ShortLink

ShortLink V1.0.0 is a URL shortening service that allows you to create short, easy-to-remember links for any website. It is built with Node.js, TypeScript, Express.js, and MongoDB.

The project is for assessment purpose.

Technologies Used

Name	Version
Node.js	v18.16.0
TypeScript	v5.0.4
Express.js	v4.18.2
Mongoose/MongoDB	v7.0.3
Jest	v29.5.0

Project Structure

The ShortLink project has the following directory structure:

short-link/
   ├── src/
   │   ├── controllers/
   |   |   ├── authentication.controller.ts
   |   |   ├── statistic.controller.ts
   |   |   ├── shortlink.controller.ts
   |   |   └── user.controller.ts
   │   ├── helpers/
   |   |   ├── auth.helper.ts
   |   |   ├── shortlink.helper.ts
   |   |   └── index.ts  
   │   ├── middlewares/
   |   |   └── index.ts
   │   ├── models/
   |   |   ├── statistic.model.ts
   |   |   ├── shortlink.model.ts
   |   |   └── user.model.ts
   │   ├── services/
   |   |   ├── statistic.service.ts
   |   |   ├── shortlink.service.ts
   |   |   ├── user.service.ts
   |   |   └── index.ts
   │   ├── routes/
   │   │   ├── v1/
   |   |   |   ├── authentication.route.ts
   |   |   |   ├── statistic.route.ts
   |   |   |   ├── shortlink.route.ts
   |   |   |   └── user.route.ts
   |   |   └── index.ts
   │   ├── tests/
   |   |   ├── authentication.test.ts
   |   |   ├── decode.shortlink.test.ts
   |   |   ├── encode.shortlink.route.ts
   |   |   └── statistic.shortlink.route.ts
   │   └── index.ts
   ├── .env.example
   ├── package.json
   ├── babel.config.js
   ├── jest.config.js
   ├── nodemon.json
   └── package.lock.json
   ├── package.json
   ├── postman_collection.json
   ├── README.md
   └── tsconfig.json

src/controllers: Contains the request handlers for each API endpoint
src/helpers: Contains helper functions used throughout the project
src/middlewares: Contains middleware functions used to handle incoming requests
src/models: Contains the Mongoose models for the MongoDB database
src/services: Contains the business logic of the application
src/routes/v1: Contains the API routes for version 1 of the application
src/routes/index.ts: Combines all the routes into one router
src/tests: Contains the Jest tests for the application
src/index.ts: The entry point of the application
postman_collection.json: Contains a collection of HTTP requests I used to test the API endpoints of the project.

API Endpoints

ShortLink provides the following API endpoints:

End Point	Payload Sample	Function
POST `/api/v1/auth/register`	{ username: "malish", email: "malish@indicina.co", password: "12345" }	Registers a new user with the application
POST `/api/v1/auth/login`	{ email: "malish@indicina.com", password: "12345" }	Logs in a user and setup cookie
POST `/api/v1/encode`	{ longURL: "https://indicina.co" }	Encodes an original URL into a short link
GET `/api/v1/decode`	{ shortURL: "http://short.est/" }	Decodes a short link into an original URL
GET `/api/v1/statistic/:url_path`		Gets the statistics for a particular short link

Getting Started

To get started with ShortLink, follow these steps:

MongoDB Cluster Setup

To set up a MongoDB cluster for ShortLink, follow these steps:

First, create a MongoDB account or login.
Then create a new project. Give it a name and press the Next button.
Then click Create Project after that.
Create a database in the next window by selecting a cloud provider, a location, and specs. So press Build a Database to get going.
Choose "Shared" because it is sufficient for testing purposes. And then click Create.
Next, select aws as your cloud provider and the region that is closest to you. Following your selection, click Create Cluster.

The cluster's formation will take some time. Create a user to access your database in the meanwhile.

Choose "My Local Environment" because you are runing the application locally. You can then add an IP addresses. To conclude, click Close. You will receive a URI string after the database is set up, which you will use to connect to the database. The string appears as follows:

`mongodb+srv://<YOUR_USERNAME>:<YOUR_PASSWORD>@<YOUR_CLUSTER_URL>/<DATABASE_NAME>?retryWrites=true&w=majority`

Replace the place holders with the actual credentials and put the string on line 5 of .env file.

Note:

You can install mongoDB locally using this guide or use the default one from the .env.example file.

Clone the repository

Clone this repository to your local machine using git clone https://github.com/your-username/short-link.git.
Install the required dependencies using npm install.
Create a .env file in the root of the project and fill in the required environment variables. See .env.example for an example configuration or rename the file to .env.
Start the server using npm run start

Testing

To run the tests for ShortLink, use the command npm run test. This will run all the Jest tests in the src/tests directory and give you a report of the test results.

Sugestions and Contributions

The project main objective is to make three API endpoints available:

/api/v1/encode: Encodes an original URL into a short link
/api/v1/decode: Decodes a short link into an original URL
/api/v1/statistic/:url_path: Gets the statistics for a particular short URL More end points will be aviable in V1.5.0 after my assessment with Indicina's HR.

Contributions are always welcome! If you'd like to contribute to this project, please create a fork of this repository and submit a pull request with your changes.

Contact

If you have any questions or feedback about ShortLink, please feel free to contact me at my email address: malishben360@gmail.com.

malishben360/short-link