magicProxy

A proxy for front-end web development. It changes responses from remote websites.

Using this, you can forget about having your local HTTP server or using rsync/wget to sync your computer with the remote site, broken URLs and ajax APIs, cross-domain problems, and just access the website you are changing and activate the replace.js or fakeDir.js plugins.

You can also access websites only accessible to your computer (E.G. in your local server and/or with a hostname only you have in /etc/hosts) from the outside, by accessing through your proxy.

Installation

1. Clone this repository

    git clone git@github.com:fabiosantoscode/magicProxy.git
    cd magicProxy
   

2. Npm install the dependencies

    npm install
   

3. Run the proxy

    node index.js -c magicproxyrc.example
   

4. Access your system's network configuration, and set up your proxy to localhost, port 8080. Check that everything works.

5. Access http://www.example.com/, see the changes made by the proxy, and play around with magicproxyrc.example (the configurations are reloaded on the fly).

Included plug-ins.

• replace.js: Intercepts requests for key files and responds with local files instead.
• fakeDir.js: Pretend a local folder is actually on the server.
• markup.js: Uses cheerio for changing HTML markup. You can insert or remove chunks.
• empty.js: Empty some HTTP responses. Useful for annoying tracking scripts.
• log.js: Log HTTP verbs, status codes and URLS for every response.

Configuration instructions are written in the plugins' .js files.

Usage examples:

• Work on the JS code of a remote website on its true environment without tripping on cross-domain policy
• Change the living, working HTML on a remote website without worrying about using relative URLs
• Stop scripts which jam your debugger from loading
• Remove some elements from remote sites you are working on, such as video players, canvases, etc.

Roadmap:

• A plug-in interface with a unified configuration system
• HTTPS support, WS support
• A simple command line interface (execute on a folder, looks for .magicproxyrc configuration files and load them)
• Run as a web application for showing others your local work
• Split plugins into several projects
• Verbose mode, which shows what requests were changed, and by which plugin
• Automatic rebuild plugin, which watches directory for changes and executes a script when necessary

Be happy!

-- Fábio