Shrink

Shrinking URLs á la skill share.

This README file contains 3 main sections:

Intro to Shrink
Configuration
Using the CLI

Introduction to Shrink

Shrink is a ver basic tool that, essentially, shrinks URLs via CLI using a REST API and MongoDB. It has two main components:

The API: This enables all services to shrink and redirect to source URLs.
The CLI: This is the official interface to access all Shrink functionality.

Available Operations

Shrink allows you to:

Shrink any URL: You can use the CLI with the this: command to obtain the shrunk URL. See more details in the "Using the CLI" section below.
Get stats from any shrunk URL (or the 'original' URL, works both ways): You can use the CLI with the stats: command.
Toggle on/off any shrunk URL (or the 'original' URL): You can use the CLI with the toggle: command.

Configuration

Required Configuration

All of the configuration is defaulted, but you can base on the following snippet to create a .env file with overrides to any (or all) of them:

   # Database host/port config. (Default: mongodb://localhost:27017/shrink)
   DB_HOST=mongodb://my.hosted.mongo.com:29000/shortenerdata

   # Domain of your choice (Default: shri.nk)
   DOMAIN=sho.rt

   # Port override (Default: 80)
   PORT=8080

   # Protocol (Default: http)
   PROTOCOL=https

Optional Configuration

You may want to add a line to your /etc/hosts file to have nice routing to your defined domain (see above).

CLI Configuration

Our CLI works as a node command that is executed by npm. In turn, we advise you create an alias so that it can be used with ease:

alias shrink='npm run cli'

Docker Mongo Instance

Run a local image of MongoDB to avoid installing anything:

docker pull mongo:3-xenial && docker run -d --name mongo-container -p 27017:27017 mongo:3-xenial

Using Shrink CLI

You can shrink an url by passing the command this:. NOTE: This call is idempotent, meaning that it will return on every equal request the same shrunk URL after it has been shrunk the first time.

shrink this: http://www.skillshare.com

You can also retrieve stats of the times this shrunk URL has been used by passing the stats: command.

shrink stats: http://shri.nk/emI05

Finally, your shrunk URL can be disabled temporarily, by passing the toggle: command. It will return 409 if the URL is used while disabled. This call is a switch to alternate between 'enabled' and 'disabled' status.

shrink toggle: http://www.bbc.co.uk

rbuitragoc/shrink