Shortly - URL Shortener

A modern, efficient URL shortener built with Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and Redis. This application provides fast URL shortening with caching capabilities and analytics tracking.

Features

• 🔗 URL shortening with custom short IDs
• 📊 Analytics tracking for each shortened URL
• ⚡ Redis caching for improved performance
• 🔒 Secure URL handling
• 📱 Responsive frontend design
• 🚀 Easy deployment with Render

Tech Stack

Backend

• Node.js
• Express.js
• MongoDB (with Mongoose)
• Redis (for caching)
• nanoid (for generating unique IDs)

Frontend

• HTML5
• CSS3
• JavaScript (ES6+)
• Material Icons

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• MongoDB (local or Atlas)
• Redis (local or cloud service like Upstash)
• npm or yarn

Project Structure

Shortly/
├── BackendApplication/
│   ├── config/
│   │   └── redis.js
│   ├── Controller/
│   │   └── UrlController.js
│   ├── Models/
│   │   └── UrlModel.js
│   ├── Routes/
│   │   └── UrlRoute.js
│   ├── services/
│   │   ├── redisService.js
│   │   └── urlService.js
│   ├── .env
│   ├── .env.example
│   ├── .gitignore
│   ├── package.json
│   └── UrlApplicationServer.js
└── FrontendApplication/
    ├── index.html
    ├── styles.css
    ├── script.js
    └── config.js

Setup Instructions

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/shortly.git
   cd shortly

2. Backend Setup

   cd BackendApplication
   npm install

3. Environment Variables Create a .env file in the BackendApplication directory:

   PORT=8080
   MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
   NODE_ENV=development
   REDIS_URL=your_redis_url

4. Frontend Setup

   cd ../FrontendApplication
   # No installation needed for frontend

5. Start the Application

   # Start backend (from BackendApplication directory)
   npm start
   
   # Frontend can be served using any static file server
   # For example, using Python's built-in server:
   python -m http.server 3000

API Endpoints

URL Shortening

• POST /api/url
  • Request body: { "url": "https://example.com" }
  • Response: { "shortId": "abc123", "originalUrl": "https://example.com", "shortUrl": "http://localhost:8080/abc123" }

Analytics

• GET /api/url/analytics/:shortId
  • Response: { "shortId": "abc123", "originalUrl": "https://example.com", "totalClicks": 5, "analytics": [...] }

URL Redirection

• GET /:shortId
  • Redirects to the original URL

Caching Strategy

The application uses Redis for caching with the following strategy:

• URL shortening results are cached for 24 hours
• Analytics data is cached for 24 hours
• Redirect URLs are cached for 24 hours
• Cache invalidation on URL updates

Deployment

Backend Deployment (Render)

1. Push your code to GitHub
2. Create a new Web Service on Render
3. Connect your GitHub repository
4. Set environment variables in Render dashboard
5. Deploy!

Frontend Deployment

1. Update the config.js with your production API URL
2. Deploy to any static hosting service (Netlify, Vercel, etc.)

Environment Variables

Backend

• PORT: Server port (default: 8080)
• MONGODB_URI: MongoDB connection string
• NODE_ENV: Environment (development/production)
• REDIS_URL: Redis connection URL

Frontend

• API_URL: Backend API URL

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• nanoid for generating unique IDs
• MongoDB Atlas for database hosting
• Upstash for Redis hosting
• Render for deployment