Little Rl

Little Resource Locator
A full stack ULR Shortening API and web application (responsive), using Node Express and MongoDB as a backend, and a base36 number key system to represent urls.
Try it out here

The API has 2 end points

• Create
• Info

The end point for url redirection is serverUrl/a/{unique base36 key}.
This is detailed more in the API Usage Section.

You can try it out without instaling and setting up your own server at the fallowing url. https://littlerl.herokuapp.com/

Table Of Contents

• Intro
• Table Of Contents
• Instalation
• Usage
• API Usage
• Possible Improvements

Installation

Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/ninjaboynaru/littlerl.git

Install dependencies

npm install

Usage

mongoConfig.json
Create a file called mongoConfig.json in the config folder.
Create a config folder in the base directory if one does not already exist.

In mongoConfig.json, create a JSON object like the following and add your mongoDB uri.

{
	"productionUri":"your production mongo database uri",
	"developmentUri":"your development mongo database uri",
	"testingUri":"mongodb uri used by the unit tests"	
}

I used mlab cloud databases for my mongodb databases.
Also note, there is no problem using the same database uri for all 3, but the unit tests will quickly pollute the database.

---

build the front end
Webpack is used to bundle the front end JavaScript files. Run the following cmd to build the front end js.

npm run build

---

start the server
Run the following to start the server

npm run start

Run the following to start the server, and have it restart whenever a file is changed

npm run start-dev

---

acces the webpage Access the front end webpage by visiting the following url in your web browser

localhost:{port server is on}/

API

The backend API consists of 2 endpoints.

• Create
• Info

---

Create

• Is a POST request used to create a new shortened url.
• It's located at apiUrl/api/create/?url=
• It has a single query string parameter ?url=www.url-to-make-shorter.com
• The url parameter must
  • Start with www., http://, https://, or ftp://,
  • End with a valid top-level domain such as .com .uk .gov etc...

---

Info

• Is a GET request used to get information on a previously shortened url
• It's located at apiUrl/api/info/?key=
• It has a single query string parameter ?key=1zq
• The key query parameter is the base36 key of a url in the database

---

Response
Both Create and Info return a json object like the following if the request was valid

{
 	"urlEntry": {
    	"url": "www.google.com/",
    	"key": "1",
    	"keyAsInt": 1
  	},
  	"shortUrl": "http://localhost/a/1",
  	"query": "www.google.com/"
}

• urlEntry contains information about the urls representation in the database.
  • urlEntry.url is the original url
  • urlEntry.key is the base36 number representing that url
  • urlEntry.keyAsINt is base36 key converted to base10
• shortUrl is the new shortened url. Visiting this in the browser should redirect to the original url.
• query is either the url query string or the key query string sent by the request
• If an Info request was sent and the no url was found with the supplied key parameter, urlEntry and shortUrl will be null.
• If a Create request was sent and the url to shorten has already been shortened/exists in the database, then already shortened url will be returned.

---

Error If for any reason an error occurs, a json object like the following will be returned

{
 	"error": "Invalid query parameter",
 	"description": "The \"key\" query parameter is not a valid base36 number",
 	"query": "my-invalid-key"
}

---

Visiting the shortened url

serverUrl/a/{key}

---

---

You can try it out without instaling and setting up your own server at the fallowing url. https://littlerl.herokuapp.com/

Possible Improvements

• Change key system to base62. A 5 digit base36 number can represent upt to 60 million urls. Urls start to not be so short after 5-6 digit keys. A 5 digit base62 number can represent up to 900 million urls. A small improvement.
• The base36 key library used (TinyKey.js) does note perform safty checks for MAX_SAFE_INTEGER. Thus very large base36 keys may cause bugs or errors.
• Customization. Allow clients to specify their own key instead of using the default base36 keys.