Docker Compose Link (Alias) - angularjs

Question

I have an Angularjs frontend and a Spring-Boot Rest API in backend.
I have create two Docker
DockerFile Front:
FROM httpd:2.4
COPY ./public-html/ /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/
DockerFile Back:
FROM tomcat:8.0
EXPOSE 8080
COPY rest-api.war /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/rest-api.war
I have a Docker-Compose file, i have define Alias
Docker-Compose:
rest:
image: restapi
container_name: restapi
ports:
- "8080:8080"
frontend:
image: frontend
container_name: frontend
ports:
- "80:80"
i redifine the baseURL in my AngularJs controller
app.controller('MainCtrl', function ($scope, $location, $http, MainService) {
var that = this;
var baseUrl = 'http://rest:8080';
when i lauchn my app in the console i have this
Error:
GET http://rest:8080/category net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED
the hosts files in the other containers is not updated automatically
What is wrong ?
****** UPDATE ******
I have create a network
$docker network create my-network
I have redefine my docker-compose file
Container connected to that network reach other containers.
So i have the same error.
When i see in Kitematic my Backend have an ip like this:
And when i see in the hosts files the ip is not the same.
When i modify my controller with ip of Kitematic all works but when i use Alias is not working

Answer 1

So you are trying to use the linked alias inside your browser (Angular) application? Docker only exposes these aliases to the containers. Your local development system, being outside of the docker network, will not have these additions to the host file and therefore not be able to resolve hosts to IPs.
Any application running inside the containers, like a Node.js backend, will be able to use these aliases. Browsers can't.

Answer 2

If you create a new network, any container connected to that network can reach other containers by their name or service name.
create network
$docker network create your-network
docker-compose.yml
rest:
image: restapi
container_name: restapi
ports:
- "8080:8080"
net: your-network
frontend:
image: frontend
container_name: frontend
ports:
- "80:80"
net: your-network
Note if you use docker-compose file version 2.0. composer will create the network for you.

Answer 3

You can try and link the two containers in the configuration file.
rest:
image: restapi
container_name: restapi
ports:
- "8080:8080"
frontend:
image: frontend
container_name: frontend
ports:
- "80:80"
links:
- rest