informaticslab/url-shortener repository overview

⁠url-shortener

A MEAN url shortener.

⁠Running

⁠Docker

git clone https://github.com/met-office-lab/url-shortener.git
cd url-shortener
docker build -t url-shortener .
docker run --name mongo mongo:3
docker run -e DB_HOST=mongo -e DOMAIN=domain.tld --link mongo url-shortener

⁠Classic

This requires mongo and node (and optionally nodemon) to be installed already on your platform.

git clone https://github.com/met-office-lab/url-shortener.git
cd url-shortener
npm install
node src/index.js # Or `nodemon src/index.js` for auto restarts on code changes

⁠Usage

The simplest way to create a short url is using the web interface. Just visit the address for the node server you are running.

That might be http://localhost:3000/ when developing locally or http://domain.tld/ once you have it running on a server and DNS entries in place.

You can then generate new short codes using the form.

Once a short code has been created just visit http://domain.tld/:short and you will be redirected to the specified url.

Example http://domain.tld/ueKZ8y2 might redirect to http://www.example.com/my/very/long/url/which/is/too/long/for/easy/sharing.html

You can also use the API directly or to create other clients for creating short urls.

⁠API

All API responses are json and take the form of:

{
  "status": http_code,
  "message": human_readable_string,
  "result": data_object
}

⁠POST http://domain.tld/api/create

Creates a new shortened url.

⁠Request

⁠Response result

⁠Example

$ curl -d url=http://www.informaticslab.co.uk/ http://domain.tld/api/create
{"status":201,"message":"Success, short created!","result":{"url":"http://www.informaticslab.co.uk/","short":"nUAm7HC","baseurl":"http://domain.tld"}}

⁠GET http://domain.tld/api/check/:short

Returns whether a short code exists. Will return 404 if it doesn't exist.

⁠Response result

⁠Example

$ curl http://domain.tld/api/check/nUAm7HC
{"status":200,"message":"Short exists","result":{"url":"http://www.informaticslab.co.uk/","short":"nUAm7HC","baseurl":"http://domain.tld"}}

$ curl http://domain.tld/api/check/h8Jk0sl
{"status":404,"message":"Short not found","result":null}

⁠GET http://domain.tld/api/genshort

Returns a random string to use as a short.

⁠Response result

⁠Example

$ curl http://domain.tld/api/genshort
{"status":200,"message":"Generated","result":{"short":"h1ZCaYw","baseurl":"http://domain.tld"}}

⁠Runtime environment variables

To configure your server you can set some environment variables before starting the node application. If you're using docker simply pass the variables in the run command with -e VAR=value, otherwise set them with export VAR=value within your bash environment.

⁠Contributing

Pull requests are appreciated

⁠License

GPLv3