Using rails send_file to proxy remote files

require 'uri'

class ImagesController < ApplicationController
  # relays remote images so that we can encrypt them
  def index
    data = open(params[:src])
    send_data data.read, 
      :type => data.content_type, 
      :disposition =>    'inline'
    end
end

Here is how to proxy an image from an HTTP server to a client using ruby on rails. This is useful when trying to proxy a request from an insecure server when your server is hosted over SSL.