URL Shortener

A simple URL shortener built with Go, Gin, and MongoDB. This project allows users to convert long URLs into shorter, easily shareable links. The project is live and deployed on url.tanelt.com.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Tech Stack
• Getting Started
• Environment Variables
• Endpoints
• Project Structure
• License

Features

• Generate short URLs for any valid long URL
• Retrieve and redirect to the original URL using the short URL
• Prevent duplicate entries for the same long URL
• Simple and responsive HTML form for URL submission

Tech Stack

• Go: Backend language
• Gin: Web framework for routing and request handling
• MongoDB: Database for storing URLs and short codes

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go 1.17+ installed
• MongoDB (local or cloud instance)
• Git (for cloning the repository)
• Docker (optional, for containerization)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/luqmanshaban/go-url-shortener.git
   cd go-url-shortener

2. Install dependencies:

   go mod tidy

3. Create a .env file in the root directory to store environment variables (see Environment Variables section).

4. Start the server:

   go run main.go

The server should now be running on http://localhost:4000.

Environment Variables

To run this project, create a .env file in the root directory and add the following:

MONGODB_URI=mongodb://your_mongodb_uri_here

Endpoints

HTML Form

• GET / - Renders the HTML form for submitting a long URL.

API Endpoints

• POST /submit

  • Description: Accepts a long URL, generates a short URL, and saves it to the database.
  • Body: url=<long_url>
  • Response:

    {
      "ShortUrl": "http://url.tanelt.com/<short_url_code>"
    }

• GET /url/:shortUrl

  • Description: Redirects to the original URL based on the provided shortUrl.
  • Params: shortUrl - The generated short code.
  • Response: Redirects to the original URL if found, otherwise returns a 404 error.

Project Structure

.
├── main.go               # Main application file
├── go.mod                # Go module dependencies
├── static/
│   └── form.html         # HTML form for URL input
└── README.md             # Project documentation

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.