Moving from Firefox to Chromium I found it difficult to transfer all filtering and adblocking tweaks that was done in firefox using extensions. Some of them wasn’t even possible like prevent content from being downloaded. I have also had other ideas of how web filtering can be done which so far could not be found in any current implementation.
The Proxy Solution
The answer to these need is writing a new http proxy intended for personal use. The main goal of the proxy is a modular filtering design. These filters can be applied on both requests and responses. They can modify the requests before being sent and also totally block them.
Using a proxy makes it easier in the future for me to change browser and keep my filtering with minor setup. Even running multiple browsers at the same time using the same live settings would be possible.
By writing this program myself I will make it easier for me to later add one hour hacks that I want to try out.
Program design
I want the program to be easy to use for average users, probably a single executable where all configuration is done in the web interface.
To achieve this simplicity the bar for making additions to the program is raised. Filters are described as modules but they are build into the binary. New modules means a new binary, that will work by simply replacing the binary executable. For other developers this mean that when you write a new module it must be included into the source tree.
This stand of “module” design is untested and I will gladly accept any ideas on this. Practically there could be a more external modules design using dll or similar.
Personal Proxy
The project is named “Personal Proxy” and is available at BitBucket.org under phq/personal-proxy.
The program i written in C# and developed in Monodevelop but it works in VisualStudio as welll.
Source code can be downloaded using the download links on the project page. However if your want to conrtibute I suggest you use mercurial and get the source code from the bitbucket repo.
hg clone https://bitbucket.org/phq/personal-proxy
