How to Build a Super Simple HTTP Proxy in Elixir in just 20 lines of code

Elixir makes it easy to build fast and scalable network applications. Here is a basic HTTP proxy server in less than 20 lines of Elixir code.

First we import the Plug library for handling HTTP connections:

import Plug.Conn

Next we define a function to handle each client request:

def handle_request(conn) do
  # proxy logic
end

The Plug.Conn module represents the client connection. Inside the function we:

Extract the requested URL from the connection:

url = parse_url(conn)

Make a proxied HTTP request to the URL:

resp = HTTPoison.get!(url)

Send the response back to client:

conn |> send_resp(200, resp.body)

Finally we start a Plug endpoint for the proxy:

Plug.Adapters.Cowboy.http MyProxy, []

Passing it the proxy handler function.

Here is the full simple proxy in Elixir:

import Plug.Conn

def handle_request(conn) do
  url = parse_url(conn)
  resp = HTTPoison.get!(url)
  conn |> send_resp(200, resp.body)
end

Plug.Adapters.Cowboy.http MyProxy, []

This shows how to build a basic HTTP proxy in Elixir in less than 20 lines of code using the Plug and HTTPoison libraries.

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How to Build a Super Simple HTTP Proxy in Elixir in just 20 lines of code

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