Small Screen Proxy

What is Small Screen Proxy

Small Screen Proxy (ssproxy) is a HTTP proxy server, which provide reformatted web page for small screen devices, e.g. handheld computer, PDA and mobile phone. I supposes that users watch Internet news sites using ssproxy. Almost all news sites have top page menu and directory menu placed on left side usually. They become pages difficult to see on small screen.
In addition many wireless Internet connection service fee depend on connection time or communicated data bytes, and they are often slow such as 32kbps. So ssproxy can reduce connection time and fee too.

I provide a evaluation server. Please read this page when you want to access my server.

Small Screen Proxy has these features.

Outline view: Small Screen Proxy analyzes HTML structures, then generates hierarchical outline. The outline has some links to partial views. This is a sample of the outline view, which is converted from http://sourceforge.net/.
The values of each lines indicate number of characters in hierarchy. It estimates length of contents.
Partial view: Small Screen Proxy generates some partial HTMLs from a original HTML. The user can select one of partial view from a link in outline. This is a sample of the partial view, which is also converted from http://sourceforge.net/.
Selection history of partial view: Small Screen Proxy stores user selection history of partial view from outline. When user visits same web page, the same partial view is provided.
The gzip encoding: Small Screen Proxy can response HTTP compressed by gzip.
Authorization: Small Screen Proxy supports authorization by user name and password.

Requirement for Small Screen Proxy

You need a server computer with global IP address and Java run time environment. You can execute ssproxy on the localhost for test of course. But using localhost make no sense because ssproxy is for small screen devices without JRE.
You don't need fixed IP address. Many dynamic DNS service are provided. Some of them are free. You can know many providers when you search "Dynamic DNS".

How to execute on server

You should install and execute the following for executing Small Screen Proxy on server.

Install Java runtime environment. I am using JRE version 1.4.2_03 for test.
Download Small Screen Proxy runtime and unzip it.
Modify ssproxy.properties if necessary.
Modify or delete password file. You can edit user ID and password. They should be separated by ':'. If you don't need authorization, you should delete the password file.
Execute "java -jar ssproxy.jar" or "java -jar ssproxy.jar -v". The "-v" option means verbose mode, which shows headers of all HTTP request and response.

NOTE: Small Screen Proxy runtime package contains htmlparser. The htmlparser is a product of HTML parser project hosted by SourceForge.net. You can get full distribution from the HTML parser project summery page.

ssproxy.properties syntax and semantics

The ssproxy.properties syntax is same with general java properties files, which can be parsed by java.util.Properties. It is simple set of key and value separated by "=". The "#" character means comment. The keys of ssproxy.properties mean the following.

mode: The possible value is "http" or "proxy". You can select HTTP server mode or proxy server mode. In HTTP server mode, you have to enter special URLs in you browser such as "http://localhost:8080/?u=http://sourceforge.net/". In proxy server mode, you have to configure proxy server setting on your web browser.
host: A host name where ssproxy is running on. It is not important. It is used as "Via" header in HTTP request for avoiding HTTP request loop. It is no problem to remain "localhost" in many case.
port: The TCP port number for ssproxy. Generally HTTP server uses 80 and proxy server uses 8080. But any port number can be used.
threads: The number of thread in ssproxy. Maybe default value(5) is enough if you use your server alone.
encoding: The "gzip" means enabling gzip encoding in HTTP response. ssproxy recognizes "Accept-Encoding" on HTTP header. So it is no problem to use always "gzip".
allowport: The allowed TCP port(s) for origin server. ssproxy can limit port(s) in order to refuse accidental security hole. You can select more than two ports separated by '.'.

How to use web browser on small screen device

If your server is in HTTP server mode: You have to enter a little long URL on your browser. It is; "http://<your_server_name>/?u=http://sourceforge.net/" when you want to access SourceForge top page. The <your_server_name> can be global IP address such as 12.34.56.78 or your dynamic DNS registered name. If you don't use 80 as port number, you should <your_host_name:port_number> instead such as "12.34.56.78:8080".
You will see a authorization request form when you have password file and access ssproxy at first. You have to input user name and password.
If your server is in proxy server mode: You should configure proxy server setting on your web browser. It depend on browsers. Please refer user manual on your PDA or mobile phone.

Update log

Future plan

The selection history log. ssproxy should store history as a file, and read it when ssproxy start next time.
The conversion images to links to avoid downloading images. When you 'click' links, ssproxy download images.

Report and comment

Please send bug report, support request and other comment to the project summary page in SourceForge.

Author

Small Screen Proxy is written by tadashi-k@users.sourceforge.net.