URL Shortener API using Django Rest Framework

This project is a URL shortener API built using Django Rest Framework. The API allows users to submit long URLs and receive shorter versions that are mapped to the original URLs through a database. It includes validation to ensure that only valid URLs are submitted, and it prevents duplicate URLs from being stored. Additionally, the project utilizes django-cors-headers to manage and verify access to the API from different origin URLs.

Features

Shorten long URLs into easily shareable short URLs.
Prevent duplicate URLs from being stored in the database.
Validate submitted URLs to ensure they are in the correct format.
Manage and control cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) using django-cors-headers.

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/edgarmuyomba/urlShortenerAPI.git
cd urlShortenerAPI

Create and activate a virtual environment

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

Install the required packages
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```
Setup the database
```
python manage.py runserver
```
Access the API at http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser or API client.

API Endpoints

POST /api/shorten/

Description: Submit a URL to be shortened.
Request Body:

{
    "source": "https://www.example.com/long-url"
}

Reponse

{
    "tiny": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/<int>/"
}

GET /s/{short_code}
- Description: Redirect to the original URL associated with the provided short code.

CORS Configuration

The project uses django-cors-headers to manage cross-origin resource sharing. By default, the CORS configuration allows requests from all origins. You can modify the CORS_ALLOW_ALL_ORIGINS setting in settings.py to restrict access to specific origins

CORS_ALLOW_ALL_ORIGINS = False
CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS = [
    "http://localhost:8001",
    "https://your-frontend-domain.com",
]