Server-X - URL Shortener Service

A C++ URL shortener service with user authentication and redirection capabilities.

Features

• User Registration & Login: Secure authentication with password hashing
• URL Shortening: Convert long URLs into short links
• URL Redirection: Redirect shortened URLs to original destinations
• Session Management: Cookie-based user sessions
• Web Interface: HTML forms with Tailwind CSS styling

Tech Stack

• Backend: C++23
• Web Server: Custom HTTP server with IPv6 support
• Security: OpenSSL for SHA-256 password hashing
• Frontend: HTML, JavaScript, Tailwind CSS
• Build System: CMake
• Storage: File-based text storage

Project Structure

Server-X/
├── src/
│   ├── server.cpp              # Main server
│   ├── response.cpp            # HTTP responses
│   ├── routes/auth/            # Login/register routes
│   ├── routes/url/             # URL shortening & redirect
│   ├── utils/                  # Helper functions
│   └── database/               # User management
├── public/                     # HTML files
├── data/                       # Text file storage
└── include/                    # Headers

Prerequisites

• C++ Compiler with C++23 support
• CMake 3.10+
• OpenSSL development libraries

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install build-essential cmake libssl-dev

Setup & Run

1. Build

   mkdir build && cd build
   cmake .. && make

2. Create data files

   mkdir -p data
   touch data/database.txt data/url-mapping.txt

3. Run

   ./build/URLShortner [port]  # default port: 8080

Usage

• Register: http://localhost:8080/register
• Login: http://localhost:8080/login
• Shorten URLs: http://localhost:8080/url-shortener

API Endpoints

• POST /register - User registration
• POST /login - User login
• GET /url-shortener - URL shortener dashboard (requires login)
• POST /url-shortener - Create short URL (requires login)

Data Storage

User Database (data/database.txt):

username,email,hashedPassword,salt,freeTrials,sessionToken,longUrls,shortUrls

URL Mappings (data/url-mapping.txt):

hash original_url

Features

• SHA-256 password hashing with salt
• Session tokens for authentication
• 8-character random hash generation for short URLs
• Duplicate URL detection
• URL history tracking per user

Notes

• Uses file-based storage (suitable for development/demo)
• IPv6 server by default
• Threaded request handling
• Custom HTTP request/response handling