SAH Shortener

SAH Shortener is a URL-shortening website that enables users to convert long URLs into short, manageable links. The project is built with a clean separation between the front-end and back-end for optimal performance and maintainability. It now includes Docker support for easy deployment and has been deployed on Render (back-end) and Vercel (front-end).

Features

Front-End

• HTML: Provides the structure and skeleton of the web page.
• CSS: Adds styling for an appealing user interface.
• JavaScript: Handles user interactions, sends requests to the server, and updates the UI dynamically.

Back-End

• Java Spring Boot: Serves as the core framework for the back-end.
• MySQL: Used for persistent storage of URLs.
• JPA Repository: Facilitates database operations.
• Service Layer: Connects the controller with the repository for a clean architecture.

API Endpoints

1. POST /api/url

• Description: Shortens a given URL and saves it in the system.
• Request Body:

    https://example.com     
  

• Response:

  {
    "urlKey": "abc123",
    "fullUrl": "https://example.com",
    "shortUrl": "http://localhost:8080/api/abc123"
  }

2. GET /api/{key}

• Description: Redirects to the original URL using the short URL key.
• Response:
  • 302 FOUND: Redirects to the full URL if the key is valid.
  • 404 NOT FOUND:the page is not found .

3. DELETE /api/{key}

• Description: Deletes a URL mapping from the system (admin only).
• Response:
  • 200 OK: URL deleted successfully.
  • 404 NOT FOUND: URL key not found.

Technical Details

• The system uses SHA-256 hashing to generate unique keys for URLs.
• To handle hash collisions, the key length increases dynamically.
• The back-end ensures that duplicate URLs are not stored by checking for existing entries before saving.
• Idempotency is a key feature, ensuring that the same input URL always results in the same short URL.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Java Development Kit (JDK) 17+
• MySQL Database
• Docker (optional for containerized deployment)
• Docker comopse (optional for multi-container setup)

Installation

Clone the Repository

$ git clone https://github.com/yourusername/SAH-Shortener.git
$ cd SAH-Shortener

Docker Setup

1. Build and Run with Docker compose
   1. Navigate to the project root directory
   2. Update the docker-compose.yml file with your environment variables:
   • DATABASE_URL: MySQL database url (e.g., jdbc:mysql://mysql-db:3306/URLs).
   • DATABASE_USERNAME: MySQL username.
   • DATABASE_PASSWORD: MySQL password.
   • CURRENT_DOMAIN: Domain for the server (e.g., http://localhost:8080/api).
   • MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: MySQL root password.
   • MYSQL_DATABASE: MySQL database name.
   • MYSQL_USER: MySQL user (optional)
   • MYSQL_PASSWORD: MySQL user password (optional)
   3. Run Docker Compose:

      $ docker-compose up --build

   this will start the backend, front-end, and MySQL database containers

Manual Setup (Without Docker)

Back-End Setup

1. Configure MySQL:

   • Create a database named URLs.
   • Use the provided SQL script in the database folder to set up the schema.

2. Run the Spring Boot application:

   $ ./mvnw spring-boot:run

Front-End Setup

1. Open the index.html file in a browser.
2. Ensure the back-end server is running to test the full functionality.

Usage

• Use the main page to input long URLs and receive shortened URLs.
• Access the short URL to redirect to the original page.
• Admin users can delete URLs via the delete API.

Acknowledgments

This project was inspired by the Coding Challenges.

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Happy shortening!