I'm looking at http://www.bookcloseouts.com to buy cheap computer books. Problem is, they just give the ISBN, and the usual information. That's not enough for me when the title rings a bell, and I want to find out if that book could actually interest me or not.
So, in about 5 minutes, I whipped up an Amazon.com integration of this site, thanks to HTTP::Proxy:
$proxy->push_filter(
host => 'www.bookcloseouts.com',
response => HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter::simple->new(
sub {
my ( $self, $dataref, $message, $protocol, $buffer ) = @_;
$$dataref =~ s!ISBN: (\d+X?)!ISBN: $1!g;
}
),
);
And voilÃÂ !, now I can click the ISBN and see what Amazon reviewers have to say about it. Lazyness is rewarded, again.
My personal proxy on 127.0.0.1:8080 is just a collection of small filters that "correct and enhance" those few web sites I visit more or less regularly. I'm afraid that's the only way HTTP::Proxy is really useful: it will not change the web experience for your whole corporate network (not until I can link it up with mod_proxy), but it'll make your web experience more satisfying. Usually with very little work.
Now, if I only had the time to release that next version...