For security reasons, browsers restrict cross-origin requests initiated from within scripts. This means that a web application can only request resources from its origin. The CORS mechanism allows browsers to send XMLHttpRequest to servers in other domains and request access to the resources there.
Figure 1 Process flow of the CORS mechanism

There are two types of CORS requests:
Simple requests must meet the following conditions:
In the header of a simple request, browsers automatically add the Origin field to specify the origin (including the protocol, domain, and port) of the request. After receiving such a request, the target server determines whether the request is safe and can be accepted based on the origin. If the server sends a response containing the Access-Control-Allow-Origin field, the server accepts the request.
Requests that do not meet the conditions for simple requests are not-so-simple requests.
Before sending a not-so-simple request, browsers send an HTTP preflight request to the target server to confirm whether the origin the web page is loaded from is in the allowed origin list, and to confirm which HTTP request methods and header fields can be used. If the preflight request is successful, browsers send simple requests to the server.
CORS is disabled by default. To enable CORS for an API, perform the operations described in this section. To customize request headers, request methods, and origins allowed for cross-origin access, create a CORS plug-in policy by referring to CORS.
When creating an API, enable CORS in the Security Configuration area of the Create API page. For more information, see Simple Request.

Not-so-simple CORS requests can be implemented in either of the following ways:
Figure 2 Defining the API request

When creating an API that will receive simple requests, enable CORS for the API.
Scenario 1: If CORS is enabled and the response from the backend does not contain a CORS header, APIG handles requests from any domain, and returns the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. For example:
Request sent by a browser and containing the Origin header field:
GET /simple HTTP/1.1Host: www.test.comOrigin: http://www.cors.comContent-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8Accept: application/jsonDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:25:52 GMT
Origin: This field is required to specify the origin (http://www.cors.com in this example) of the request. APIG and the backend service determine based on the origin whether the request is safe and can be accepted.
Response sent by the backend service:
HTTP/1.1 200 OKDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:25:52 GMTContent-Type: application/jsonContent-Length: 16Server: api-gateway{"status":"200"}
Response sent by APIG:
HTTP/1.1 200 OKDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:25:52 GMTContent-Type: application/jsonContent-Length: 16Server: api-gatewayX-Request-Id: 454d689fa69847610b3ca486458fb08bAccess-Control-Allow-Origin: *{"status":"200"}
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: This field is required. The asterisk (*) means that APIG handles requests sent from any domain.
Scenario 2: If CORS is enabled and the response from the backend contains a CORS header, the header will overwrite that added by APIG. The following messages are used as examples:
Request sent by a browser and containing the Origin header field:
GET /simple HTTP/1.1Host: www.test.comOrigin: http://www.cors.comContent-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8Accept: application/jsonDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:25:52 GMT
Origin: This field is required to specify the origin (http://www.cors.com in this example) of the request. APIG and the backend service determine based on the origin whether the request is safe and can be accepted.
Response sent by the backend service:
HTTP/1.1 200 OKDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:25:52 GMTContent-Type: application/jsonContent-Length: 16Server: api-gatewayAccess-Control-Allow-Origin: http://www.cors.com{"status":"200"}
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: Indicates that the backend service accepts requests sent from http://www.cors.com.
Response sent by APIG:
HTTP/1.1 200 OKDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:25:52 GMTContent-Type: application/jsonContent-Length: 16Server: api-gatewayX-Request-Id: 454d689fa69847610b3ca486458fb08bAccess-Control-Allow-Origin: http://www.cors.com{"status":"200"}
The CORS header in the backend response overwrites that in APIG's response.
When creating an API that will receive not-so-simple requests, enable CORS for the API by following the instructions in Configuring CORS, and create another API that will be accessed using the OPTIONS method.
The request parameters of an API accessed using the OPTIONS method must be set as follows:
The following are example requests and responses sent to or from a mock backend.
Request sent from a browser to an API that is accessed using the OPTIONS method:
OPTIONS /HTTP/1.1User-Agent: curl/7.29.0Host: localhostAccept: */*Origin: http://www.cors.comAccess-Control-Request-Method: PUTAccess-Control-Request-Headers: X-Sdk-Date
Response sent by the backend: none
Response sent by APIG:
HTTP/1.1 200 OKDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 02:38:48 GMTContent-Type: application/jsonContent-Length: 1036Server: api-gatewayX-Request-Id: c9b8926888c356d6a9581c5c10bb4d11Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *Access-Control-Allow-Headers: X-Stage,X-Sdk-Date,X-Sdk-Nonce,X-Proxy-Signed-Headers,X-Sdk-Content-Sha256,X-Forwarded-For,Authorization,Content-Type,Accept,Accept-Ranges,Cache-Control,RangeAccess-Control-Expose-Headers: X-Request-Id,X-Apig-Latency,X-Apig-Upstream-Latency,X-Apig-RateLimit-Api,X-Apig-RateLimit-User,X-Apig-RateLimit-App,X-Apig-RateLimit-Ip,X-Apig-RateLimit-Api-AllenvAccess-Control-Allow-Methods: GET,POST,PUT,DELETE,HEAD,OPTIONS,PATCHAccess-Control-Max-Age: 172800
Request sent by a browser and containing the Origin header field:
PUT /simple HTTP/1.1Host: www.test.comOrigin: http://www.cors.comContent-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8Accept: application/jsonDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:25:52 GMT
Response sent by the backend:
HTTP/1.1 200 OKDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:25:52 GMTContent-Type: application/jsonContent-Length: 16Server: api-gateway{"status":"200"}
Response sent by APIG:
HTTP/1.1 200 OKDate: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:25:52 GMTContent-Type: application/jsonContent-Length: 16Server: api-gatewayX-Request-Id: 454d689fa69847610b3ca486458fb08bAccess-Control-Allow-Origin: *{"status":"200"}