controller.rb, add this:

after_action :cors_set_access_control_headers

def cors_set_access_control_headers
  headers['Access-Control-Allow-Origin'] = '*'
  headers['Access-Control-Allow-Methods'] = 'POST, GET, OPTIONS'
  headers['Access-Control-Allow-Headers'] = '*'
end