Outpost

Application level proxy server

Outpost combines proxy, static file serving and application framework functionality in a single server application.

Advanced options include request debugging and stream filter.

Implemented in pure python; with the pyramid web framework.

Please refer to Github for source codes: https://github.com/nive/outpost

Features

• Serves static files from a directory
• Routes webservice requests through the proxy
• Session and cookie support for proxied requests
• Custom filter support
• Single and multiple concurrent connections
• Interactive request hacking and tracing
• Easy installation, runs on any os

Configuration - Basic setup

All configuration options are set in server.ini in projects' home folder.

The directory to be served. Either a python module asset path, relative path or absolute path ::

server.directory = /home/me/myfiles
server.defaultfile = index.html

The domain to connect to. Ajax calls and urls can use a domain placeholder to be inserted by outpost before proxying the request. By default the placeholder is '__domain'. The string will replaced with the following configuration setting. ::

proxy.domain = mydomain.nive.io

The url prefix used to route request through the proxy. By default urls starting with http://127.0.0.1:5556/__proxy/ will be handled by the proxy ::

proxy.route = __proxy

Installation

Short installation description:

• Install Python
• Install Python setuptools and virtualenv
• Create a virtual environment (virtualenv) directory named ‘outpost’ (or use your projects name) virtualenv outpost
• Install outpost from pypi.python.org bin/pip install outpost
• Create a new project by using the scaffold bin/pcreate -t outpost myApp
• change into myApp directory cd myApp
• Start the web server ../bin/pserve server.ini (the served directory path is relative)

If you are using a relative directory please make sure you start the webserver from the right working directory.

Debug Toolbar

You can also use the pyramid debug toolbar to get a request log in the browser. To enable the toolbar open the ini file and set debugtoolbar.enabled = true

Setting a breakpoint

Change the line in your ini file to match proxied urls you would like to halt and inspect. ::

proxy.trace = signin

Each proxied url containing signin will be interrupted and can be inspected in the python debugger on the commandline.

Basic commands (Take a look at python debugger for all commands):

• n : next step
• c : continue execution

Once you are in the debugger you can print the current requests values and change them (e.g. headers):

• method : http method
• url : the url to send the request to
• **parameter : a dictionary including headers and form values

after receiving the response

• response
• response.headers