Not work with the newest HttpFilteringEngine source code

[vuminhquang]

Hello, Gr8 proj. When I rebuild HttpFilteringEngine from source, there are some name changed. Can not build the StahpIt-WPF source.

[TechnikEmpire]

Hey @vuminhquang, thanks. This project I think is going to get entirely deprecated. I have a private repository of a HttpFilteringEngine that has undergone a great deal of changes thanks to a private investor. It will get published publicly soon but the changes are so significant I'm not sure what to do with Stahp It and such.

For example, in the engine, I've completely blown away the Adblock plus filter format and only kept CSS selectors.

Thanks for opening the ticket though, I will leave it open and address it once I decide the path forward.

[vuminhquang]

Hello, thank you for your response. By the way, one reason I found that the project is useful is that it use the Adblock plus filters, many people do contribute on it. It's up to you but I think that it's an advantage for your program, it's very hard to keep updating the servers' list over and over by your self, adblock list is a way though. I am waiting for more of your products.

[TechnikEmpire]

The Adblock plus filter format is flawed. It's very difficult to write an optimized and coherent engine based on it because of the flaws in the syntax. This is proven in the fact that mobile versions of ABP won't let you have anything more than easylist because the engine sucks so bad they can't load more rules than that.

My version can handle lots of lists efficiently but still the format is broken. It's not possible to write "to standard". As such, rules will emerge that function differently in my engine than in ABP, and I'm left to dissect in what undocumented way ABP has chosen to execute the rule and try to copy it. So my idea is to replace the syntax with something much simpler, just as powerful, but more sound in design.

There are some recent bug tickets where I whine about this at length with specifics lol. Anyway will keep you posted.

On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 6:38 AM vuminhquang [email protected] wrote:

Hello, thank you for your response. By the way, one reason I found that the project is useful is that it use the Adblock plus filters, many people do contribute on it. It's up to you but I think that it's an advantage for your program, it's very hard to keep updating the servers' list over and over by your self, adblock list is a way though.

I am waiting for more of your products.

— You are receiving this because you commented.

Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/TechnikEmpire/StahpIt-WPF/issues/6#issuecomment-271078590, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AKttyyaQKvpd0Rz680wk3TIf-_FgRsz4ks5rP3lPgaJpZM4Lc8CN .

[sgeto]

I respect you decision, but that's really sad. StahpIt-WPF is an extremely unique tool IMO.

When you say that the Adblock plus filter format is flawed, how flawed are we talking? I find this very hard to imagine.

[TechnikEmpire]

It's an obscenely loose format. Rules when interpreted by logical deduction (done to make up for lacking documentation) turn out to overlap eachothers functionality. Keep in mind that I'm talking about the URL filtering syntax, not the element hiding.

Element hiding rules in Adblock plus are just standard css selector rules. So that has stayed. There's an issue where I point out the flawed logic on HttpFilteringEngine's github page here:

https://github.com/TechnikEmpire/HttpFilteringEngine/issues/91

It's very sarcastic and ranting. There are notes in the code itself documenting more confusing and overlapping and logically incoherent issues with the syntax.

I'll be introducing a highly optimized and rigidly defined system that will be similar to abp filter syntax but with all of these flaws fixed.

This raises another issue I want to address in the future. If this kind of functionality were abstracted from the core engine then we wouldn't need to worry about people like me wiping away functionality. This kind of thing should function through a plugin API. On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 2:59 PM Ali Abdul kafir [email protected] wrote:

I respect you decision, but that's really sad. StahpIt-WPF is an extremely unique tool IMO.

When you say that the Adblock plus filter format is flawed, how flawed are we talking?

I find this very hard to imagine.

— You are receiving this because you commented.

Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/TechnikEmpire/StahpIt-WPF/issues/6#issuecomment-271106307, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AKtty0VfWk4fd0TvKExJj8Yii16Fsrmuks5rP-6pgaJpZM4Lc8CN .

[TechnikEmpire]

Also @sgeto know that stahp it is being deprecated because a whole new application has been developed with a server back end for client management. That will be open source as well in the coming weeks. The plan is to go fully cross platform and have a server edition as well.

[TechnikEmpire]

@vuminhquang Also I appreciate your concerns with regards to the ease of use with ABP lists (easylists, malware domains etc). When I commit a changed format, I'll include an automated way to convert sane rules in those lists to the format I'll use. Agree 100% that list management is the biggest burden with such software.

[tuxxon]

Can I get some examples to use httpfilteringengine?

[TechnikEmpire]

@tuxxon this project is one example. The whole point of it is to be able to transparently intercept, inspect and modify HTTP/S traffic.