Blazing Fast URL Shortener

A high-performance URL shortener built with Rust and Next.js, featuring clean architecture, efficient storage, modern UI, and robust security.

Features

• ⚡ High-performance URL shortening with Rust backend
• 🎨 Modern, responsive UI built with Next.js and Tailwind CSS
• 🔐 Secure URL encryption
• 🔄 Concurrent request handling
• 💾 Persistent storage using Sled embedded database
• ✨ Clean architecture with proper separation of concerns
• 🛡️ Input validation and error handling
• 📝 Basic logging
• 🔍 Health check endpoint
• 🚀 API versioning
• 🎯 Minimal dependencies

Architecture

The project follows a full-stack architecture with separate frontend and backend components:

Backend Components (Rust)

• Handlers: HTTP request handlers
• Services: Business logic layer
• Repositories: Data access layer
• Middleware: Request validation and processing

Frontend Components (Next.js)

• Pages: Next.js pages and routing
• Components: Reusable UI components
• Styles: Tailwind CSS styling
• API: Frontend-backend integration

Directory Structure

├── frontend/           # Next.js frontend application
│   ├── src/           # Frontend source code
│   ├── public/        # Static assets
│   └── ...           # Frontend configuration files
├── src/               # Rust backend
│   ├── handlers/     # HTTP request handlers
│   ├── services/     # Business logic
│   ├── repositories/ # Data access layer
│   ├── middleware/   # Request middleware
│   ├── config.rs     # Configuration management
│   └── main.rs       # Application entry point
└── encryption.key    # Encryption key for URL security

Backend Dependencies

Core backend dependencies:

• actix-web: Web framework with macros support
• actix-cors: CORS middleware
• sled: Embedded database
• nanoid: URL shortening
• url: URL validation
• serde: Serialization
• tokio: Async runtime
• tracing: Logging system
• ring: Cryptography
• base64: Encoding

Frontend Dependencies

Core frontend dependencies:

• Next.js 14
• React
• Tailwind CSS
• TypeScript
• ESLint

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70 or higher
• Node.js 18 or higher
• npm or yarn

Backend Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/blazing-fast-url-shortner.git
cd blazing-fast-url-shortner

# Build the backend
cargo build --release

# Run the backend
cargo run

Frontend Setup

# Navigate to frontend directory
cd frontend

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run development server
npm run dev

# For production build
npm run build
npm start

API Endpoints

Create Short URL

POST /api/v1/shorten
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "url": "https://example.com"
}

Response:

{
    "original_url": "https://example.com",
    "short_url": "http://localhost:8080/abc123",
    "short_code": "abc123"
}

Access Shortened URL

GET /{short_code}

Response: 302 Redirect to original URL

Health Check

GET /api/v1/health

Response:

{
    "status": "ok"
}

Configuration

The application uses environment variables for configuration:

• SERVER_HOST: Server host (default: "127.0.0.1")
• SERVER_PORT: Server port (default: "8080")
• SERVER_WORKERS: Number of worker threads (default: 4)
• STORAGE_PATH: Database path (default: "url_db")
• STORAGE_CACHE_SIZE_MB: Cache size in MB (default: 64)
• STORAGE_FLUSH_INTERVAL_MS: Storage flush interval (default: 1000)
• RUST_LOG: Log level (default: "info")

Performance Features

• Efficient storage using Sled embedded database
• High-throughput mode for better performance
• 64MB default cache for faster access
• Fixed worker thread pool (4 workers by default)
• Periodic data flushing for durability
• Path normalization for consistent handling

Dependencies

Minimal set of core dependencies:

• actix-web: Web framework
• sled: Embedded database
• nanoid: URL shortening
• url: URL validation
• serde: Serialization
• tokio: Async runtime
• tracing: Basic logging

Error Handling

The application provides clear error responses:

• Invalid URL format
• URL not found
• Storage errors
• Internal server errors

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.