Force URL root to be HTTPS instead of HTTP for RoR application

Question

I am attempting to run Redmine (RoR) through an Apache reverse proxy. Mongrel serves plain-text pages which Apache protects with SSL and serves to my users. The problem is that various links and redirects within Redmine send users to http:// instead of https:// .

The settings on the admin page are configured for https but this doesn't seem to help. I also added this line to environment.rb to solve a relative root problem (that fixed it, but not the https problem):

ActionController::AbstractRequest.relative_url_root = "/r/"

How can I force Redmine to always use https?

Note that a redirect won't work because my server only has :443 open and thus :80 requests wouldn't be seen to be rewritten. A rewrite of the site's data could work but seems less than ideal.

Answer 1

Each of these refer to setting X_FORWARDED_PROTO to 'https' in your Apache config:

• http://www.redmine.org/issues/1145
• http://www.refreshinglyblue.com/2007/06/13/ruby-on-rails-ssl-ispconfig-apache-mongrel/
• http://briancochran.blogspot.com/2008/05/https-with-mongrel-and-apache.html

Best of luck.