MinifyURL

MinifyURL is a fast and simple backend service that lets you shorten long web addresses (URLs) into easy-to-share short links. It's perfect for sharing links on social media, in emails, or anywhere you want a cleaner, more manageable URL.

🚀 Project Overview

MinifyURL is designed to make sharing links easier. Instead of sending a long, complicated web address, you can use MinifyURL to create a short, memorable link that redirects to the original address.

✨ Features

• Shorten any long URL into a simple, short link
• Redirect users from the short link to the original URL
• Easy-to-use API for developers
• Built with speed and reliability in mind

🛠️ How It Works

1. You provide a long URL (like https://www.example.com/very/long/link).
2. MinifyURL generates a short code (like https://minify.url/abc123).
3. Share the short link with anyone!
4. When someone visits the short link, they are instantly redirected to the original URL.

🛠️ Technical Highlights

• Hashing Algorithm: Uses farmhash to generate a unique hash from the original URL and creator ID, then encodes it with base62 for short, URL-friendly codes.
• Database: Stores all URL data in MongoDB using the Mongoose ODM for schema validation and easy data access.

📦 Getting Started

For Developers

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/tsvillain/minifyurl.git
   cd minifyurl

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Set up environment variables:
   • Copy sample.env to .env and fill in the required values.
4. Build and start the server:

   npm run build
   npm start

   Or for development:

   npm run dev

For Non-Technical Users

• Ask your developer or IT team to set up MinifyURL for you.
• Once running, you can use the provided API or a simple web interface (if available) to shorten your links.

📚 API Documentation

1. Create a Short URL

Endpoint: POST /api/url

Request Body:

{
  "url": "https://www.example.com/very/long/link",
  "creator_id": "user123",
  "expire_in": 30
}

• url: The original long URL to shorten
• creator_id: Unique identifier for the user creating the short URL
• expire_in: Number of days until the short URL expires

Response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "Short Url created successfully",
  "data": {
    "id": "...",
    "original_url": "https://www.example.com/very/long/link",
    "code": "abc123",
    "expired_at": "2024-07-31T12:00:00.000Z",
    "visit_count": 0,
    "creator_id": "user123",
    "created_at": "2024-07-01T12:00:00.000Z",
    "updated_at": "2024-07-01T12:00:00.000Z",
    "url_prefix": "http://localhost:3000",
    "full_url": "http://localhost:3000/abc123"
  }
}

2. Get All URLs by Creator

Endpoint: GET /api/urls

Request Body:

{
  "creator_id": "user123"
}

Response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "List of all urls created by the creator",
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "...",
      "original_url": "https://www.example.com/very/long/link",
      "code": "abc123",
      "expired_at": "2024-07-31T12:00:00.000Z",
      "visit_count": 0,
      "creator_id": "user123",
      "created_at": "2024-07-01T12:00:00.000Z",
      "updated_at": "2024-07-01T12:00:00.000Z",
      "url_prefix": "http://localhost:3000",
      "full_url": "http://localhost:3000/abc123"
    }
  ]
}

3. Redirect to Original URL

Endpoint: GET /:code

• Visit the short URL (e.g., http://localhost:3000/abc123) in your browser.
• If the code is valid and not expired, you will be redirected to the original URL.
• If the code is invalid or expired, an error message is returned.

🧰 Technologies Used

• Node.js
• Express.js
• TypeScript
• MongoDB (or your preferred database)

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

📬 Contact

Created by Tekeshwar Singh. For questions or support, open an issue on GitHub.