ShortURL - URL Shortening Service

ShortURL is a robust and efficient backend application for shortening URLs, built with Node.js, Express, and MongoDB. This application provides a RESTful API that allows users to shorten long URLs and redirect to the original URLs using generated short codes.

Features

Shortening of long URLs
Redirection to original URLs
Generation of unique short codes
Persistent storage in MongoDB
RESTful API

Prerequisites

Node.js (v14.0.0 or higher)
MongoDB

Installation

Install dependencies:

npm install

Create a .env file in the root of the project and add the following environment variables:

PORT=3000
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/shorturl

Make sure to replace the MongoDB URI with the correct one for your environment.

Starting the server

For development: npm run dev

The server will start in the PORT http://localhost:3000 (or the port you specified in the .env file).

API Endpoints

Shorten a URL

Method: POST
Path: PORT/shorten

Body: `{
"url": "https://www.example.com/long-url-to-shorten"
}`

Redirect to original URL

Method: GET
Path: PORT/:shortCode
Response: Redirection to the original URL

Technologies Used

Node.js
Express.js
MongoDB
shortid